Safety in cell phones

Deirdre Newman

Some high school students say they are in favor of legislation making

its way through the Capitol that would lift the current ban on cell

phones for local school districts that wanted to set their own rules.

“I think [cell phones] should be allowed,” said Kristi Koon, a

sophomore at Newport Harbor High School. “If something happened, we would

need something.”

Currently the phones, along with pagers and any other electronic

signaling devices, are banned on school sites by state law. The district

also has its own policy against cell phones and other electronic

accessories because of their disruptiveness, said trustee Martha Fluor.

The legislation, co-sponsored by John Campbell (R-Newport-Mesa),

wouldn’t automatically make cell phones legal -- it would give school

districts the authority to remove the ban by creating their own

regulations.

He says it’s a matter of convenience and safety.

“My son, who goes to school in Irvine, has a cell phone and I didn’t

even know they were illegal,” Campbell said. “We got him one because if

he needed to be picked up from school or anything bad happened at school,

we wanted to be able to get ahold of him, or him of us.”

It was students in Irvine, in fact, who first inspired Campbell to

jump on the cell phone bandwagon when they visited him last year,

expressing similar concerns.

“These kids pointed out that the first calls to 911 from Columbine came from a student on campus with a cell phone,” Campbell said. “Also at

Santiago [High School], a whole bunch of parents were relieved to hear

from students, with their illegal cell phones.”

Derek Spires, a sophomore at Newport Harbor High School, agrees that

cell phones and safety go hand-in-hand. He says they are necessary for

“whenever you need to get ahold of your parents for emergencies.”

And sophomore Brain Rebard lamented the fact that now students have

to bring change and wait to use the pay phones.

“If it’s not a disturbance, I don’t think it should not be allowed,”

Brian said.

Fluor said if the legislation passes, a healthy debate is needed at

the board level.

However, trustee Wendy Leece said she’s already made up her mind in

favor of cell phones on campuses for one purpose only -- “in the case of

a disaster -- an earthquake or some unforeseen tragedy where you had to

get ahold of the mom or dad or the child quickly.”Campbell’s bill passed

the Assembly 73 to 0 in early February. He said he expects the

legislation, co-authored with Democrat Carol Liu, to move quickly through

the Senate. A similar bill, that would remove the ban altogether and

allow school boards to make regulations to prevent disruptions is making

its way through the Senate as well.