Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
we didn't have cell phones. beepers were just starting to appear when i graduated high-school. we never had any problems alerting in the event of an emergency. we had fire alarms, PA system, and ye olde fashioned telephones in every classroom.
FOXTROT UNIFORM CHARLIE KILO
But what happened to good ol' telling them not to use their mobiles, and if they -do- use it, apply punishment?
I obviously didn't RTA, but what a waste of money... (if not the possible consequences)
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
It'll take a failed emergency call to get the school sued...
Jamming cell phones is a slippery slope and I think we (as a society) would be just as well off to put a stop to this right here.
There is of course the fact that jamming a cell phone for almost any reason is quite illegal. But let's set that aside.
As has often been mentioned- the idea that the jammer would be shut off in an emergency is absurd. If there's a 'big' emergency nobody will remember to turn it off (assuming anybody knows how to), and for 'little' emergencies (as someone else said, girl getting raped in the locker room) this would create a serious problem. Plus which a jammer, being an RF emitter, doesn't immediately stop jamming when you walk thru the school doors. It will either be overpowered, and reduce or degrade service around the school, or underpowered leading to kids just sitting next to the window so their phones will work.
These problems arise anytime you talk about cell phone jamming, and there is no solution. Cell networks are encrypted, so you can't block only non-emergency calls. And no carrier is going to be the first one to step up and help block their customers, it's just not in anybody's best interest.
This is a societal problem, not a technical one, and it requires a societal fix. If people are yakking on their phone in the movie theater, the solution isn't a jammer, the solution is to get people to not be rude assholes.
As for the school, if they can't get kids to pay attention in class maybe the problem is that their lesson plan is boring and the teacher couldn't care less if the kids are interested or not. Or perhaps their problem is that the faculty doesn't demand student respect, so students ignore the rules.
As a previous poster said- just take away the phone or battery of any kid that is using it in class and give it back to him at the end of the day. If he does it again make his parent come in and get it.
Put simply, this school has a discipline problem and needs better teachers or better administration. It does not have a technical problem, so a technical solution won't help them.
--IronHelix
It's a good thing almost every kid 12 years and older now has a cell phone... I can't believe I survived school without one. Those emergencies that happened every day... people getting raped, terrorists trying to take over the school, Canadians invading.
Calling 911 will not prevent the rape anways.
I'd just ban cell phone use if I were a principal/school admin. Get caught using it during school hours for non-emergencies.. phone gets confiscated til the end of the week and you get a detention. Hell, I wasn't allowed to even chew gum or wear a hat. Now get off my lawn.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
All they need are the usual restrictions for movie theaters. Tell students that carrying a cell phone is fine, but ringing has to be off while in class, and texting in class is a no-no. That's enough to keep cell phones from interfering with the school's educational mission. Beyond that, as a Government body, the school has no business interfering.
Students should be -encouraged- to collaborate because the real world is built on collaboration and research.
Yes, because I'm sure the problem is that students are just *dying* to collaborate over their cell phones, and those nasty teachers are too backwards to understand it. :rollseyes:
Sorry buddy, this is the kind of thing that's being communicated between students during times when they should be working:
"OMG did u c wat ashleys waring 2day???"
"OMG I no wat a hore!"
"LOL!!!"
Hmm, methinks the rapist, if they have that sort of strength, might be able to prevent their victim from getting hold of their cell phone and dialing 9-1-1-SEND. Then, of course, there's the matter of identifying the location (GPS doesn't work indoors) and nature of the crime in progress, and waiting for the police to arrive. I sincerely doubt the rapist would allow all of that to happen.
A loud, piercing, and frequently-repeated scream and appropriate use of fingernails, teeth, and any other blunt or pointy part that can be applied would be far more likely to be useful. At that point, the phone is best applied as a blunt (or if you smash it hard enough against a hard surface and make a shiv, pointy) weapon.
I'm not saying that there's aren't cases where a student's ability to make a 911 call would be useful, even critical, but this doesn't appear to be one of them. If the rapist has overwhelming force sufficient to carry out the act, they have more than enough control to prevent something as complex as a telephone call.
"This post contains words, known to the State of California to cause thought. Wash brain thoroughly after reading."
Doesn't work like this at all. Usually...most parents will come ream out the instructor...the principal...the superintendent for taking the student's property. Since little Johnny/Jane will never do anything wrong in their lifetime...many administrators/teachers don't want the hassle of dealing with the "fine upstanding people" who call themselves parents. This is much of the problems with teacher retention...too much hassle dealing with those who will never be happy no matter the result.
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia. - Charles M. Schulz
Regardless of whether or not it should be illegal to confiscate items, the fact is that schools have basically the same rights as your parents. So yes, they have every right to search you if that's considered necessary and they can confiscate anything they want.
I personally think that they should only be able to confiscate the battery when it comes to cellphones, because taking a phone is a violation of privacy IMO. (Especially if you're nosing around in the texts or pictures stored on it... but you could, which is enough reason that you shouldn't be able to take the phone.) Taking the battery is good enough.
Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.
My problem with your number 2: teaching is not entertainment, and there will always be devices that are more interesting and attention-grabbing in the short term for most of the students than whatever is being taught. Sometimes, there is a certain amount of drudge in learning, and if teachers were such stellar entertainers that they could make sentence-diagramming, long division, and basic biology more interesting than the girl you have a crush on and keep texting, they'd be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in Vegas, not teaching in your local junior high.