Millswood seventh-grader Nick Calderon, 12, shows off his cell phone after fishing it out of his pocket Monday during lunch. (Jennifer M. Howell/News-Sentinel)

Cell phones may not promote safety at local schools

Nick Calderon, 12, a sandy-haired seventh-grader from Millswood Middle School, reaches into his shorts pocket and pulls out a silver flip phone.

Calderon said his parents gave it to him to use in case of an emergency, but more often than not he uses it to text his "girlfriends" in other classes.

"(You just) put it under the table and start texting," Calderon said with a nonchalant shrug.

As the number of middle and high-school-aged students who carry cell phones with them to campus increases, educators have learned to deal with the occasional disruption, minor discipline problems and even cell phone-assisted cheating in favor of an even greater end — school safety.

Some critics argue, though, that not only do cell phones not contribute to campus security, but it can compromise it as well.

Parents often refer to the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and the shootings at Columbine High School, where victims used cell phones to call their families, as reasons why their children should be allowed to carry phones on campus.

As a result of those and other arguments, former Gov. Gray Davis lifted a statewide cell phone ban on campuses in 2003, leaving it up to individual school districts to decide whether cell phones had a place on campus. The ban was initially imposed in 1988 to curb drug dealing on campuses.

However, Kenneth Trump said in terms of school safety, cell phones can actually create more problems than they can quell. Trump is the president of National School Safety and Security Services, a national consulting firm specializing in school security.

Trump said cell phone use in an emergency can cause parents to flock to schools, jamming roadways and hindering emergency personnel.

But even worse than that, Trump said, are the rumors spread through rapid-fire text messaging that can turn a simple problem into an emergency.

Bill Huyett, superintendent of Lodi Unified, said he sympathizes with parents' needs to be in contact with their children before, during and after school.

Huyett also said, though, that in an emergency situation, a sudden boom in cell phone use could cause networks to crash.

Lodi Unified is currently working on providing hand-held radios to its campuses to combat such an emergency.

However, educators say that cell phones are really more of a nuisance than a security issue.

Sheree Perez, principal at Millswood Middle, said that during a presentation last week detailing school rules, including its no-cell-phone-use policy, a student's phone rang.

The phone was immediately confiscated.

"The kids got the point real quickly," Perez said.

Lodi High School principal Bill Atterberry agrees that cell phone use on campus can be a nuisance.

Lodi High's policy is to confiscate a student's cell phone or iPod the first time a staff member sees a student using it on campus. Students can pick up their electronic devices after school.

"We confiscate earbuds like crazy," Atterberry said.

Atterberry said the school has drawer-fulls of unclaimed electronics at the end of the school year

Class disruptions and cheating aren't the only reasons school officials discourage the use of expensive electronic devices on campus. Atterberry said it's not unheard of for one of those devices to suddenly go missing from a student's backpack.

Perez warns her students that the white earphones that dangle from their ears are merely an advertisement that they have a really expensive toy in their backpack.

Atterberry offers this advice: "Don't bring expensive things to class because you will lose them."

Contact reporter Amanda Dyer at amandad@lodinews.com.