Anytime, anywhere? Cellphone policies at local schools are all over the map

As cellphones become more pervasive, metro-east school districts are formulating new policies or modifying existing ones regarding student cellphone use at school.

The policies vary widely among schools surveyed by the News-Democrat. Some districts don’t allow cellphones at school at all, while others permit students to have phones, but they must be turned off.

Most metro-east public and private high schools allow students to use cellphones before and after school and some permit their use during lunch and in class with teachers’ permission for educational purposes.

Belleville District 201 recently modified its student cellphone use policy to allow students at Belleville East and West high schools to use their phones during passing periods in addition to during lunch and in class if their teachers permit it, according to Superintendent Jeff Dosier.

O’Fallon District 203 has a similar policy to District 201. O’Fallon High School students can use their cellphones before school, during passing periods and at lunch, according to the student handbook for the upcoming school year. In addition, students may use their cellphones in class if given specific permission by their teachers.

Likewise, Gibault Catholic High School in Waterloo lets students have their cellphones with them throughout the school day.

“They are allowed to use them during the day at will, except when they are in the classroom,” said Patricia Herzing, a spokeswoman for Gibault. “Teachers determine the policy in that classroom.”

Teachers may allow cellphone use in class if a student may need to look up something quickly using the Internet on a cellphone. “It’s always with the teachers’ approval during class time,” Herzing said.

If Gibault students are caught using their phones without permission, it will cost them $10, according to Herzing. The teacher will confiscate the student’s phone, and in order to reclaim it at the end of the school day, the student must pay a $10 fine, which goes into the school’s general fund, she said. The student can wait 24 hours and retrieve it the following day with no fine. If the cellphone is taken away on a Friday, the student would have to wait until Monday.

Gibault’s cellphone use policy also states students can make calls using their cellphones but the calls have to be made from the school office.

Art Ryan, superintendent of Cahokia District 187, said students are allowed to bring cellphones to school, but they need to be “out of sight and quiet.”

High schools students can use them during lunch hour, he said, but not between class periods.

Collinsville District 10 Superintendent Robert Green said students can use any kind of mobile device, tablet, laptop or cellphone for educational purposes. That means even in the classroom. Sometimes, he said, teachers will utilize students’ devices in lesson plans.

“The teachers supervise that,” Green said.

If students want to use their devices for noneducational purposes, they have to do it before or after school, according to Green.

When the policy was first put in place, he said the district decided it would “try it for a year.” It has been in place for about four or five years now, Green said.

“We’re watching it,” he said, but so far, “problems have not interfered with instruction.”

Granite City District 9 Superintendent Jim Greenwald said just three years ago, cellphones were not allowed in the district at all. He said the policy was that as soon as students entered the building, phones were expected to be “out of sight, out of mind.”

That changed, Greenwald said, because the district agreed “cellphones are a part of life nowadays.”

Electronic devices are now allowed “during noninstructional time,” Greenwald said. That means in halls between class periods, during lunch and before and after the bell rings to start and end the day.

During class time, Greenwald said, phones are supposed to be used for educational purposes, at the discretion of the teacher.

Greenwald called the current policy a “work in progress.” He believes it is “reasonable” and works better than a zero-tolerance policy, but it will continue to evolve.

“It is something that has to be allowed,” Greenwald said. “It has to be a combined effort by the teachers, naturally the students, the parents, the school district.”

Students who use their cellphones during instructional time without consent of the teacher, however, will be punished, Greenwald said. He said the consequences are “mid-range disciplines” such as detentions or in-school suspensions.

The phones will also be confiscated and taken to the main office for the remainder of the day, Greenwald said.

Unlike most metro-east high schools, students at Father McGivney Catholic School in Maryville are not permitted to have their cellphones with them during the school day.

“The students put their cellphones in their lockers, and they remain there throughout the school day,” Principal Mike Scholz said. “We are an all-laptop school, so they don’t need them for educational purposes.”

What about younger students?

Student cellphone use at middle schools is not as widely permitted as at area high schools.

Students at Belle Valley District 119 in Belleville are not allowed to have cellphones at school, according to Superintendent Louis Obernuefemann.

The elementary and middle school district changed its policy two years ago after a series of problems stemming from cellphone use by students. The issues included students videotaping fights and posting them online, taking pictures of students in bathrooms and of tests and assignments, and students getting in arguments via text messaging, according to Obernuefemann.

“It was a total disruption,” he said. “We just eliminated the access to cellphones at school.”

Only in special circumstances, if a need is determined by a student’s parent, can a student cellphone be allowed on school grounds. If approved by the school, the student must turn the phone in at the office before school and retrieve it after school.

Middle schoolers at Central and West junior highs in Belleville District 118 can bring cellphones to school, but they must be turned off and put away during the school day, according to Superintendent Matt Klosterman.

If caught using a cellphone, a student would be disciplined accordingly, he said.

“Generally, if it’s the first incident, we would take the phone and maybe expect the parent to come up,” Klosterman said. “We try and be reasonable with them, but also we will elicit parents to help remind them about the expectations for students.”

Phil Paeltz, headmaster at Governor French Academy in Belleville, said school leaders know students have cellphones, but try to “minimize” the effect they have on instructional time. Governor French serves students in prekindergarten through 12th grade.

“In my judgment, it’s impossible to take them away,” Paeltz said. For today’s youth, he said, “the cellphone is more important than the car.”

Unless instructed differently by their teachers, the students are not allowed to use cellphones during class, according to Paeltz. However, students at Governor French can use them before school, between classes and at lunch.

If a student breaks the rules, his or her cellphone is confiscated, Paeltz said, and the student’s parents have to come to the school and get it.

“What we try to do is control it rather than ban it,” he said.

This story was originally published July 25, 2015 at 7:57 AM with the headline "Anytime, anywhere? Cellphone policies at local schools are all over the map."