Wrentham schools hang up on cellphones

Cellphones are joining gum chewing, running in the halls, and passing notes as no-nos in Wrentham elementary schools.

This week, the elementary school district took the unusual move of prohibiting youngsters from bringing cellphones to school, unless the parents get special permission from the school administration. It joins a growing number of school systems in Massachusetts, including Brookline, that are cracking down on cellphone use.

Until now, the problem of jingling phones in class has surfaced mainly in high schools around the state, which typically ban use in class, but let students carry them. Wrentham's decision to impose the ban on cellphones on school buses and in elementary schools prompted Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino to say yesterday that he would urge Boston's public schools to adopt a citywide policy banning cellphones from class. Boston currently lets schools decide their own policies on phones.

In Wrentham, teachers heard cellphones ringing in fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms for the first time before winter break.

''Once one child has something it becomes the 'in' thing to have," said Tom Lynch, principal of the town's two elementary schools. ''We wanted to put a stop to it before it got out of control."

Wrentham parents have mixed feelings about the ban: Many agree that cellphones shouldn't be used during school hours, but others worry about how they will keep tabs on their children after school. They said students should be allowed to carry the cellphones to school and keep them turned off until classes end.

At Monday's School Committee meeting, Wrentham also banned students from bringing beepers and pagers to school. School officials will confiscate any banned devices and require parents to pick them up.

Exceptions can be made, officials said. Children who need phones to call their parents for a ride home or other emergencies may bring them to school if their parent writes a note, but the phones must remain off during class, said Superintendent Michael Janelli.

''We have telephones in every classroom," said Janelli, who runs the 1,300-student elementary school district. ''We don't need each individual student to have a cellphone to communicate with during the school day."

Wrentham teachers began reporting problems with cellphones in December. First, a cellphone rang in a fifth-grade class. The student answered the call, ''like it was nothing big," Lynch said.

The teacher asked the child to end the conversation. But later in the day, another student's telephone rang. Exasperated, the teacher told the student to leave the phone at home.

A few days later, a telephone rang during a sixth-grade math class.

''That was enough," Lynch said.

Wendy Buchanan, a parent, agreed with the policy.

''I don't think kids should have cellphones at that age," said Buchanan, whose children are ages 14, 11, and 6.

Maura Barnett said she had planned to send her sixth-grade son to school today with a cellphone so he could call her when he returned from an afterschool ski trip.

''Rules are rules; obviously I'll abide by the school," Barnett said. ''It would be nice if I could just have him call me when he's arriving."

Janelli, the superintendent, said Barnett's case could be an exception.

In Barnett's family, only the oldest child, Zachary Cox, 14, a high school freshman, has a cellphone, which he uses mainly to call his mother after football practice. She has not yet agreed to give his younger brother, Jake Cox, 12, a cellphone, though she said he has been clamoring for one for months.

Jake Cox, a sixth-grader in Wrentham, says cellphones and MP3 players are the most popular gadgets among his peers. He said he doesn't mind borrowing cellphones, but he would like his own.

''I don't think I'm too young," he said.

The issues with cellphones aren't limited to the distraction they cause when they ring during class. School officials worry about students using camera phones in locker rooms or text messaging to cheat on tests. This year, the state Department of Education is banning cellphones from the classroom during MCAS testing.

Newburyport High School officials sent a letter to parents before school started this year saying that they wanted cellphones kept in a student's backpack or locker at all times.

In Needham, high school officials warned that students would be disciplined if cellphones disrupted classes.

Janelli, the Wrentham superintendent, bought his first cellphone this year, at age 55. But he says he'll follow the new policy.

''I won't bring it to school anymore," Janelli said. ''I'll leave it in the car."