New cell phone freedom- at a cost

As we walk into the 2011-2012 school year a lot of changes are taking over Woods-Tower. The cell phone policy that all students have gotten used to has changed.

This new policy states that students can use their phones during the five minute break periods, but none whatsoever in class. During the break time, students will be allowed to make phone calls to whoever they want. Students will also be able to text during those five minutes, but once the bell rings it’s off to class and the phone must be turned off and put away.

A pass to the bathroom or to the office will not be an excuse to get to use your cell phone or other electronic devices (PED’s). If one of your PEDs such as, your cell phone, iPod, iPad, MP3 player is taken during class they will be taken down to the front office and given to Mr. Ohrt.

Students have become accustomed to a small slap on the wrist for being caught texting during class’, they get a warning then it is a trip down to the office to retrieve their phone, then eventually, a detention would be given out. The punishment is no longer a one hour detention, it is receive a misconduct.

Starting on the first day of school the new policy will take place. “We’ll adapt the new policy however it needs to be adapted,” Mr. Ohrt stated. He will manipulate the policy in accordance with students’ reactions.

The Woods-Tower staff believes that this will be a change for the better because it will decrease the use of cell phones usage during class time. However, many students are not happy with the iPod rules because, for some students, it is easier to concentrate on their individual class work while listening to music instead of the background noise of the class room.

“We want to create positive interactions with students and staff,” Mr. Ohrt declared, “we had a teacher committee and spoke about the problems of the old policy and we did a survey, from that information we came up with the policy.”

The PBS or Positive intervention and Behavior Support team played a major role in this as well as other changes around the school. “They’re now called the school culture team, our staff as a whole is trying to make positive changes for school next year,” Mr. Ohrt said.

Look forward to the many changes in the coming years.