FILE:  JCDAE

Cf:  JD

STUDENT USE OF ELECTRONIC TELECOMMUNICATION DEVICES

The Lafayette 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, photography, and other features, can impair the validity of classroom assessments, violate student privacy, 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 telecommunication device, including but not limited to, any facsimile system, radio paging service, mobile telephone service, intercom, electro-mechanical paging system, cameras, video tape recorders, MP3 players, etc., in any public elementary or secondary school building or on the grounds thereof, or on a school bus, during the regular instructional day.

No student shall possess, on his/her person, an electronic telecommunication device throughout the instructional day. If a student brings an electronic telecommunication device in any public elementary or secondary school building or on the grounds thereof during an instructional day, the electronic device shall either be turned off and properly stowed away (not on display) for the duration of the instructional day or prohibited from being turned on and used during the instructional day. The device must be in a lunch bag, backpack, purse, or athletic bag and not on the student’s person. Electronic telecommunication devices shall include, but not be limited to, cellular telephones, personal computers, laptops, electronic instruments, iPads, iPods, tablet devices, e-readers, smart watches, as well as similar devices that can transmit data or information. Students in violation of this policy shall be disciplined according to the Lafayette Parish School System’s Student/Parent Handbook.

These provisions shall not be applicable to a student whose Individualized Education Program, Individualized Accommodation Plan, Section 504 plan, or Individualized Health Plan requires the student's use of an electronic telecommunication device.

Unless authorized by the school principal or his/her designee, any cellular telephones and/or other electronic telecommunication device in use or operation during the regular academic day shall be confiscated by a faculty or staff member at the time of the infraction.  A student’s refusal to relinquish the device shall result in the student being recommended for long term suspension.  The confiscated device will be held in the principal’s office, and the student’s parents or guardian will be contacted.  Parents will be allowed to retrieve the device before, or at the end of the regular academic day.  When a student’s device is confiscated pursuant to this policy, he/she will be disciplined in accordance with the Lafayette Parish School System’s Student/Parent Handbook. Confiscated devices may be retrieved at times established by the school principal.

Nothing in this policy shall prohibit the use or operation by any person, including students, of any cellular telephone or other electronic telecommunication device in the event of an emergency.

As used in this policy, the terms below shall be defined as follows:

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 a cellular telephone or other electronic telecommunication device means the device is being held by a student, or is turned on, makes an audible sound, or is in a mode capable of receiving or transmitting signals.

The regular instructional day shall begin at the time students arrive on campus prior to the take-in bell and conclude upon the dismissal bell at the end of the day.

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

Board minutes, 7-20-11, 1-18-12, 10-7-15, 1-11-17, 5-16-17, 4-10-24, 7-19-24, 7-31-24

Lafayette Parish School Board