It was a lost call for members of the Westby Area School Board of Education when they began discussing how to adopt a new state policy regarding cell phones and other video capable recording devices in locker rooms during its monthly meeting on Aug. 11.

The conversation left the locker room and expanded to all aspects of school grounds regarding who, what, when and where should cell phones be allowed; what to do with them if they are confiscated; who should be permitted to use them on school grounds; and at what point do you say it’s okay or enough is enough when it comes to the use of electronic devices on school grounds.

As cell phone technology advances invasion of privacy concerns are readily increasing for businesses and legislators as they work to combat the negative impact illegally recorded messages and published photographs have on employees and private individuals. The same concerns are now under review in public school systems where many students are in the possession of cell phones and have the capability to illegally photograph or record private conversations of fellow students.

On April, 4, 2007 the Wisconsin Association of School Boards passed Assembly Bill 8, requiring any person who operates a locker room in the state of Wisconsin to adopt a written policy that specifies who may enter and remain in a locker room to interview or seek information from individuals located in the locker room.

The policy also must outline what recording devices, if any, and under what circumstances those devices can be used in a locker room. It must clearly state that no person may use a cell phone to capture, record or transfer a representation of a partially nude person in the locker room and in such action must reflect the privacy of those individuals. The policy is designed to protect students under the age or 18.

Westby administration developed and presented a makeshift policy to the board last week, but after reviewing the policy board members and administration, questioned the verbiage and suggested reformating the policy to more clearly state the provisions before the October 1 implementation deadline.

The original policy would not have allowed anyone, including administration, coaches or the district athletic director from entering the locker room to interview or seek information from students while they were in the locker room. Administrator Mike Murphy and school board representatives Dennis Havlik and Bob Kerska, both felt changing the verbiage to allowing authorized personnel inside the locker room would better serve the district.

Havlik and Kerska both threw up red flags regarding the cell phone verbiage in the policy as it pertains to use of the devices in the locker room. Kerska leaned toward not allowing cell phones in the locker room at all, while Havlik felt the verbiage restricting any cameras and recording devices from any locker room setting should include cell phones, which are capable of both.

Although the following statement in the proposed policy specified cell phones restrictions, Havlik felt the preceding verbiage needed revisions to reduce any confusion down the line in the event an unusual circumstance arose.

The conversation split as administration discussed current concerns they deal with on a daily basis with students who fail to place their cell phones in their hall lockers and continue to carry the devices into classroom settings. High School Principal Ken Manning informed the board that administration will be cracking down on cell phones violations this year, but insisted that policing all the students who carry a cell phone would be difficult, if not impossible, to say the least.

According to current school policy students with cell phones, electronic pagers or any other two-way communication devices must not have them on their possession during school hours and the devices must be shut off and stored in their lockers.

The devices may be used before and after school and during the lunch hour, outside of the school district buildings. Anyone caught in violation of this policy may have the device confiscated and not returned to them until the end of the current school week and all confiscated devices are held by administration for a minimum of two days.

The new locker room policy will be added to the current electronic device policy already in place in the district. Prior to the September 8 monthly meeting, the school board will receive a revised version of the locker room policy from administration to review and approve before the mandatory October 1 deadline.

The school board will hold its annual meeting on August 25 at 8 p.m. in the high school cafeteria. The budget will be approved during the annual meeting.