By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
managing editor
KEYSER — Beginning this fall, Frankfort Middle School students are banned from bringing cell phones onto school property.
At the request of the FMS School Improvement Council, the Mineral County Board of Education voted last week to grant Frankfort Middle a waiver of the county-wide policy on cell phones, which allows students to have the devices if they keep them in their lockers.
According to FMS principal Susie Ray, however, the county-wide policy adopted in October 2007 “did not work at all” at the middle school.
“The students are texting in class without the teachers even knowing,” she said. “They're so good at it they don't even have to look at the keyboard to send a message.”
When they tried having the students turn the phones in at the office, Ray said they would sometimes collect over 200 phones per day.
“One student had three of them,” she said.
Returning all those phones at the end of the day turned into a logistical nightmare.
Board member Bob Shook said he commended the school for wanting to ban the devices, and board member Mary Aronhalt told Ray, “I think it's wonderful you are wanting to do this.”
Board member Kevin Watson, however, asked how many of the students might be staying after school to participate in extra-curricular activities and might need their cell phones to call for a ride home.
“Maybe, at the most, 10,” Ray said, noting that the students have access to a pay phone as well as the phones in the school office if they need to make a call.
Both Hackworth and Board President Terry LaRue said they felt the present county-wide policy would work if everyone would work together to enforce it.
“It's not a problem in all schools,” Hackworth said. “I think in the schools where all the teachers are on the same sheet of music, it works.”
“If the students have access to two phones in the building, though, I don't see why we can't grant you the waiver,” LaRue told Ray.
Although the board usually acts upon the recommendation of the superintendent, they approved the waiver 5-0 without Hackworth's approval.
“I think the policy is working as is, but you can certainly vote on it without a recommendation,” he said.
The board noted that the waiver would be in effect for one year. If the school's LSIC wishes to continue past the 2009-2010 school term, they must return to the board to seek another waiver.
