Cell phones and instructors

I’m hav­ing trou­ble deter­min­ing the weird­est part of this story.

1. Les Meade, a county judge who was teach­ing a Pur­due busi­ness law class, con­fis­cated a student’s cell phone because it rang dur­ing a course lec­ture in April. The stu­dent should have seen this com­ing. The judge has a “no hat” and “no cell phone” pol­icy in his class­room, after all.
2. The stu­dent decided to call 911 after Judge Meade said he’d give the phone to the dean the next morn­ing. The stu­dent over­re­acted and refused to acknowl­edge his error, even as his phone kept ring­ing in the judge’s pocket dur­ing class.
3. Police offi­cers told the judge he’d be charged with theft if he kept the phone overnight. That makes sense to me. The stu­dent esca­lated the sit­u­a­tion, and it was now out of the judge’s hands.
4. Dean Richard Cosier showed up at the class­room to resolve the dis­pute before class ended. The phone was returned to the stu­dent, after the dean deliv­ered a quick lec­ture about class­room courtesy.
5. A spe­cial pros­e­cu­tor was named to resolve the case.
6. The spe­cial prosecutor’s phone rang after he deliv­ered his one-page report in Judge Meade’s court­room on May 26.

Since this inci­dent, man­age­ment instruc­tors at Pur­due have been told to con­fis­cate cell phones if the devices dis­turb their class­rooms. Surely there are more press­ing mat­ters to occupy the dean’s time than this tri­fling inci­dent, espe­cially after the mas­sacre at Vir­ginia Tech. It seems the only thing at stake was a county judge’s inflamed ego.

Most stu­dents at US uni­ver­si­ties under­stand that turn­ing their cell phone off is a good idea in a crowded class­room. I’ve only seen one of my stu­dents leave a room to take a call when their phone rang. In every other case, the stu­dent shut off the ringer with­out leav­ing the classroom.

Tagged as: mobile, university, USA