Hub schools aim to silence cellphones

No more text messaging or ring tones blaring the latest hip-hop beats in Boston's public schools. Not even during lunch.

Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant will announce plans tonight to ban the use of cellphones when students are in the building during the school day.

The policy would affect students in elementary through high school, while statewide most cellphone policies only affect high schools.

Currently, most Boston's middle and high schools have policies that range from forbidding cellphones on campus to asking students to turn them off during class. More than a dozen high schools and most elementary schools have no cellphone restrictions.

Teachers and students, many of whom helped Payzant draft the policy, were frustrated by the distraction cellphones cause in class, not just the ringing but the sight of students playing with them.

Payzant's plan follows the lead of suburban school officials and was announced two months after Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston urged the school system to pass a uniform cellphone policy.

Menino's push followed the Wrentham Elementary School District's ban of cellphones on school buses and in schools. Other systems -- including Brookline, Needham, and Newburyport -- have also cracked down on cellphone use. In addition to being a distraction, school officials worry about students using cellphones to cheat or take pictures in the locker room.

In Boston, 10 student leaders met with Payzant in February to help draft a systemwide cellphone policy that would take effect June 30, if the School Committee adopts the policy tonight.

Liz Reilinger, School Committee chairwoman, said the system needed one policy for all schools.

''This is an issue that has been brewing, as cellphones became more of a reality, not only at the high school level, but also at the elementary level," Reilinger said. ''When kids are in school, they should be there learning and not having conversations on the cellphones."

Parents, who worry that they can't call their children in an emergency if they're not carrying cellphones, can do what they've always done, call the school office, Reilinger said.

Under the most recent draft of the policy given to School Committee members, students can bring cellphones to school, but they must be off and out of sight during the school day. Students can only make calls before and after school hours when they're outside the building. They can use the phones during lunch if their high school lets them leave campus to eat lunch.

They face restrictions even in afterschool activities; they cannot use the cellphones then unless their instructor or coach grants permission. Payzant was still working on the final wording yesterday.

A staff member will be assigned to monitor cellphone violations and will hand out punishment for those who break the rules.

At the first offense, the phone would be taken and returned to the student after school. On the second, the phone would be handed over to a parent; on subsequent offenses, the student would be forbidden from bringing a cellphone to school for the rest of the year.

''We all agreed with [the policy], because we don't want our learning to be messed with," said Katherine Morales, a Fenway High School sophomore who helped draft the policy. ''I know a lot of students play with their phones while the teacher's teaching, and I don't think that's appropriate."

Some students in the group want Payzant to relax the cellphone ban during lunch, so they could get in touch with friends or makes calls pertaining to after-school plans like jobs, said Jenny Sazama, an adviser to the student leadership group and director of a youth advocacy organization.

The next step, Sazama said, could be to draft a similar policy that applies to teachers. Currently four high schools have cellphone policies that pertain to both students and teachers.

Students have complained about teachers using their cellphones in class as well, Sazama said.

''That's inappropriate," Reilinger said. ''For God's sake, if we have to police the teachers . . . Oh!"

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.