Most principals tolerate them as long as they don't ring

ALBANY - Periwinkle Elementary School in Albany used to have a simple policy, as far as Principal Tim Smith was concerned: Leave your bells and whistles at home.

But that was back in the ancient days of Nintendo games and Sony Walkmen, before cell phones hit the scene.

"We've had a longstanding expectation here that kids don't bring electronic devices, but it usually applied to toys," he said.

Cell phones have become the hot accessory for the Barbie-and-Spiderman set, leaving schools to find a balance between parent safety concerns and the need to keep classrooms ringtone-free.

Companies are pushing the "cool" factor to kids - Mattel has a Barbie-brand mobile, "My Scene," for example - and the "safe" factor to parents, like the GPS-chipped "Wherifone."

In 2005, a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey found 45 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 had their own cell phones. That same year, the national coalition known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood estimated some 190,000 children under the age of 10 carried cell phones and said the number was expected to have doubled by now.

Most mid-valley high schools dealt with cell phones long ago, with policies that allow them in the building as long as they aren't turned on during class.

Smith and his fellow elementary principals now find themselves shaping similar policies, also along the lines of don't ask, don't tell.

"We know there's a justifiable reason for safety that parents might want to send a kid" with a cell phone, Smith said. "As long as it doesn't come out at school, doesn't ring here, I'm not gonna have a beef with that."

Mid-valley elementary principals at nine other schools contacted by the Democrat-Herald said they follow the same practice.

At Green Acres Elementary School in Lebanon, Principal Kevin Bogatin takes that one step farther by asking arriving students to check their phones at the office. They can have them back at the end of the day.

"My view is if a parent needs to get hold of their kids at an elementary school, they can easily contact us," Bogatin said. "I don't need kids text-messaging across the building."

One of the phone-carriers at Green Acres is Avery Freeman, 10, a fifth-grader who inheirited his 12-year-old brother's mobile when the brother, Dylan, got a new one.

"I just get to call my parents when I need to and stuff," he said, adding that he uses the phone only a few times a day.

The Green Acres policy is a good one, he added. "So like if it's in my backpack, it doesn't get stolen or anything."

Avery's father, Ryan Freeman, said the family first purchased a phone for Dylan when he was 10 and now felt both boys should have one.

Both parents work in Corvallis, Ryan said, and it's cheaper to stay in touch with cell phones than with a long-distance land line.

Avery's is "just a basic phone, no pictures or anything," his father said. However, he added, "If he gets in a dangerous situation, he's got a resource right there."

Cell phones have been highlighted as a safety tool in recent news stories.

Students in the September shooting in Bailey, Colo., used phones to keep in touch with parents during the standoff. In South Carolina, a 14-year-old kidnap victim sent a text message to her mother that helped lead to her rescue.

Bogatin said he generally sees phones among fourth- and fifth-graders, about the age some of his students start to walk to school by themselves, he said.

Most principals said they're seeing perhaps a dozen phones at school so far, but they're expecting the number to grow as advertising takes hold.

"The phones have games in them - everyone wants one," said Mike Aman, principal of Hawthorne Elementary School in Sweet Home. "If I was a kid, I'd want one."