BROWARD COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD RULE BANNING USE OF CELL PHONES BY STUDENTS WILL NOT WORK

Coral Springs Fl, July 25,2024 : This week, the Broward County School board commissioners unanimously banned cell phone use in schools by students.

They might as well passed a resolution banning hurricanes from hitting South Florida . It is quite obvious the Broward County School board and many parents have no idea of how the latest technology works. The rule by the Broward County School board will not stop students from using cellphones in schools . Cell phones are an addiction. Everyone is on it. Students too.

The Problem according to Teachers and school boards

Students use cell phones all the time, even during classes. Their focus is removed from learning and moved toward social media apps, including Twitter(X) and TikTok. They use the cell phone to send text messages to each other. All of this causes class disruptions. Teachers are helpless as the students can do a one hander typing hidden from view of the teacher. The problem includes

Disruption of class room ( especially when the ringtone is not silenced )
Lack of focus on learning
Teacher’s having to be the enforcer in class – confrontational situations they want to avoid ( Teachers simply do not get paid enough to be policemen).
Schools in general are helpless as technology continuously improves adding better apps, speed and stealth capability to a useful gadget has become something everyone has.

The situation is a pandemic in proportion all across this country and around the world.

Parents View points

Parents want to always communicate with their children in schools. The anxiety created today of our Instant Communication via text messaging, means if they send a message to their child, and the child does not reply instantly – they freak out.
Parents want to make sure in case of an emergency their child can simply make a 911 call or call them if their school is under attack by an assailant and they can communicate with their child in this improbable situation.
Parents have the money – and buy their child a cell phone at a young age – giving the child the ‘ weapon of communication “.

Students View Point

Students are experts in social media.
They are victims of our adult technology they now have given the fact their parents bought them a cell phone in the first place.
Denying them the right to communicate with their fellow students buy using all of the social media apps , creates additional anxiety.
Since other students have them, the only way they can be ‘ cool ‘ is by having one also.

After all, no sane student likes school and any ability to deflect the current boring subjects the teachers are offering is greatly appreciated.

The Real situation

You simply cannot ban cell phones in any location without either taking them away, or controlling the signals they receive.

Making a policy without the ability to enforce it or leaving it to the children to put their cell phone in ‘Airplane’ mode ( stupid stupid stupid) does not work.

This is candy we are talking about, and when know one is looking, the candy is eaten, irrespective of what adults command the child.

Putting the cell phone in Airplane mode does not work. You are hoping the abuser of technology will simply listen, when experience has shown us they will not. Even on airplanes, adults simply do not listen and leave their cell phones in regular mode or turn off their phone entirely to save battery life.

WiFi is still active in airplane mode, XFINITY , an ISP , has wifi everywhere in this county. Classrooms existing in residential areas in close proximity will provide access to students have their homes on this service. WiFi is also available in parks, government buildings and libraries.

Students can simply login to WIFI and use the novel capability of the cell phone called Cellular over WiFI offered by all of the carriers.

The student can also login to an hotspot created by other students DO NOT LISTEN to the instructions not to use their cell phones.

Real Solutions

I own a company which manufactures equipment used by law enforcement agencies to stop, intercept and direction find Cell phone equipment. Our company, STEALTHRF is located in Coral Springs, Broward county. We do this all day long for our government customers in the United States and around the world. Our main customers use our equipment to stop the use of cell phones in Correctional Facilities ( Prisons)

Jamming, Managed Access are all terms used in this industry when speaking about the need to stop or control cell phone communication.

In prisons , we use either jamming to completely stop communication including internet, text messaging and cell phone call access . We use a hybrid system silencing communication but allows the inmate the ability to call 911 in case of an emergency ( The FCC forced this situation even though the inmates often abuse the 911 operators.

To handle 911 calls, we route calls to the administration PBX system. If there is an emergency the authorities can contact 911.

Managed access is expensive. Jamming is less expensive.

We also offer detection products identifying if a cell phone is turned on. This is less expensive then jamming, and managed access.

These are real solutions to solve this problem.

What can be done about cell phones in schools

Some novel ideas are :

Parents need to be responsible for their children. Not sure why children in elementary school need to have a cell phone. The only way they can have it is if the parent ( who has the money ) buys it for them. Parents should stop buying cell phones. Same with other items like : Cars, weapons and of course recreational marijuana.
The government can pass a law making it illegal for a minor to own the cell phone. While this seems to be a popular idea, the cellular carriers may not like it. The expanding marketplace for cell phones make it important that the carriers sell whatever service to children. Its a marketplace of untapped value.
Cellular carriers need to limit access by children during school hours. They can do this by moving all phones owned by children in a given school area( they can identify the location of the phone by E911) to emergency mode only. This way the child can still make a 911 call but cannot use their phone during school hours. This can be enhanced even more by adding small cells into the school forcing cell phones to a specific radio access point . The Carrier picks up the identifiers of cell phones and automatically moves them to the 911 only mode. When the student leaves school they attach to the tower in the area, and can use their cell phone normally.
Adding technology to prevent cell phones in schools from accessing any system. This is managed access allowing certain white listed phones access and blacklisting every other one. 911 calls can still be made by anyone.
Adding technology identifying and locating where a particular cell phone is turned on.
Recognize cell phones cannot be stopped without spending the right amount of money, passing legislation , forcing carriers to help in this problem. Accept the fact children with the new technology capability in their hands asymmetrically can creatively use it under the watchful eye of the adults supposedly running the zoo.
Recognize the addiction. Provide mental health support ( just thought I would put this out there 🙂 )

We need the school board to educate themselves about the new technology and what can really be done about it.

Feel free to contact me and add your comments to this site by texting ( SMS) to the following number : 954-906-2898

I would welcome anyone letting me know if there are any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes . After all, this article is related to education 🙂