Bill Text: HI SCR78 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced

Hawaii Senate Concurrent Resolution 78 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Public Schools; Student Cell Phone Ban

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-03-18 - (S) The committee on EDU deferred the measure. [SCR78 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2011-SCR78-Introduced.html

THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	78
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

requesting the board of education to implement a student cell phone ban in all public schools.

WHEREAS, the use of cell phones by students during class is disruptive and distracting; and

WHEREAS, it has been speculated that cell phones have been used by students to undermine academic integrity and to facilitate such negative behavior as gang activity; and

WHEREAS, National School Safety and Security Services (NSSSS), a national school safety consulting firm, finds that contrary to what many people believe, allowing cell phones in classrooms is not a tool for student safety during crisis situations; and

WHEREAS, NSSSS has cautioned that students often use cell phones to call in bomb threats, forcing the evacuation of an entire school and making it nearly impossible for security teams to determine where the call came from or who is responsible; and

WHEREAS, some schools consider cell phones to be as dangerous as weapons because students can use them to call or text other students to join in during fights; and

WHEREAS, at Bradley Tech High School in Wisconsin, cell phones were used by students to call in reinforcements to a fight that involved over twenty people, requiring police to use pepper spray to break up the fight; and

WHEREAS, in 2006, the Jeff Davis Parish School System in Louisiana approved a ban on student cell phones during school hours, requiring students to either leave their cell phones in their cars or check them into the school office in the morning; and

WHEREAS, the Prince George's County School Board in Maryland has approved one of the strictest bans on student cell phone use by prohibiting all phone calls, texting, and twittering on school property during the school day; and

WHEREAS, a 2002 nationwide survey of school-based police officers shows that sixty-eight percent of all officers surveyed believe that student use of cell phones detracts from overall school safety in the event of a crisis on campus; and

WHEREAS, small-sized cell phones and inaudible and high‑pitched ringtones make cell phones very easy to hide while in use; and

WHEREAS, the one-hundred-sixty-character confines of a standard short message service (SMS) or text message cause students to shorten their messages and do away with punctuation, possibly weakening their written and oral communication skills; and

WHEREAS, a survey by CTIA-The Wireless Association found that twenty-eight percent of all teenagers reported using their web-ready cell phones to browse the Internet, making cheating during school easier; and

WHEREAS, forty-one percent of parents are concerned about their child being exposed to sexual predators via text messaging; and

WHEREAS, thirty-one percent of parents are concerned about the exposure of their child to mobile bullying or harassment; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2011, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Board of Education is requested to implement a student cell phone ban in all public schools; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Chairperson of the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education.