Recently, the cell phone policy experienced a slight change by a committee of teachers.

The new change to the policy skips right to the second offense, where the parent needs to pick up the phone from the office once it is taken from the student.

“The policy itself did not change, but we are starting with the second offense,” Principal Valerie Orr said.

The cell phone policy states that “students may possess cell phones and other communication devices during school hours, provided that said phones and devices are kept out of sight and turned off. School personnel reserve the right to confiscate cell phones when they interfere with instruction.”

In the old policy, the first offense said that students will get it taken down to the Assistant Principal’s office, where the student can get it back at the end of the day. It was on the second offense that a parent/guardian had to pick it up. The new policy skips this first offense.

“Since that announcement, there have been fewer phones out,” said Lisa Villarreal, MHS English teacher.

The new change was given to students in TFT Jan. 6. Orr stated over the PA that if students refuse to give up their cell phones, teachers are supposed to then write them up for insubordination. According to the student mandates, a student will then get in-house (unless a higher mandate is given by an administrator).

There is some confusion amongst staff and students as to what happens when a student refuses to give up his or her phone, and this has caused some frustration about the changes.

Some are concerned that writing students up doesn’t really solve the cell phone problem, because they may get it back at the end of the day anyways.

“That part of it frustrates me a little bit,” Tara Dessauer, MHS English co-teacher, said. “I feel like their punishment should be greater, like not only should they get a day of in-house but they should also have to turn over their phone for their parents to come pick them up.”

However, Assistant Principal Kim Diven said that is not the school’s policy on insubordination regarding phones.

“Rather than argue with the student and disrupt learning, a teacher writes a referral. The referral goes to the appropriate administrator or student support service person, which might be Mrs. Cherri,” Diven said. “The student has a couple of issues now. I (as the student) have the issue of not giving up the phone, which means now I do lose my phone, and I have the issue of not being cooperative with the teacher. So, I lose my phone, someone’s got to pick it up, and I have a consequence for arguing and being insubordinate with the teacher. It’s an ‘and’ thing.”

Some issues may arise for teachers when confiscating a phone, but Diven said that it is not usually a problem in the AP office.

“I guess this is a good thing or a bad thing, right? Often times when a student ends up in an office when someone in the office asks for their phone, the student just gives up the phone,” Diven said.