NEW WILMINGTON, Pa.-- While Pennsylvania lawmakers are busy wrestling with proposed legislation that would ban texting while driving, texting has become a primary communication for many young people. Lawmakers may focus attention on texting and driving, but what about reading and sending texts in other settings? Is it okay to text in class?
At Westminster College, there are no formal rules on cell phones and texting in classes. Walk around the Tub and you can quickly see students typing away at their cell phone keys. Texting is clearly an integral part of communication for many on our campus.
Many students will admit texting is going on in the classroom. Some say it happens all the time. A few admit they are texting in class, but there are others who characterize it as rude behavior. Many instructors say texting interrupts class and distracts the learning process.
When San Francisco-based Common Sense Media carried out a survey last year on cell phones and text messaging in schools, it discovered 65 percent of students use cell phones at school despite clear bans on them.
The survey also many are using phones to text and a quarter of the text messages a teenager sends in a week - 110 - are sent during class. In New Hampshire, one school district suspended more than 100 students as teachers and administrators crackdown on cell phones and texting.
Wilbur Cross High School kicked the students out of school for three days this month for violating the district's ban on cell phones.
WCN's Lee Biermeyer took our camera out to talk to Westminster students, faculty and administrators to get a sense of how the texting and cell phone conflict is playing out on our campus.
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