Can you hear me now?

Today was going along swimmingly until the bell for 6th period rang and a student waltzed into my room chatting on his cell phone. This is a bit unbelievable for two reasons:

1. Cell phones are not to be turned on during school hours and 2. he was not hiding it or trying to to hide it, he was acting as if this was normal behavior.

I told him to hang up and give me the phone. he tried to tell me some sob story about how he was talking to his mother who was at the hospital because his aunt had just given birth. He added that he had seen Mr. Martinez (assistant principal) downstairs who had given permission for the phone call. While the story about the birth may be true it has n bearing on the cell phone use policy. I told home to go find Mr. Martinez and get a note verifying the permission. He then told me that Mr. Martinez was on his way off campus when he saw him and was long gone by now. I responded with "sit down".

About 15 minutes later I was helping some students with the assignment which was peer editing their first "big" paper of the year. I noticed some abnormal behavior across the room and while it is not unusual for me to have abnormal behavior in the class I do have to investigate. I headed across the room to the circle of bowed heads and hushed voices to find a student text messaging. Yep. Second offender in 15 minutes. I was a little angry.

My normal policy is to take the phone until the end of class and give a warning for the first timers but not today, I told them to take it up with the deans office. Unfortunately for them the first deans office employee I came across was Mr. Edelman "the mean dean" who is also a part time social studies teacher and knows these two students well.

I saw Mr. Martinez after school and mentioned the "permission" and his sudden exit from campus. We had a good laugh over it and there will be detention given for lying. My students learn quickly that lying is a big offense in Ms. Knapp's room. I guess I learned that quick from my best teacher too.