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School System Considers Jamming Students' Phones
An anonymous reader writes "The St. Ansgar, Iowa school system is considering buying cell-phone jamming equipment for up to $5000 if it is deemed legal. The use of the equipment would be suspended in the case of an emergency, but one has to wonder if they would be quick enough to shut it down should an emergency arise. 'A Federal Communications Commission notice issued in 2005 says the sale and use of transmitters that jam cellular or personal communications services is unlawful.'"
I'll help them:
It isn't.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
First off - yes, this is very illegal which is why you don't see the use of active jamming equipment in the US. If they want to instead build a Faraday cage around the entire campus, this would be the "legal" - though prohibitively expensive - way of getting around the issue.
If in fact they attempt this, and staff or a student have a bona-fide medical emergency and are unable to summon emergency services, this district will then be tasked for paying for a home nurse to wipe the drool off of said victim's face for the rest of their lives.
You would think those who work in education would, you know, educate themselves on the relevant laws and ramifications of actions... nahhh, this is the US public school system we're talking about here.
It's the texting that's the big issue. My wife teaches middle-school math, and she is constantly interrupting her classes to tell her students to put their not-allowed-on-campus phones away.
30 years ago, it was passing notes in class. Now it's texting. 30 years from now it'll brain-melding in class or something...
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
BULL! There may be teachers that are like that, but to say "most" is a gross miss-representation.
My father-in-law is a Jr. High School teacher, so I can tell you some of the restraints that are on the teachers.
They are not allowed to discipline students. (I am not talking physical discipline here. Teachers are not to scold a student for bad behaviour. At most they can send them to the principle's office, which means the kids gets out of class that day.)
If a teacher gives a student a bad grade, they are often yelled at by a parent, claiming that if the teacher has it in for the child, sometimes even calling the teacher racist. (That happened to my father-in-law.)
Teachers are not allowed to confiscate knives, cell-phones, distracting toys or video games without being accused of stealing, but make sure each student pays attention.
Teachers are given conflicting instructions on teaching. (leave no child behind, but teach to the highest level. Don't teach just so they pass tests, but you need to cram 1.5 years of test stuff plus the stuff beyond the tests into 9 months.)
Oh, and by the way, we are cutting salary again because we don't have the budget, but we need to attract the best and brightest teachers.
While we are at it, we know that you have been teaching students for 10 years and have some of the highest test scores in the state, but this charter school that has only 3 students per class has a new method of teaching so we want you to start using it in your class of 35.
If the teacher can't keep the class in line, sometimes it is because they are not allowed to, not because they can't be bothered.
With the way teachers are treated these days, I would never recommend a teaching profession to anyone.
Great civilizations have lived and died on false theories. Don't mess up mine with a few facts.
A crapload of lawsuits against the schools happened.
Citation? A friend of mine is a teacher, he says a phone ringing in class is very common these days, some of the kids even do it deliberately to look cool. He is allowed to (and does) confiscate the phones. He usually returns it at the end of the lesson, or if it's a repeat offender or some kid being smart at the end of the day. No phone for a day = not cool. The kids quickly learn to turn them off.
Of course, it is possible that in some countries confiscating phones is actually not allowed...
a lot of emergency management agencies are moving up to 800 mhz systems
from the great wiki:
# 806-824 MHz: Public safety and commercial 2-way (formerly TV channels 70-72)
# 824-851 MHz: Cellular A & B franchises, terminal (mobile phone) (formerly TV channels 73-77)
# 851-869 MHz: Public safety and commercial 2-way (formerly TV channels 77-80)
# 869-896 MHz: Cellular A & B franchises, base station (formerly TV channels 80-83)
it'd be very hard to filter out 824-851 and 869-896, at least passively, while still allowing the public safety frequencies to remain in use.