Cell phone usage policies reviewed

By Staff
Nathan Strickland
Technology is taking over the classroom, but some high-tech, leisure devices are currently not allowed on school grounds.
A Franklin County district policy states that students are not allowed to carry cell phones with them on campus.
A Vina High School parent was upset that school officials confiscated a cell phone from her son’s pocket during a weapons search last week.
Although the cell phone was given back to the student at the end of the day, the parent claimed the only way information has been leaked out during a school shutdown was by cell phone and believes she should have a way to contact her son immediately if something were to go wrong.
Superintendent of Franklin County Schools Gary Williams said the policy regarding cell phones on campus needed to be discussed a little more.
Williams said cell phones are so advanced students can use them to take inappropriate pictures of other students or text test answers to their friends in the classroom. Williams said these are some of the reasons the policy for cell phones is so strict at his schools.
Russellville city schools superintendent Don Cox said students are allowed to have cell phones on Russellville’s campus, but are not allowed to use them in anyway during class time.
Cox said that other technical devices used for entertainment purposes such as IPods are not allowed to be used in the classroom as well. Laptops and tools of that nature that are used to assist in educational purposes are allowed.