SEATTLE—
With the school year fast approaching, it may be time to teach your kids a lesson to stop texting in class. A new study out shows a surprising number of high schoolers are doing just that, and getting away with it.The study comes from the creators of the free texting app Textplus, and the results show 43% of high school age kids are texting in class. The bigger shock, though? Four out of five say they've never gotten in trouble for it. Texting has turned into a big discipline issue for schools, but some experts say it doesn't have to be.
Even during the ups and downs of summer vacation, Maple Valley High School senior-to-be Darol Findley knows one thing for sure: this fall, in his classes, the kids will be texting. Findley says, "Everybody texts in class. Teacher gets mad and stuff like that, and always takes phones away." But teachers aren't grabbing all the phones. In the new survey from Textplus, 22% of the kids said they texted answers to friends called on by the teacher. Only 26% said they thought texting in class was wrong.
Textplus' Drew Olanoff says about today's teens, "Understand and accept that they're going to text. It's what they do." Olanoff does not condone cheating. He simply says students are hardwired to text, and it runs in the family. Two out three kids surveyed said their parents texted them during the school day.
Seattle school officials tell Q13 FOX News that anti-texting rules are a challenge, and very hard to enforce in class. Generally, a teacher will take a mobile device away if its used in class, but each school has its own policy on texting. Olanoff says, "We've seen some schools embrace it, by using it as a communication tool." He says schools are learning how to use texting with students, to send alerts about upcoming tests or assignments, for example. But even the experts admit it's a fine line between better communication and over-communication. Olanoff says, "My best advice to a school is, understand exactly why a kid would want to text back and forth and see if you can tap into that. Or see what you need to do to make sure it's not a distraction."
The Textplus study shows that 17% of kids text in class constantly, and 52% say they're texting with students in the same classroom. For more information about Textplus and this study, follow this link.
