As more kids these days start getting their own smartphones, safe to say that being distracted in class has been taken to whole new levels. The more traditional ways of curbing this behavior would be to confiscate the device and return it to the students at the end of the day. Alternatively you could ask nicely and hope the students can empathize with you, or you could always signal jam their phone which is what a teacher from Florida did.Instead of adopting more traditional routes when it comes to getting kids to stop playing with their phones, Dean Liptak decided to employ the use of signal jammers. Liptak claims that this was done for educational purposes as he wanted students to focus. He goes to claim that a local police officer told him that it was not illegal as long as there was no malicious intent behind his actions.
In a letter Liptak sent to the school district defending his actions, “My intent for using the device was to keep students academically focused on schoolwork. It is counter productive to stop instruction and lose academic focus when I have to tell a student to put his or her cell phone away. It is also unproductive to confiscate a cell phone, put it in the school-approved box and keep it until the end of the period.”
This isn’t the first time that cellphone jammers have been used to curb bad behavior, such as driving and texting, but it does not make it right either. The FCC states that “federal law prohibits the operation, marketing, or sale of any type of jamming equipment.” Liptak has since been suspended from his job for five days without pay.