Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
Coral Springs student caught with cell phone gets suspended from FCAT
Ebony Jones had big hopes she would pass the FCAT this week and, come graduation day, hold her head high as she received her high school diploma.
But now, the 18-year-old Coral Springs High senior will have to settle for the lesser certificate of completion. Not because she failed the test, but because she was caught Wednesday with her cellular phone during a bathroom break before the high-stakes exam. She says she was only turning it off because she was worried it wo
ld ring in the middle of class and get her in trouble.
"It's not fair. I don't cheat on tests. I had let my friend use my phone and I had forgot I left it on," Jones said
Thu
rsday. "I need my high school diploma to start my career. I
want to go to [community college] and study nursing."
Officials say they have no choice but to invalidate Jones' test -- regardless of her intentions -- because of increased concerns about cheating and tightened security measures this year. This is the first year that students in Broward County public middle and high schools have been allowed to have cellular phones on campus, but they are supposed to stay turned off and out of sight.
Jones' case is not isolated. A girl at Piper High School also had her test voided Wednesday when, in the middle of the exam, she used her cell phone when a bomb threat was called in.
"They were told [cellular phones] were not to be out during the school day and, u
nfortunately, students decided to flaunt the rules," said district spokesman Joe Donzelli. "You could be sharing an answer, you could be calling a friend for an answer. We're not sayin
g anyone was
doing that, but you have to guard against it. The repercussion is swift and harsh."
Too ha
rsh, says Ebony's mother, Beverly Walls, who had been paying a private tutor $40 an hour, three days a week for five weeks, to help her daughter pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Ebony had failed it twice before and this was her last chance to earn her diploma on time. Ebony will be allowed to retake the invalidated section, according to school district officials, but not until June, which is after graduation.
"My mind has accepted what they've said, but my heart didn't," Beverly Walls said. "She's got all her credits. She got her senior pictures. She was looking forward to the prom. It takes all the joy out of graduation. A cell p
hone is going to claim her future."
Donzelli said educators are only trying to protect the rest of a school's students from one teen's mistake.
"If you don't, it
may come back and in
validate other tests," he said.
The state put Florida schools on high alert this year about the photo-taking, text-messaging capability of cellular
phones, as well as other cheating concerns. In the past year alone, there have been at least four cases of alleged test tampering in Broward. Allegations have caused whole classrooms and even whole school's scores to be invalidated. So far, they are all incidents in which teachers -- not students -- are accused of wrongdoing.
Donzelli said there would be no cheating investigation for either student whose scores were thrown out for using a phone. Even if officials wanted to, he said, it would be impossible to prove.
Jones countered that even if she had wanted to cheat, she couldn't have because she doesn
9;t have text messaging, and her phone doesn't get service in closed-in areas like bathrooms. She says she offered to hand over her phone for administrators to look at her history of calls,
but they weren't interes
ted.
If cellular phones were such a concern, the mother wishes the school district would have warned parents about the extreme consequences or banned them altogether
.
"Why didn't they send fliers home? If I knew this was going to be the case, I would never have allowed her to bring it at all," Walls said.
In fact, when school board members struggled with whether to allow cellular phones on campuses this year, cheating was one of several concerns expressed. Board member Beverly Gallagher said Thursday these newest cases would likely add flame to the fire during next year's debate.
"I'm sure someone is going to call for us to change it again," she said. "I've heard from some teachers and some principals that it's b
een really horrible. The kids text message each other and there's more discipline involved. But the vocal opinion [in support of phones] from parents hasn't changed."
In Palm Beach County, officials say
they haven't had any problems with cellular phones this FCAT season, even though their policy is similar to Broward's.
Other schools and universities across the country, however, are. In one case last fall, several Univers
ity of Maryland students admitted to using cellular phones to cheat on an accounting exam by having a friend text-message the answers to the test. A New Mexico State University professor also failed nine students for using text messaging to cheat on exams in October and November.
*********
n-ggers don't belong in schools, they belong in jails and prisons.
T.N.B.
Ebony Jones had big hopes she would pass the FCAT this week and, come graduation day, hold her head high as she received her high school diploma.
But now, the 18-year-old Coral Springs High senior will have to settle for the lesser certificate of completion. Not because she failed the test, but because she was caught Wednesday with her cellular phone during a bathroom break before the high-stakes exam. She says she was only turning it off because she was worried it wo
ld ring in the middle of class and get her in trouble.
"It's not fair. I don't cheat on tests. I had let my friend use my phone and I had forgot I left it on," Jones said
Thu
rsday. "I need my high school diploma to start my career. I
want to go to [community college] and study nursing."
Officials say they have no choice but to invalidate Jones' test -- regardless of her intentions -- because of increased concerns about cheating and tightened security measures this year. This is the first year that students in Broward County public middle and high schools have been allowed to have cellular phones on campus, but they are supposed to stay turned off and out of sight.
Jones' case is not isolated. A girl at Piper High School also had her test voided Wednesday when, in the middle of the exam, she used her cell phone when a bomb threat was called in.
"They were told [cellular phones] were not to be out during the school day and, u
nfortunately, students decided to flaunt the rules," said district spokesman Joe Donzelli. "You could be sharing an answer, you could be calling a friend for an answer. We're not sayin
g anyone was
doing that, but you have to guard against it. The repercussion is swift and harsh."
Too ha
rsh, says Ebony's mother, Beverly Walls, who had been paying a private tutor $40 an hour, three days a week for five weeks, to help her daughter pass the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Ebony had failed it twice before and this was her last chance to earn her diploma on time. Ebony will be allowed to retake the invalidated section, according to school district officials, but not until June, which is after graduation.
"My mind has accepted what they've said, but my heart didn't," Beverly Walls said. "She's got all her credits. She got her senior pictures. She was looking forward to the prom. It takes all the joy out of graduation. A cell p
hone is going to claim her future."
Donzelli said educators are only trying to protect the rest of a school's students from one teen's mistake.
"If you don't, it
may come back and in
validate other tests," he said.
The state put Florida schools on high alert this year about the photo-taking, text-messaging capability of cellular
phones, as well as other cheating concerns. In the past year alone, there have been at least four cases of alleged test tampering in Broward. Allegations have caused whole classrooms and even whole school's scores to be invalidated. So far, they are all incidents in which teachers -- not students -- are accused of wrongdoing.
Donzelli said there would be no cheating investigation for either student whose scores were thrown out for using a phone. Even if officials wanted to, he said, it would be impossible to prove.
Jones countered that even if she had wanted to cheat, she couldn't have because she doesn
9;t have text messaging, and her phone doesn't get service in closed-in areas like bathrooms. She says she offered to hand over her phone for administrators to look at her history of calls,
but they weren't interes
ted.
If cellular phones were such a concern, the mother wishes the school district would have warned parents about the extreme consequences or banned them altogether
.
"Why didn't they send fliers home? If I knew this was going to be the case, I would never have allowed her to bring it at all," Walls said.
In fact, when school board members struggled with whether to allow cellular phones on campuses this year, cheating was one of several concerns expressed. Board member Beverly Gallagher said Thursday these newest cases would likely add flame to the fire during next year's debate.
"I'm sure someone is going to call for us to change it again," she said. "I've heard from some teachers and some principals that it's b
een really horrible. The kids text message each other and there's more discipline involved. But the vocal opinion [in support of phones] from parents hasn't changed."
In Palm Beach County, officials say
they haven't had any problems with cellular phones this FCAT season, even though their policy is similar to Broward's.
Other schools and universities across the country, however, are. In one case last fall, several Univers
ity of Maryland students admitted to using cellular phones to cheat on an accounting exam by having a friend text-message the answers to the test. A New Mexico State University professor also failed nine students for using text messaging to cheat on exams in October and November.
*********
n-ggers don't belong in schools, they belong in jails and prisons.
T.N.B.