Most high schools are trying to control the use of technology and have forbidden students from having cell phones or iPods on during the school day.
Barbara Walker, the principal of Pikesville High School in Baltimore County, said teachers confiscate cell phones when they catch students with them.
The parent must then come in to the school office and pick up the phone, an inconvenience most parents don't want to put up with more than once.
But Robb and Walker said it is difficult to catch students because they have become so adept at hiding the phones. "It is amazing how they can have the phone on their lap and text message while they are looking at the teacher," she said. Others are able to text with their cell phones in their pants pockets.
Walker wonders about how the technology may be changing interpersonal relationships as well. As soon as the last bell rings, she said, the cell phones come out. "A good half of them are on the phone when they pass me," she said. "You are standing in a sea of a thousand kids, but you are really isolated. You are talking to one person."
Not every student is plugged in or claims to enjoy it. At River Hill, John Linkous, a 10th-grader, said he doesn't like to text: "I can't do everything at once."
His friends joke that he is a freak.
They are so plugged-in that when they were asked if they could actually do without their gadgets for a week, they looked alarmed. "I could do it if there was money involved," Moore said.
"If I had a stack of books this high," said Russell, who held her hands two feet apart.
liz.bowie@baltsun.com
