Florida science teacher suspended for signal-jamming students’ cell phones

A Florida high school teacher was suspended without pay for five days Tuesday for deploying a signal jammer in his science class to block students from using their mobile phones.

Superintendent Kurt Browning said in a Pasco County School Board reprimand letter (PDF) to instructor Dean Liptak that he exercised "poor judgement" and "posed a serious risk to critical safety communications as well as the possibility of preventing others from making 9-1-1 calls."

Liptak was accused of jamming mobile devices from his Fivay High School classroom between March 31 and April 2. Verizon discovered the blockage on the cell tower located on campus.

The teacher said he did the deed for education's sake. According to his letter (PDF) to the district, he said he "could hit the off button if there was any type of emergency and the phone signals would instantly activate." He also said a local police officer told him before he deployed the device that "there are no state laws against using them as long as you don’t use them for malicious intent."

Link

What is the member take on this incident.

I would think the students must have been using phones a lot for him to go to this measure. In other words, socializing instead of paying attention in class.

Should he just let the students not pay attention in class, or learn on their own, and then let them either pass or fail. But then their lack of learning would also be a reflection on him in the school's eyes.

Verizon discovered the blockage on the cell tower located on campus.

A cell tower on campus, isn't that interesting.

originally posted by: roadgravel

Verizon discovered the blockage on the cell tower located on campus.

A cell tower on campus, isn't that interesting.

well, duh. teachers are totally allowed to socialize when they arent teaching class. and teachers are assumed to be fully responsible for recognizing the very thin line between "teaching" and "allowing students to access education at their own pace".

tl;dr double standards arent just a staple of parenting.

a reply to: roadgravel

Doesn't shock me a bit. Public land, tax maintained and paid for - why wouldn't massive private companies with major lobbyists and collections of Congressmen in their pockets say "Hey, how many hookers would it take to get you and your buddies to let us start tossing up rent free cell towers on public school yards? I mean what could possibly go wrong? Kids don't tend to climb things or anything like that?"

Why are we even pretending anymore? I say just let every government official wear a suit with a dollar sign printed on the back, or a list of their preferred "gifts" so that we, the People, can pool our money and buy a few as well. I mean Congressmen and judges are like the new Beanie Babies or Pokemon... you've gotta collect 'em all.

Oh and as for the teacher? Jamming cell phones has gotten several people arrested in the past few years. I know there was a local person ( might have made the national news ) who had a cell jammer in his car. His excuse was that he was protecting himself from drivers who might be texting or talking illegally on a non-hands-free phone.

The scarier implication is that if that these average people can knock out a tower on meager wages and without high tech... and land lines are nearly relics at this point... how hard would it be for our or any government to do the same on a broad scale if they wanted to suppress some heinous and vile act - like mass killings or the forced sequestration of entire cities?

i wouldn't be surprised if the school gets a payment from Verizon for tower location. Both sides win.

Are there not schools with rules about not using phones in the classroom?

Newer phones just look for the next nearest tower. Restarting the phones help older phones along with this process. Maybe he should be a computer science teacher and the children could have learned something useful and interesting at the same time.

a reply to: Hefficide

if i were a teacher and i had the available technology, i would use it. only for the area of an average class room (range can be adjusted accordingly) and the duration of a class period. and if an emergency made itself apparent, obviously i would turn the device off. i take education very seriously and i know that kids can be clever blighters when it comes to ignoring authority. disable their ability to contact the outside world for an hour and a half so they can actually learn something or pass a couple hundred idiots because im paid to?

originally posted by: roadgravel
i wouldn't be surprised if the school gets a payment from Verizon for tower location. Both sides win.

Are there not schools with rules about not using phones in the classroom?

did you follow all the rules when you were a kid?

and IF you had a cell phone (possibly with smart capabilities) would you have been taking notes or playing with it?

be honest now...

Isn't the jamming just broadcasting a stronger level on the call frequencies in the area near the phone. They therefore do not connect to any tower.

a reply to: TzarChasm

No, not in school. A place I work at times now doesn't allow phones to be used, so I don't. But that's just me having a work ethic of following the rules.

Allowing students to break rules, assuming there are rules, isn't a good lesson to teach.

originally posted by: roadgravel

A Florida high school teacher was suspended without pay for five days Tuesday for deploying a signal jammer in his science class to block students from using their mobile phones.

Superintendent Kurt Browning said in a Pasco County School Board reprimand letter (PDF) to instructor Dean Liptak that he exercised "poor judgement" and "posed a serious risk to critical safety communications as well as the possibility of preventing others from making 9-1-1 calls."

Liptak was accused of jamming mobile devices from his Fivay High School classroom between March 31 and April 2. Verizon discovered the blockage on the cell tower located on campus.

The teacher said he did the deed for education's sake. According to his letter (PDF) to the district, he said he "could hit the off button if there was any type of emergency and the phone signals would instantly activate." He also said a local police officer told him before he deployed the device that "there are no state laws against using them as long as you don’t use them for malicious intent."

Link

What is the member take on this incident.

I would think the students must have been using phones a lot for him to go to this measure. In other words, socializing instead of paying attention in class.

Should he just let the students not pay attention in class, or learn on their own, and then let them either pass or fail. But then their lack of learning would also be a reflection on him in the school's eyes.

GOOD.... FOR HIM!!!

Seriously though. I was a middle school science teacher. Despite a no cell phone in the classroom rule, I would constantly have kids distracted and messing around on their phones during class.... We would have to bust them then and either confiscate it for the day or give some other consequence, to which they would inevitably flip out.

And, as you say, now days teachers are held responsible for student learning. Basically you have to get a majority of those kids (often 80%) to learn the material well, despite a lack of interest, varying abilities, language difficulties, special ed, behavior problems, etc. So just on that note you DO have to control the classroom heavily. If you don't, you basically will not be able to meet the mandate that both the schools and parents expect out of you.

And, part of your job as a teacher is that actually legally you are the legal custodian while the child is in your classroom. The legal term is "in loco parentes," which basically means in place of the parent. Hence you not only are allowed to discipline the children but also are supposed to be controlling their behavior.

Badly behaving students also don't just affect themselves. It only takes 5-10 of them in one class to totally disrupt the entire learning process.

Superintendent Kurt Browning said in a Pasco County School Board reprimand letter (PDF) to instructor Dean Liptak that he exercised "poor judgement" and "posed a serious risk to critical safety communications as well as the possibility of preventing others from making 9-1-1 calls."

Are the conditions so bad at this school that kids need a cell phone to call 911? What happened to the people who are called adults that are responsible for making calls when a emergency happens. The teacher shouldn't have been suspended the useless superintendent should be one to get suspended.

originally posted by: roadgravel
i wouldn't be surprised if the school gets a payment from Verizon for tower location. Both sides win.

Are there not schools with rules about not using phones in the classroom?

Most schools totally have rules against it, especially K-8. When I taught 7th and 8th grade science, it was forbidden. And students still constantly whipped them out in class. It is very distracting both for them and other students. It is important to have some kind of consequence and be consistent about it.

Interesting article, the cell phone infrastructure obviously has kill switch capability built in.
Could be used for locations like court houses and class rooms that have a no cell policy.
Those situations use bailiffs, teachers and principals to deliver secure emergency messages.

Hannibal, Cornfeld, Brandt..

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: TzarChasm

No, not in school. A place I work at times now doesn't allow phones to be used, so I don't. But that's just me having a work ethic of following the rules.

Allowing students to break rules, assuming there are rules, isn't a good lesson to teach.

and sometimes, teachers are just older versions of students.

Sounds like a teacher who gives a sh#t, I would be happy to have him in our school system
Schools must of been extremely dangerous before cellphones..lol.

originally posted by: roadgravel
i wouldn't be surprised if the school gets a payment from Verizon for tower location. Both sides win.

Are there not schools with rules about not using phones in the classroom?

Where I live, there are no longer rules against cell phone use in schools. If a teacher tries to take a student's phone because they are using it in class, the teacher will get in trouble not the student. It's crazy because in my opinion, the student is only hurting themselves if they chose not to pay attention in class and instead play on their phone.

Back when I was in school cell phone use was a big no no and it got you up to three days in, in school suspension. Plus your cell phone would get taken away and your parents/guardian would have to go it.

a reply to: Rocketgirl

My bet is too many kids whining to parents about not getting to use a phone in school. Parents get tired and tell school to change the rules. Many students will lose but will not know it for years.

originally posted by: roadgravel

Should he just let the students not pay attention in class, or learn on their own, and then let them either pass or fail. But then their lack of learning would also be a reflection on him in the school's eyes.

I'm guessing 99% of his students are going to forget 99% of what they "learned" in his class by the end of the summer anyway, even without the distraction of cell phones.

Oh well, as long as they can hold onto the information long enough to "pass a test"...

a reply to: roadgravel

It is a bit extreme to use a signal jamming device. If I was a teacher today, I would do what my teacher did, rules were posted on the blackboard and if a student did not follow them they got written up and sent to the principal. The teacher should tell his students the phones are for emergency use only while in class. If they do not listen then send them down the hall!