According to Principal John Williams, the administration team put in place a new cell phone policy this year. If a student uses his/her cell phone in a class where the teacher does not permit it, instead of administration keeping a student’s cell phone and having a parent pick it up, teachers can now give students detentions but students will be allowed to keep their cell phone. The first consequence is a detention, the second is a Saturday detention, the third is parent/student meeting with the Dean and the fourth is the Saturday School in Noblesville.

“Last year, if the teacher took your phone, your parents had to come and get it. That was pretty effective since most parents did not like to come and get it. But what we found is that these phones are such a part of our lives and kind of a safety factor with the phone,” Williams said. “We asked ourselves the question of what would happen and how we would feel if someone whose phone we took got into a car wreck or had something happen on the way home from school where they couldn’t reach out to someone because we had their phone.”

Williams said another reason the administration team decided to change the cell phone policy was that students whose parents worked had a disadvantage to those whose parents did not work.

“The second part is that the kids who really were punished were the kids whose parents worked because (the parents) couldn’t come in. But if your Mom or Dad didn’t work, they’ll run right over and get it. We don’t like having that kind of inequity based on whether your parents work or not,” he said. We will still give parents the option of (having the administration) keep the phone. If the parents call us and say, “Don’t give them their phone back,” then we won’t.

Student body president Bobby Greaser said he agrees that this new policy will solve the inequity.

“I do think it helps. I have one parent who works and one who doesn’t and I think this is good for parents who have kids who work full time,” he said.

Greaser said he believes the usage of the new policy will vary greatly based on the teacher.

“We know as students that different teachers care about cell phones than others. A lot of time, if there’s time left over in class, a lot of kids use their cell phones and nobody really cares and there are other teachers who are really strict about it,” he said.

Greaser also said that he thinks having a detention as the first consequence is severe and should instead be replaced with a warning.

“The consequence of having a detention the first time you’re caught (with a cell phone) seems a little severe to me. I feel like for a first consequence, a warning would be sufficient,” Greaser said. “If you bring out your cell phone, the teacher should give you a ‘Don’t do that again or I’ll have to give you a detention’ but there has to be merit to it. The second time, you would truly have to get a detention, not just another warning.”