FILE:  JCDAE

Cf:  JD

STUDENT USE OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES

The Orleans Parish School Board is dedicated to providing a healthy educational environment to public school students.  The School Board recognizes that the use of cellular telephones, with their rapidly developing technological advances which now include text messaging and photography, can impair the validity of classroom assessments, violate student privacy, can possibly detonate explosive devices, hamper the efforts of administrators charged with maintaining a safe and productive school environment and severely disrupt the educational process.

No student, unless authorized by the school principal or his/her designee, shall use or operate any cellular telephone or other electronic device, including but not limited to, cameras, video tape recorder, MP players etc. and their contents, any facsimile system, radio paging service, mobile telephone service, intercom, or electro-mechanical paging system in any public elementary or secondary school building or on the grounds thereof, or on a school bus, during the academic day.

Nothing in this policy shall prohibit the use or operation of any electronic telecommunication device by any person, including students, in the event of an emergency.  An emergency means an actual or imminent threat to public health or safety which may result in loss of life, injury, or property damage.

Use or operation of an electronic telecommunication device shall mean the device is either visible, turned on or is in a mode capable of receiving or transmitting signals.

A violation of these provisions may be grounds for disciplinary action, including but not limited to, suspension and/or expulsion from school.

Ref:    La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:239, 17:416, 17:416.1

Orleans Parish School Board