As you walk down the hallway, its impossible to realize that there has been a change in the technology policy. Students walk around with their cell phones out and teachers turn a blind eye to the incessant Twitter and Instagram apps open on their phones.
Due to the recent social media fights, specifically those that occured on Twitter, the administration has atempted to tighten the policy set in place here at AHS in regards to the use of technology throughout the school.
“The rules are very simple; anyone who has their cell phone registered can use it for educational purposes. The cell phone policy itself has not been changed and for those people who have not registered their phones, I have asked their teachers to confiscate it, package it and send it to the office where they keep it for the end of the day where their parents get it,” said Principal Vincent Randazzo at a press conference with The A-Blast.
The issue with this new regulation though is the lack of enforcement by teachers and the limited understanding that students have of the new policy.
Even though this new policy is supposed to crack down on the students, no one is listening. As much as the administration is trying to get teachers and other staff to enforce the rule, it’s not working out.
The policy has changed so that any electronic device that a student wants to use during the school day needs be registered with the school security office, and if registered the device will not be confiscated as long as it is being used for educational purposes.
“The last month of school before winter break students used the inappropriate use of social media such as Twitter and Facebook to disrupt the school day. It’s not that we weren’t enforcing it before,” Randazzo said.
The issue with this new phone policy is the fact that many students refuse to register their devices due to the lack of fear of losing their phones and laptops.
Since most teachers are not aware of the implications of this new policy, many of them do not make students keep their phones put away and do not enforce the act of registering all devices.
But other teachers have either stuck to the old policy of no cell phones at all in their classroom or that students can have it out, but only for educational purposes.
Even though students are told not to use it in class, without it being registered, according to the new policy, they still use them and don’t listen to their teachers by hiding them under desks and coats every period. Just as it has in the past, students still continue to use these pieces of technology without worry or care.
This cell phone policy has not worked in our school yet, and I highly doubt it will work in the future. Just because teachers and some administration doesn’t enforce the rules and the students don’t care enough to listen.
