Wired kindergartners!
Cell phone use by tots on rise
By Laura Crimaldi and Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, March 25, 2010
IT'S FOR YOU: Elizabeth Lopez of Haverhill says she's debating whether to buy a cell phone for her 6-year-old daughter, who is a kindergartner at Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School. (Photo by Patrick Whittemore)By Laura Crimaldi and Marie Szaniszlo
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Cell phones - the scourge of high school classrooms and corridors - are falling into the hands of grade school tots who are showing up for class with a phone to call home as early as kindergarten, school officials said.
“Cell phones are a problem for all grades,” Haverhill High School Principal Bernie Nangle said, adding that a colleague described seeing kindergarteners with cell phones at her elementary school.
Elementary school students in Boston are bringing cell phones to class to contact their parents after dismissal or check in on their walk home, said school spokesman Matthew F. Wilder.
Wilder said cell phones must be kept under wraps during school because they are a distraction.
“When a student comes to school they should be focused on what’s happening in the classroom and not necessarily a game on their cell phone or a conversation they’re having via text message with a friend,” Wilder said.
He added cell phone use “hasn’t risen to a districtwide problem” and punishment for offenders is handed out at the school level.
In Lynn, Robert L. Ford School Principal Claire Crane said a teacher caught a fourth-grader texting during a reading lesson, but she described that incident as an exception at her grade school.
“Parents are using good judgment with the little kids,” said Crane, who added she has seen children as young as third grade with phones.
Crane said when Ford included middle school grades, she routinely confiscated cell phones from students who broke the rules.
“I had a closet full of cell phones,” she said.
Elizabeth Lopez of Haverhill said she’s considering buying her 6-year-old kindergartner a phone with access restricted to select numbers.
“She’s been asking for one,” said Lopez, whose daughter attends the Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School. “She sees her older cousins with cell phones, and she wants one, too.”
But other parents are steadfastly resisting the pressure to buy their children cell phones simply because their friends have them.
“Definitely no,” said Rosaline Berroa of Haverhill when asked whether she has bought one for her 5-year-old kindergartner.
“I have a 10-year-old nephew, and he’s asking my sister for a cell phone because all his friends have one,” Berroa said. “Mine won’t get one until they’re teenagers.”
“Cell phones are a problem for all grades,” Haverhill High School Principal Bernie Nangle said, adding that a colleague described seeing kindergarteners with cell phones at her elementary school.
Elementary school students in Boston are bringing cell phones to class to contact their parents after dismissal or check in on their walk home, said school spokesman Matthew F. Wilder.
Wilder said cell phones must be kept under wraps during school because they are a distraction.
“When a student comes to school they should be focused on what’s happening in the classroom and not necessarily a game on their cell phone or a conversation they’re having via text message with a friend,” Wilder said.
He added cell phone use “hasn’t risen to a districtwide problem” and punishment for offenders is handed out at the school level.
In Lynn, Robert L. Ford School Principal Claire Crane said a teacher caught a fourth-grader texting during a reading lesson, but she described that incident as an exception at her grade school.
“Parents are using good judgment with the little kids,” said Crane, who added she has seen children as young as third grade with phones.
Crane said when Ford included middle school grades, she routinely confiscated cell phones from students who broke the rules.
“I had a closet full of cell phones,” she said.
Elizabeth Lopez of Haverhill said she’s considering buying her 6-year-old kindergartner a phone with access restricted to select numbers.
“She’s been asking for one,” said Lopez, whose daughter attends the Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School. “She sees her older cousins with cell phones, and she wants one, too.”
But other parents are steadfastly resisting the pressure to buy their children cell phones simply because their friends have them.
“Definitely no,” said Rosaline Berroa of Haverhill when asked whether she has bought one for her 5-year-old kindergartner.
“I have a 10-year-old nephew, and he’s asking my sister for a cell phone because all his friends have one,” Berroa said. “Mine won’t get one until they’re teenagers.”
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 9:08 AM
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