The Kansas CW | School Bans Hooded Sweatshirts To Corral Cell Phone Use

School Bans Hooded Sweatshirts To Corral Cell Phone Use

(ANDALE, Kan.)

Technology makes our life easier -- and you see a lot of it in schools. It may be laptops or smart boards in the classroom -- or it could be a cell phone for emergencies.

But now that technology -- specifically a cell phone -- is forcing some schools to rethink their dress code.

Kyle Finney described the sweathshirts Andale Elementary students can wear. "Um, the ones that we can wear are -- they have no pocket in the front, and no hood."

Hoodies - specifically, the ones with a big "kangaroo pouch" pocket in the front of the sweatshirt, are not allowed at St. Mark's Charter School or Andale Elementary.

"The reason we can't have those anymore," continued Finney, "is because of our text messaging during class."

The seventh grader demonstrated how students would sneak the cell phones (which are off-limits during school hours) in class.

"We had them in our pockets and they'd vibrated. So then we'd take it out and bring it to the side and type, and we could memorize our keyboards, because most of us have full keyboards."

Sixth grader Kayleigh Clement started text messaging her friends as soon as she got off school grounds Thursday. But she said she wouldn't do it during school. "Kids shouldn't be that stupid to text during school," she said.

"If you text during school, you're going to not understand what the teacher was talking about." She continued, "then you might flunk the class because you were text messaging."

Parents say they can't believe the school had to outlaw an article of clothing.

Jennifer Kraus's son is a first grader, who doesn't have a cell phone. But he is not allowed to wear a hoodie either. "I think it's kind of stupid, but you've got to keep the distractions out of school."

The Renwick School district does not ban hoodies, but allows individual schools to create their own policies.

Two schools in the Renwick School District ban hoodies -- Andale Elementary and St. Mark's Charter School.

But Colwich Elementary allows hoodies - provided the offending pockets are sewn shut, so students can't hide their phones in them.

The schools also say hoodies were a health problem; students would go days without washing them and the school didn't want any more germs to spread this flu season.

Renwick schools already ban cell phones while school is in session.

Eyewitness News contacted other school districts, who say they do ban cell phones during the school day, but have not banned any clothing used to conceal cell phones.