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Apart from asking us “how young is too young for Facebook?” Justin and I often work with parents who have other questions about household rules they should have in place related to their child’s use of technology. We first state that parents should provide their kids with access to these devices a little bit earlier than they think they should. The key is that THEY are the ones who introduce the technology (rather than initially learning about it from friends). By way of example, they can give their child a phone and state that for the first month, they can only call Mom and Dad. When the second month begins, they can start texting Mom and Dad.

Parents should also show their child the cell phone bill after each month so that they can begin to understand how much the service costs in order to develop fiscal responsibility at a young age. At the beginning of the third month, they can start to call and text one or two friends. Parents should gradually provide more freedom and responsibility (within limits, of course) and keep assessing how their child is handling those freedoms. They should take a step back, if necessary.

Conversations should be continual about cell phone use and abuse. Feel free to employ our Cell Phone Use Contract as well to set agreed-upon parameters for the family (such as those mentioned in our Top Ten Teen Tips for Cell Phone Safety). Try to cultivate balance and well-roundedness so that interacting and socializing on these devices does not become too much of a distraction from studying, sleeping, and other essentials. Finally, reinforce positive behavior and choices – perhaps with an iTunes gift card, or another technology-based reward (like enabling picture mail – as long as you can review the contents of their phone whenever you like and have had an age-appropriate conversation about sexting!).

Do not hesitate to sanction them when you see problematic behaviors, attitudes, or outcomes.  For example, if school grades go down, or diligence in household chores goes down, their use of electronic devices should consequently be reduced. We also suggest that parents require their teens to keep their cell phone in a designated location after a certain hour (say, 9pm). Some “cut-off” point should be identified where youth are done for the day in their technology use. This, however, is not a foolproof way to prevent technology misuse, which we will explain in the near future.

We’ve talked in great detail about students bringing their personal electronic devices at school and the complications that may result.  We have also covered standards for searching these devices, and have provided a cell phone search checklist which may help administrators in these situations. In keeping with these discussions, I wanted to take some time to focus in on seizure – or confiscation – of these devices while bracketing the thorny subject of search for a while.  Specifically, I want to be clear and state that even with a suspected or actual policy violation by a student, it may not be in your school’s best interests to seize that student’s device.

I recently chatted this out with Mark Trachtenbroit, Assistant Principal at Wheeler High School in Georgia.  He remarked that his school used to take students’ personal devices when they were displayed or used between the morning bell and the afternoon bell because that contravened the formal rules their school had in place. However, it became a huge chore, leading to many of the complications I wrote about last week and the huge hassle of trying to warehouse, label, and manage all of the confiscated devices (and deal with angry parents who demanded their kid’s device be returned).

As such, the school decided that they would no longer confiscate phones, but just apply moderate penalties to students who broke the rules.  For instance, the first violation would be a stern verbal warning.  The second violation would lead to Saturday school.  The third violation would lead to In-School Suspension.  This tended to work in that it reduced the number of negative outcomes but seemed to be a less-than-ideal solution.  Administrators felt they were, as they say, cutting off their nose to spite their face because punishing teens in this way kept them out of the classroom where they would be learning.  This directly ties into the No Child Left Behind Act and the Adequate Yearly Progress measurement that allows our US Department of Education to determine how each school and school district is doing when it comes to properly educating our students (to do well academically on standardized tests) and meeting annual targets for reading, math, and graduation.  The consequences for failing to meet these goals and targets are simply not worth risking, and it just doesn’t make sense to sternly discipline kids in the 21st Century from being kids in the 21st century.  That is, the big-picture costs of punishing teens for being tethered to their technology is not worth potentially compromising the achievement of federally-mandated requirements.

This is an extremely important point, and one that many people do not seem to understand.

Perhaps the bottom line is that you cannot keep or deter all students from using their phones at school.  It is going to happen.  You can therefore decide to be prohibitive or permissive.  You can officially ban them from campuses, or allow them during certain times (or all times).

Whatever you do, though, you will have to figure out a way to get students, educators, and parents on board, and probably approach it in a way that represents the climate you are trying to build and maintain.  This climate should be all about encouraging the positive and responsible use of technology, and dissuading its misuse and abuse.  We’ll be giving you specific advice to make this happen in weeks ahead.

As we begin the new school year and reaquaint ourselves with some of the negatives implications that student-owned electronic devices at school may have, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about teachers and administrators confiscating cell phones due to school policy violations. Many of us know from experience that it may be more of a headache than it is worth because students can be crafty and even defiant at times.  Let’s say that your school policy prohibits their display or use, and you see a 9th grader texting under his desk during Geometry.  You then stop what you are doing, go up to him, and ask him to give you his phone.  He could then do any of the following:

1.  Tell you he didn’t know about the policy.

2.  Straight up refuse to give you his phone.

3.  Tell you that he can’t give you his phone because his parents paid a lot of money for it, and will beat him if he gets it confiscated.  (By the way, what do you do with that?)

4.  Discreetly switch out the phone he actually uses with an older phone he keeps in his pocket or backpack or desk – and give you that one.  You wouldn’t know the difference.

5.  Give you the phone but keep the battery.  This of course keeps you from searching its contents should you have suspicion of another policy violation (apart from just cell phone display or use) or suspicion of a crime committed, with evidence reasonably believed to exist on the phone.

6.  Give you the phone but keep the SIM card.  (Justin and I have heard stories where the student has actually swallowed the SIM card to keep it from being confiscated).

7.  Give you the phone but not tell you the lock code or password on it.  This keeps you from searching the contents as described above.

8. Tell you to take it from them, which could lead to a tug-of-war over the device and physical contact and conflict that we want to avoid at all costs with a student.

Are there any other outcomes that have happened to you when you’ve tried to confiscate?

To note, we’ve written extensively on when you can and cannot SEARCH the contents of phones (see here and the Related Posts, as well as Chapter 9 of our new book.  In this blog, I wanted to focus in on confiscation complications.  Let us know your thoughts and experiences!

Justin and I have been trying to figure out a way to help inform school administrators as to when they can go ahead and search the contents of student cell phones. Week after week after week, this is one of the primary questions we receive from them. We want to help guide them in a meaningful way without getting enmeshed in a large number of due process and consent issues. As such, I’d like to present this checklist as a flowchart of sorts to assist with the decision-making process whenever student cell phones are displayed and used in school environments where that display and use is prohibited. To note, this is a work-in-progress, and we would love to dialogue with you more about what is missing. As always, please consult your school district attorney before engaging in an action where you are unsure of the legal implications.

Cell Phone Search Checklist for School Administrators

Has the student consented to the search?

Yes or No (circle one)

If student will not consent, has the student’s parent consented?

Yes or No (circle one)

If no consent from student or parent, is it an emergency (an actual or imminent threat to public health or safety, which may result in loss of life, injury or property damage)?

Yes or No (circle one)

If no consent from student or parent, and no emergency is indicated, is it reasonable for you to believe a school policy violation has occurred and evidence that proves that violation is possibly on the device? Would you be able to articulate the reasoning before a court of law if necessary?

Yes or No (circle one)

Do you understand the scope of your cell phone search can go no further than the data locations (such as call logs, text records, photos) that specifically relate to the suspected policy violation?

Yes or No (circle one)

Have you spoken to other School District officials AND Legal Counsel to determine if it is to discuss the proposed search and surrounding
circumstances and ensure their appropriateness?

Yes or No (circle one)

Are you sure that this is not a law enforcement matter that then would require probable cause for a law enforcement officer to search the phone?

Yes or No (circle one)

Do you have an agreement with local law enforcement (including a stationed school resource officer at your school), that outlines a specific process, supported by state and federal search and seizure law, for conducting cell phone searches by police officers?

AT TIME OF INCIDENT:

Describe the circumstances under which the student’s cell phone was seized:

Describe the circumstances that you think give rise to a reasonable suspicion that the cell phone was used in violation of the law or a district policy:

—–

What do you, our readers, think – based on your own experiences? Our ultimate goal with this is to more concretly ensure that the school administration has thought things through, and have received informed input from legal counsel and law enforcement as needed.

Many educators have struggled to confront the challenges associated with high-tech devices in the classrooms (especially cell phones).  Cyberbullying.  Cheating.  Distractions.  Inappropriate digital material. There is no shortage of possible issues. The seemingly easy way to respond to these concerns has been to ban all personal electronic devices from the classroom (or the entire school).  I have heard about penalties that include students being fined or surrendering the device until the end of the day or even until the end of the school year!  This is just crazy.  First of all, short of strip-searching students as they enter the school, it is practically impossible to enforce a complete ban on technology in the school.  Most administrators have largely conceded this point and therefore enacted policies which say something to the effect of: “If I see it, you lose it.”  A colleague of ours recently quipped that schools approach cell phones the same way they do underwear: “We know you have them, we just don’t want to see them in class.”  It is really unfortunate that these powerful devices have been excluded from learning environments where they could actually be put to positive uses.

Recently, however, it seems that increasing numbers of schools are looking to loosen their overly restrictive cell phone policies. We have received a number of queries over the last couple of months from districts that would like to allow students to bring their own devices, to be used for educational purposes.  It is easy to see how cell phones, iPads, or laptops could augment curriculum delivery in the classroom: flash-polling; looking up multi-media definitions of difficult concepts; pulling up a map of a far-off place; viewing a video of an endangered species…. The possibilities are literally endless.  And we also know that the vast majority of teens already have, and regularly use, these devices (e.g., 75% of 12 to 17 year-olds have their own cell phones, according to Pew).  So there is enormous upside here.

But we do need to recognize the potential problems that may accompany the positives when students “bring their own devices” to school.  It is important to stress, though, that the problem isn’t cell phones or other particular devices.  The problem is how these devices are being (mis)used by some.  Most schools already have a bullying/harassment policy.  These documents should be reviewed to make sure they explicitly cover cyberbullying.  Students, staff, parents, and others need to understand that inappropriate behaviors will not be tolerated and are subject to discipline.  And be specific—talk about harassment and cheating and disrupting the class environment by texting or Facebooking, etc.  Clearly outline the consequences for such behaviors.  Get students and parents in on this discussion.  Schools will have problems as the school community gets used to these changes, but hopefully the problems will be few and far between and will get better with time.  Students will learn appropriate behaviors and it should – in time – become the norm if done right.  For example, ten years ago cell phones were much more of a problem in my college classrooms than they are now.  University students, at least in my experience, have gotten better at cell phone etiquette and are not letting the devices distract the learning that is occurring.  Sure, occasionally a phone will go off in class, but usually the student is apologetic and immediately realizes the faux pas.  Of course middle and high school students are different than those in a univesrity, but I am optimistic that we can work through the same challenges at the secondary school level.

There should also be some discussion in school policy that administrators can conduct a reasonable “search” of the contents of these devices when there is “reasonable suspicion” that evidence of a violation of school policy is on the device.  Schools can’t search these devices whenever they feel like it, but if the search is reasonable and supported by a justifiable need, it could be allowed.  There is some debate about this, so be sure to run it by your legal counsel (you can read more about this here.  We also discuss it in great detail in our new book.) Either way, the circumstances under which school officials can search student-owned devices need to be made explicit.  This will definitely come up, so make sure you are ready.  And again, students, parents, and others need to know the standards.  If you are an educator in a school that recently opened up to electronic devices, please let us know how it is going (the good and the bad!).  If you are a student, we would appreciate hearing your experiences as well.