Getting in Gear...But is the Gear Allowed?

Parents: As you help your kids gear up for school, you may want to check if their gear is actually allowed in school.

From high schools to colleges, administrators and teachers are banning cell phones and laptops in the classroom. The overt and covert use of phones seems to be more of an issue in high schools, while many college professors, weary of web-surfing students who hide behind PC screens, are nixing the use of laptops in classrooms. A few examples:

• New York City schools have banned cell phones after the installation of metal detectors led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 phones the first month. Parents are as angry as the students; a group of parents has filed suit claiming the citywide ban is unconstitutional. Cell phones proliferated among kids after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and parents want to be able to contact their kids in case of an emergency. Mayor Michael Bloomberg appears as immovable as ever on this one.

• In Allentown, Pa., school officials have not banned phones, but they have shortened a three-strikes-and-out policy to one strike. So the first time a student is caught with a cell phone outside her locker, the phone will be confiscated and not returned until the end of the school year.

• Harvard law professors are considering a faculty vote to ban laptops or Internet use in the fall. The Boston Globe reports that Bentley College in Waltham installed software last year that gives professors the power to block wireless Internet access during classes. Babson College in Wellesley is considering doing the same.

• Last semester, a University of Memphis law professor told her students to bing pens and paper to class to take their notes. No laptops. She was concerned the students were solely focused on transcribing her every word, and not thinking, analyzing, and during class, according to this Associated Press story.

Clearly, we're in transition. In my children's elementary school, penmanship is no longer a priority because educators believe today's students will be tapping all their words on keyboards, large and small. So teachers will need to adapt to a growing dependence on technology in the classroom, while students need to learn not to abuse a good thing.

Have your kids faced phone or laptop bans in schools? If they do this year, how do you think you'd respond?