Abilene students face $15 fine for cell phones in school

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Economic rough waters have prompted Texas schools in Abilene, TX to institute a district-wide cell phone fine. A new initiative will allow educators to confiscate any and all mobile phones, allowing them to hold the handset for a $15 ransom. After the first offense, students will have to ask a parent to come in and plunk down the $15 fine.

Any student caught with a cellphone in class will be subject to the fine. On the one hand, tough economic times call for drastic measures. A similar cell phone fine program enforced by another Texas school district has netted the district more than $100,000 over the course of two years. That’s a lot of books and Bunsen burners. On the other hand, educators say that the Abilene program is designed to curb students’ “out-of-control” use of mobile phones in the classroom. If that’s the case, these educators need to step back and figure out what they’re doing wrong. Other schools around the country have started to embrace mobile technology in their curriculum, leveraging kids’ intimate relationships with their handsets for teaching purposes or reinforcing past lessons.

This should increase the use of high-frequency ringtones that are out of instructors’ hearing ranges but still audible to students’ younger ears.

Via PhoneDog