By IRENE FEHER

The School Site Council (SSC) voted to keep the ban on electronic device usage during nutrition and lunch at their meeting on April 29.

“It was very clear that the devices were only to be used during nutrition and lunch,” Principal Deb Smith said in the SSC meeting, “I also made very clear the responsibilities of the devices and the con- sequences of not using it properly.”

Three Twitter pages were created using the school’s name that posted derogatory and racist comments about the students and staff of Daniel Pearl Magnet High School. A faculty member was used a the profile picture, something misleading on a page that included profanity and pornography.

The pages were quickly deactivated ,once reported to the administrators. The principal and staff are still investigating who created the hurtful Twitter pages.

“I located many students who were following the pages and interviewed them about it,” Smith said, “But I had a hard time finding out who was behind it.”

English teacher Paul Viskanta mentioned that better education of digital responsibility would’ve prevented this issue from happening.

“I understand the devices are a big part of the culture for the younger generation,” Viskanta said in front of the council, “So, we should take the opportunity to teach electronic responsibility to the students to prevent the misuse of them.”

One of the biggest issues brought upon the removal of cell phone use is that the newspaper and yearbook students can’t use them to report any events during school hours to social media.

Student body Vice President Waldir Henriquez argued the perks of using electronics during school hours.

“By having the cell phones, students are able to do their homework when they don’t have the time at home,” Henriquez said. “Also, there aren’t always enough computers for all the students to work on and the computer lab isn’t always open.”

School administrative assistant Diane Seiger, however, argued that students don’t always use their electronics for home- work or any schoolwork. Viskanta also had a problem seeing students charge their phones and hearing explicit music in the hallways.

“Students can do their homework on paper and from their textbooks,” Seiger said.

English teacher JaYoung Kim mentioned at the meeting that the school gave the students a privilege to use cell phones rather than a punishment of the electronics being banned.

“We’re trying to protect our community to those rude comments and we’re looking after their own safety,” Kim said.

Smith and Kim said that they can’t be responsible for every student’s digital safety with their electronics and supervise what they do.

“I can’t monitor social media for 450 students and the school is responsible if something is done during school hours,” Smith said in front of the council. “I need parents to take charge and learn how to monitor what’s on their child’s phone.”

To better prevent the misuse of the electronics, SSC members recommended the students to be part of a committee. This committee will promote better awareness and digital safety that will make the cell phone policy more thorough.

“The policy revision doesn’t come in one night,” parent Jill Spector said. “It has to be a program for a committee to come up with a plan to have this policy better in Millions wasted with discarded place.”