Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CELL PHONES: Students fight ban

Youths urge lawmakers to change law, permit devices on campuses

Becker Middle School students Melissa Myers, left, Haley Lucus and Rhonda Mittenzwei sit before the Assembly Education Committee to offer testimony Monday. Teacher Traci Kannon stands behind them. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Jill Lysgaard sends her son to Becker Middle School with a cell phone.

It's a safety precaution, she said, so they can reach each other in case of an emergency.

It's a practice that violates state law, which prohibits students from having cell phones or pagers on school grounds.

Becker Middle School students have been working to change the law for the past year, and on Monday, they made their case to the Assembly Education Committee.

"We'd like to have cell phones on campus but turned to the off position during school hours," Becker eighth-grader Jake Lysgaard said in testimony broadcast to legislators in Carson City.

Many students carry them and should be able to do so without being scofflaws, several said.

The middle school students tackled the issue with guidance from history teacher Traci Kannon and Assemblyman David Goldwater, who sponsored Assembly Bill 138, which calls for a repeal of the cell phone ban.

"I teach my kids that if they think a law is wrong, they should come down to testify before legislators and get a bill draft request to change the law," Kannon said. "It's wrong to teach kids that it's OK to ignore a law they don't like."

The Nevada ban on cell phones and pagers came in 1993, said Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, when they were seen as a classroom disruption and tools that helped criminal activities such as drug dealing.

But times have changed, Becker students said. They said cell phones were used by Columbine High School students to alert authorities to the shooting rampage that occurred on the Colorado campus in 1999.

Becker seventh-grader Kaila Miller said that because the nation is under a terrorism alert, having a cell phone is even more vital.

But for the most part, personal safety, not national security, concerned the students.

Tia Breeler attends Becker on a zone variance. A cell phone allows her parents to let her know whether they will be delayed in picking her up.

Committee members agreed to form a subcommittee to work with students on the bill draft.

But the issues surrounding cell phones on campus go beyond safety concerns, said Coronado High School Principal Monte Bay. Technology has made the devices more than mere telephones.

At worst, text messaging and Internet access can help cheating, one reason national organizations that administer college testing ban cell phones during examinations. At best, phones serve as a temptation to socialize instead of focus on education.

"The problem with cell phones and pagers is that they're a distraction," Bay said. "And we deal with enough distractions in the classroom as it is."

Cell phones are prevalent at Coronado; school administrators confiscate one nearly every other day.

Although the law prohibits having cell phones on campus, Coronado students said a-live-and-let-live practice is in place if the phones are off and out of sight during school hours.

"It's very rare that someone doesn't have cell phone," Coronado junior Karen Watkins said. "I think the law should be changed, but we don't need to have them on in classrooms. No one should be calling you in school."

Bay said if the law is changed, legislators should allow school districts leeway in making policy regarding cell phones.

He said the Clark County School District is preparing to install phones in classrooms. Within three years, most teachers will have outside lines in their rooms. Coronado is scheduled to get classroom phones before the end of the school year.

"That addresses the safety concern," Bay said.