Cell Phone Policy Changes for the New School Year
By: Emily Hill

High school students, for the most part, love cell phones and when it comes to school students have trouble putting them away. Therefore, this year the administrators at Muscatine High School decided to heighten the punishments for getting caught with your phone out. Many students disagree with their decision, Amanda Clemens a junior said, “they should make us be able to have our phones out during lunch, passing time, and when the teachers aren’t teaching.”
The cell phone policy rational from Assistant Principal Mr. Olmstead is as follows. It’s really a concentrated effort by our school. Bullying and harassment investigations time and time again show that texting is one of the primary reasons for bullying and harassment complaints. There’s a lot of concern by our school officials and parents over the amount of harassing texts that students are sending and receiving. We are attempting to manage these concerns by enacting the current cell phone procedure so that students understand there are consequences to their inappropriate cell phone us

age.
The punishment for having your phone out the first time is you get it taken away and your parents must come in and pick it up for you. This is different from last year because the first offence then was that you had to pick it up but you didn’t need a parent to get it for you. The second offense is an in school suspension for a day, last year it was just that your parents had to pick it up for you. Then the third one is an out of school suspension for one day. Freshman Ali Odell remarked, “I hate it so much, it is too strict and the punishments are way too severe.”
School officials agree with the new policy though because they want to eliminate bullying in the school. Mr. Olmstead said “the cell phone policy is a question of responsible versus irresponsible use of cell phones.”
The students have many ideas on how they should change it to improve it for students and teachers. Michael Cahill, a freshman said, “They should only not allow us to have our phones out during tests.” There may be a negotiation but not until all the inappropriate use of cell phones stop. “It is our intent as school officials to teach responsible use of any technology device and once we have achieved that goal then we would clearly be willing to review the current cell phone policy,” said Mr. Olmstead.
Clemens adds, “I just really think they should change the cell phone policy.”

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