When schools crack down on electronics

I just received the email newsletter from Grace's middle school. Front and center is the following announcement:

Cell Phone, I-Pods, etc. 

Please note that Cell Phones, I-Pods, MP3 players, any other electronic devices are not permitted for student use at any point during the school day. If these items are seen or heard during school hours, they will be confiscated and a parent will have to pick up the device from your child’s house office.

Note that the school district has a very strict policy already. It is explicitly detailed in the district handbook for students and for parents. Why are teachers not confiscating these items already? Is there ever a circumstance in which the presence and use of an iPod (or cell phone or MP3 player or digital camera or gameboy or fill-in-your-electronic-device-of-choice-here) is justifiable in a school setting? I guess I'm taking the perspective of the teacher on this one. There is nothing more annoying than someone's cell phone going off during a lecture. And there is nothing more rampant in university settings than "creative" new ways to cheap during examinations. I can't believe that the use of electronics for cheating begins at the college level.

My understanding on the ban of cell phones in public schools was that it was originally put in place to prevent drug deals going down on the school premises. But now cell phones could be used for anything from covertly cheating by sending text messages to voyeuristic photography in the ladies room to remotely setting off bombs. I won't waste my space here, but we need only use of imagination to think of the ills of other electronics in the school settings. Nintendo DS's create their own network within a local range.

I check and find out whether my kid is bringing electronics to school. She told me two days ago she is bringing the iPod to school in order to listen to it on her walk to and from school. After receiving this newsletter from the school, I reminded her that she should not let the iPod be seen during school hours. Do other parents do this? Do they understand the necessity of limiting the presence of distracting electronics at school? Or do they just think the school is over-reacting? I'm so sick of unnecessary electronics in educational settings. . .