Texting and Cell Phones

Art by Jasmin Cruz

Are teachers allowed to text students?

Teachers should not send text messages to individual students at any grade level. In high schools, teachers can send text to groups of students through group texting websites. Parents must give permission and provide a phone number to use for their child’s texting.

What are the school system’s policies about cell phones at schools? 

Most schools allow them - with limitations. For starters, cell phones may not be used from the beginning of the instructional day until after the instructional day ends, unless the principal or someone acting for the principal says otherwise.

A phone that is used or even one that rings or vibrates may be confiscated, to be returned only to the parent or guardian, and the privilege of bringing a phone to school may be revoked for the rest of the school year.

Kurt Telford, who recently retired as principal at West Forsyth High School, said that the first time a student is found using a cell phone during the school day, the student is asked to turn it over to the teacher and it is returned at the end of the school day.

“We give you one freebie,” Telford said. “It could happen to anybody.”

The second time it happens, the phone is confiscated and a parent has to come get it. Plus, the student is required to attend Saturday School, a three-hour study hall held on Saturday mornings.

Sometimes, Telford said, students try to be sneaky about using a cell phone, doing something such as holding the phone under the desk and texting. “Some students seem addicted to it,” he said.

Telford likened using a cell phone during school to driving while talking on the cell phone – it keeps you from putting your focus where it should be. “You can’t concentrate on both,” he said. “It interferes with their school work.”

Some schools have more restrictive policies. At Main Street Academy, for example, cell phones and other portable communication devices are prohibited.

More information about cell phone policies is available at School Board Policies