home > news > local

Students Get Suspended for Cell Phones

Wilbur Cross High School cracks down on cell phones

By Amanda Raus

| Tuesday, Jan 12, 2010 | Updated 6:52 AM EST

View Comments ()

If Wilbur Cross students are caught with these, they end up with a suspension.

For students at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven, getting caught with a cell phone brings big trouble.

"All I did was just check my phone, see what time it was, and put it back in my pocket. And I got suspended for three days," said John Pittman, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School.

Actually, Pittman avoided suspension, but his cell phone was taken away for the rest of the school year. Other students weren't so lucky. More than 100 of them were suspended for having iPods and cell phones or wearing hats.

"I don't really understand. To suspend people for three days? I don't really understand," Pittman said.

"They started cracking down on these things because it was getting just too disruptive to the learning process. Warnings did go out prior to this. They've been warning the kids about it since September," said Michelle Wade, Director of Communications for New Haven Public Schools.

Then over winter break, the school principal sent a recorded message to all homes, saying the school was going to be enforcing its code of conduct and anyone who didn't listen would be automatically suspended.

The rules are also posted in the school for all students to see. There's also a page from the handbook that details each of the rules.

"The kids have to listen to rules. If you don't listen to rules and what's handed down, then there is a price to pay for it, and my understanding is they gave them forewarning," Jesse Pittman Jr., John Pittman's father, said.

But the students are upset, so the student council sat down with the principal to see what could be done to get some lighter punishments.

"Kind of started talking about how can we better address this. How can we make it so it doesn't get to this point?" Wade said.

"There should be warnings and then, after that, you should get detention, and then after that, get suspended if you keep doing it," said Dontae Harvin, a junior at Wilbur Cross High School.

Either way, there will be no more electronics at Wilbur Cross.

Photos and Videos

Caught Red-Handed: Students Suspended for Cell Phones