CELL PHONES ILLEGAL AT SCHOOL AB 878 WOULD GIVE LOCAL BOARDS OPTION TO OK THE DEVICE.

Byline: Marie Leech  Staff Writer

It's 2:45 p.m. on a recent afternoon at La Canada High School, and classes have just let out.

Parents line the streets waiting to pick up their kids, older students jam the parking lot, and a few strays are trying to find a ride.

``Daddy, can you come pick me up?'' 13-year-old Brianna Saraceno says into her cell phone.

Like many other students, Brianna carries her Nokia cell phone - turned off, of course - in her backpack throughout the school day. What she doesn't know is that she's breaking a 1988 California law that bans any ``electronic signaling devices'' - including cell phones - from school property.

But state Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-La Canada Flintridge, has introduced a bill, AB 878, that would allow local school boards to decide whether students may carry the devices. The new law would allow students to use their phones only to call for emergency assistance.

An Assembly vote is expected Monday.

The 1988 law was passed to curb drug dealing and other illegal activities on school campuses. At the time, pagers were the in thing, and cell phones were so expensive that few kids carried them.

But Liu said the law is far outdated now, in a time when cell phones have become a way of life for everyone.

In fact, by 2004, one of two teens will own a cell phone, and three of four will use one regularly, according to Cahners In-Stat Group, a market research firm that studied the issue in December 2000.

Liu said that in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, lawmakers should re-examine the issue.

``This is not a mandate that schools have to allow cell phones ... but rather it gives districts the flexibility to decide whether it's appropriate for students to carry cell phones with them,'' she said.

Jinny Dalbeck, president of the La Canada Unified School Board, asked Liu to carry the bill after the terrorist attacks, when district administrators evacuated La Canada High School because of its close proximity to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. More than 1,200 students had to arrange transportation home.

Pam Ellis, a member of the Glendale Unified School board, said she and other trustees support Liu's proposal but believe there needs to be strict regulation of cell phone use on campus.

``If students abuse the fact of having this luxury during noninstructional time, I would be the first one to pull the plug on it,'' Glendale board member Greg Krikorian said, noting that cell phones may be used to further cheating and gang activities.

Los Angeles Unified Board President Caprice Young said she also supports the bill.

``Even though cell phones are illegal to have at schools right now, an awful lot of kids already carry them on campus,'' Young said. ``It makes a whole lot of sense - as long as kids know that if they are caught with a cell phone turned on, or if it rings in class, it's going to get confiscated.''

LAUSD board member David Tokofsky said, ``It allows parents the possibility to be in immediate contact with their kids in an era when parents are really concerned about safety and emergencies.''

He recalled a day he was teaching at Fairfax High School about six years ago, when police put the campus on lock-down after a fatal shooting.

``A radio station announced that a student had been killed. What happened next was interesting. The kids with pagers were getting pages from their parents, and police escorted them to the office to call,'' he said.

Al Beattie, a trustee for Antelope Valley Union High School District, said the decision on cell phones should be left up to local school boards.

``In 1988, we still lived with a kind of philosophy that kids with cell phones and pagers were drug dealers. Now everybody has a cell phone, and those who don't have a pager,'' Beattie said. ``The whole concept of how we communicate has been revolutionized since 1988.''

But Beattie thinks cell phones on campus may not be a good idea or needed.

``Are cell phones a distraction at school? They can be. Whether students need cell phones in the classroom in school, probably not, since emergency calls can be gotten at the office,'' Beattie said.

Staff Writers Sonia Giordani, Helen Gao and Karen Maeshiro contributed to this story.