School board approves DIY cell phone policy

HISD trustees unanimously approved a new do-it-yourself cell phone policy yesterday that will allow each of the district's 305 campuses to make its own rules on whether or not mobile phones are allowed. The district hopes the policy will let schools set appropriate rules for phones, which they say are a distraction and an academic problem:

"What we've seen with the use of cell phones is it's made principals and teachers equally miserable," said Gayle Fallon, head of the Houston Federation of Teachers. Students have used cell phones to cheat by text-messaging answers or photographing exams.

At each campus, a committee of teachers, parents and administrators will set the rules on phones and entertainment devices like mp3 players. As Fallon said, most schools will probably choose not to ban cell phones because parents rely on them as a way to get in touch with their kids in case of an emergency. "Most schools will vote you can have them, but we don't want to see them," he said. (We wonder how long it'll be before kids around here pick up on the Mosquito ringtone, which is supposed to be inaudible to adults. Houstonist is well out of our teens, but we can hear the Mosquito, so we guess we're not totally grown up yet.)

In other business, the district toughened its policy on bullying: Principals will now be able to send bullies to alternative schools. Trustees also approved a $600,000 telephone notification system for emergencies and a pilot electronic textbook tracking system that should cut down on book theft.