New Haven Independent

That policy, as quoted in the student/parent handbook, unambiguously states, “Students will not be allowed to bring beepers, cell phones, nor any other electronic devices into school for any reason whatsoever. If they are brought to school, they will be confiscated and returned to parents. Students will be suspended from school if they persist in bringing them into the school building.”

Yet what does a board do — and what kind of a predicament for a parent as well ensues — when a rule comes to be practiced more in the breach than the observance, as seems to be the case, at least at the Sound School?

Joanne DeVoe, president of the Sound School’s parent group, noted that Sound is as an interdistrict magnet school, with kids from 21 different communities, who often travel up to an hour to and from school. “Without cell phones it’s very difficult to coordinate transportation, changes of plans, and so forth with our kids,” she told the board. “I have 35 letters,” here she said, “from parents politely asking for you to reconsider the ‘no electronics’ policy.”

Everyone seemed to agree that cell phones have no place in the classroom; their possession, for coordination and emergency use by the students, should be reconsidered, said DeVoe. “We’ve had instances of a girl feeling she was being stalked, and she was able to hide under a table and use the cell phone to call her mom. Also, at Sound School, our kids are often out on boats, and sometimes there’s a delay in finishing an activity, and the parents, say, coming to pick the kids up should be notified. It creates a lot of problems if this can’t happen”

“So what is it that you are suggesting?” asked BOE Chair Brian Perkins.

“I’d like the BOE to consider a policy of the kind the kids have with the Internet. It’s a contract. The kids and the parents can have them for emergency use. That is, they can carry them in school, or have them in the their lockers — although at Sound School there are no lockers. But when they misuse them, they would be confiscated and that’s it.”

“Look,” responded Superintendent of Schools Dr. Reginald Mayo (on left with BOE chair Dr. Brian Perkins). “I’m not unsympathetic, but we are not dealing with just the Sound School. We just cannot allow 1,600 kids at Cross to have cellphones. They’ll be going off in class, and they are a serious distraction, in fact, a real disruption of the educational effort.”

DeVoe, Owens, and other parents responded with a reality check. “Respectfully,” said Owens, “we’re putting our kids and our principal and teachers who have to enforce this rule in a difficult situation, morally and otherwise. The school says you can’t have the cell phones, but the parents by and large say, yes, there’s no other way to keep you safe and so forth, so take the cell phones. So we are teaching our kids in a sense to disobey the law. That’s why we’re here, to rectify, to change the regulations because you can’t have a parent saying one thing and a teacher another.”

“The way it is now,” said Mark Owens, “almost every kid out of the 400 at the Sound School has a cell phone.” That’s a lot of potential beeping, but it seems, according to Owens, not a problem.

“We don’t want to put our wonderful principal, Steven Pynn, in a difficult situation,” said DeVoe.

Mayo reminded the parents that state regulations give the BOE the right to regulate cell phones. “The law is clear.”

“But it’s unenforceable,” the parents reiterated. “Right now we’re in the midst of a kind of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ condition. That sends a mixed message to the kids.”

“Listen,” countered BOE member Richard Abatiello: “What’s the mixed message! The policy says no cell phones, and parents should not be telling kids otherwise. I’ve been researching some of this,” he went on, “and, you know, pretty soon the phones will be out for the kids to be talking to their siblings and their cousins. They could also be text-messaging answers to test questions. They could be downloading pictures that are inappropriate.”

“All we’re saying,” said DeVoe, “again is that, yes, the phones must be off in the classroom and completely regulated, but if your kid has a 45-minute commute, wouldn’t you want to be in touch with him?”

Hyclis Williams (on the right) and Hazel Pappas, a retired BOE custodian, spoke on behalf of BOE policy. “We got along fine before cell phones,” said Williams, a proud parent of three at the Barnard School. Pappas said that if a student misses a bus, “they can easily go into the school or up to a security guard at a school and they can call home and alert a parent.”

“But how are you going to do that,” countered DeVoe, “from a boat? And at any school you can’t have 300 kids going up to the school office and using the phone. It’s impractical. It doesn’t make sense any more than the resistance to this technology in the school’s total ban.”

Board member Frances Padilla, after giving deep thanks for the school community for its support of the May 5 rally for universal health care in Hartford (“kids can’t learn if they’re not healthy), seemed to open the BOE’s door a little wider. “I’m curious,” she asked the Sound School parents, ” as to whether you had looked into other district policies.”

“We have,” DeVoe answered. “West Haven bans cellphones, but Guilford does not have a policy so strict.”

“Well a small district is one thing,” Padilla replied. “We have a huge one.”

Mayo reiterated his personal opposition to reconsidering the policy. However BOE members Perkins and Padilla were eager for DeVoe and her group to leave their materials, including suggestions for Internet-style “contract” language with the board.

How did DeVoe feel about the BOE’s reception? “We don’t want to put our principal on the spot, and we’re not thrilled, of course, with Dr. Mayo’s personal response. But we’ve started a dialogue, I think, and that’s what we wanted to accomplish.

Dotty Owens (from the picture at the top of the story) said, “I have been adamantly against cell phones for my kid, but I’m a single parent. I live in East Haven, and when Mark started going to the Sound School last year, I didn’t see any choice.”

“Nobody uses the phones to cheat or anything like that with tests,” said Mark. “And we always turn them off in class. I mean almost every kid has one. It’s not a problem.”

Cleary the BOE doesn’t quite see that way. At least not yet. Stay tuned, and turn off your cell phones.