Essential or excess?

Byline: Lewis Taylor The Register-Guard

Cell phones used to drive teachers crazy simply because they would ring in class.

But in the half a decade or so that it's taken cell phones to go from novelty to necessity, a host of new problems has cropped up in the schools.

Students sending text messages to avoid disciplinary action; parents with itchy dialing fingers badgering their kids in class; and the threat of students using camera phones to cheat on tests - all are problems that schools are facing now that 54 percent of teenagers are toting their own cell phones.

"It's really common to walk down the hall and have every student in sight on a cell phone," says North Eugene High School Principal Peter Tromba. "You'll see couples walking next to each other arm-in-arm and they're each holding a phone. You ask them if they're talking to each other."

Now there's another issue: cell phone envy.

Roosevelt Middle School principal Morley Hegstrom fears that swanky cell phones have become a status symbol that not all students can afford.

"I hate to add to that whole stratifying of kids," Hegstrom says. "We have numerous students of low income who can't afford a cell phone ... they (can't help but) see them. The bell rings and everybody whips out their cell phones."

She's already handled one case of a sixth-grader stealing a cell phone.

With cell phones getting more bells and whistles all the time, it's hard to avoid the inevitable arms race of beeping devices. Flip phones with cameras in the $40 to $100 price range are the overwhelming favorite among teens, says Joe Tappero, 23, a salesman at Smart Wireless in Valley River Center.

"Usually they want the (mid-priced) phones," Tappero says. "They never want the cheapest phones."

For those who can afford them, sleeker phones in the $150-plus price range, such as the ultra-thin Razor phone by Motorola and the powerful Sidekick, a phone/Web browsing handheld computer, are in high demand. And there's more on the horizon as companies such as the upstart Amp'd Mobile are luring technology-obsessed teens with phones that offer high-speed Internet access, video clips and MP3s.

"When I was in high school five years ago, only a few kids had them," Tappero says. "Now it's like every kid has them."

Most schools have rules forbidding using phones in the classroom. And at North Eugene High School, most students know better than to risk a ring in class.

North's policy, which was instituted last year, calls for a warning the first time a student uses a phone in the classroom, followed by confiscation, followed by a meeting with a parent.

"Kids don't ever want to get into that third situation," Tromba says.

Diane Downey, head of the English Department at North, says controlling students' cell phone use is a simple matter of classroom management.

"It's really more of a problem for the younger kids," she says. "The younger kids all want to show off that they have cell phones and the older kids know enough to be scared that their phone is going to go off in class."

Downey says she uses humiliation and embarrassment to dissuade her students from using their phones in class. A simple "Make it stop" or "You've got to be smarter than your cell phone" usually does the trick, she says.

But it isn't always the students who are the problem.

"Their parents are driving them crazy," Downey says. "They're calling all the time."

"I've had students (try to answer their phones in class) say, 'It's my dad,' and I say, 'I don't care, you're in class.' "

When picture phones hit the market a couple of years ago, Bob Bolden, principal of Sheldon High School was concerned that they could be used as a tool to cheat on tests. So far, there are no reports of cell phone cheating at Sheldon.

However, at North a pair of students facing disciplinary action were caught text messaging each other to make sure their stories lined up.

Cell phone providers don't offer individual plans to users under 18, so parents decide to buy their teen a phone. Parents cite safety as the most common reason for buying a phone for their teen, says Nate Collins, a sales representative at Smart Wireless in the Gateway Mall.

"Parents want to be able to be in contact (with their kids)," he says.

Bolden, Sheldon's principal, understands the desire to be in touch, and he wonders how long before he buys a phone for his elementary-school-age son.

"He asked me, `When can I get a cell phone?' " Bolden says. "He will have one by the time he's in middle school because I need to be in contact with him."

Lindsay Royals, 14, a student at Monroe Middle School, got a cell phone when she was 12. She says her parents purchased the phone as a safety precaution.

"Because I rode the city bus around town, they agreed to buy it for me," says Royals who also uses her phone for text messaging friends, playing Tetris and solitaire, and downloading ringtones from Metallica, Kelly Clarkson and Ashley Simpson.

Many parents end up buying a phone for specific reasons only to see their teen using it for other purposes, says Trevor Joll, a manager at Smart Wireless in the Gateway Mall.

"A lot of (parents) say, you're only going to be using them on weekends or calling us," Joll says. "Very few kids follow that to a T."

Cameron Allen, a junior at Springfield High School, recently struck an agreement with his family after his sister's cell phone bill came in at $460. Allen agreed to pay the price of the phone plus the additional monthly service charges.

"It's just nice to (stay) in contact," said Allen's dad, Jeff. "A cell phone is a necessity, plus, we trust him."

Downey, the North Eugene English teacher, doesn't believe teenagers need cell phones. And, she says, the cell phone industry is over-selling the idea of safety.

"That is a cell phone marketing ploy that if your kid has a cell phone, he's not going to be raped and killed," Downey says. "Are you really going to get it out and call 911 (in time)."

Ben Murphy, 17, a senior at North Eugene High, is among the 46 percent of teens who don't have a cell phone. He says he has no need for a phone because he can borrow one.

"I won't conform. I could get one if I wanted, but I don't."

CAPTION(S):

Seniors Marie Madison (left), Lyndsay Marullo and Shawna Crowley talk on their phones during a break at North Eugene High.