If Governor Lamont gets his way, cell phone companies may have to program their phones to include the following message:

I’m sorry.  The owner of the number you are trying to reach is currently in class.  Please hang up and try again later.

“Lamont to Expel Phones From Class,” blared the Hartford Courant this past week, failing to accurately separate what Lamont would like to do from what he’s actually going to do.

A careful reading of the Courant's story gives the sense that Lamont will leave any policy regarding restricting cell phone use in classrooms up to individual districts.  And as far as Hartford Public Schools is concerned, unless your name is Mike Fothergill, nothing is expelled.

A follow-up Courant story discussed how some Connecticut schools are falling in line and talking up Yonder Pouches as a means to curtail classroom use of cell phones; a student puts the phone in the pouch, the pouch is locked and cannot be unlocked until the end of class.

However, Hartford Public High School's student newspaper, The Owl Report, in two seperate stories (here and here), reveals that Hartford students think the Yonder pouches are a waste of money, are garbage, are not being used and kids are creating work-arounds to avoid locking their phones up during class.

The Connecticut State Department of Education will meet on Wednesday, August 21, to finalize a "model policy" for the guv'na.

The Hartford Board of Education holds it's monthly Regular Meeting on Tuesday, August 20, a time for the public to let the district know how it feels about phones in the classroom.