Schools concerned about camera phones

Schools  have been advised to incorporate rules on the use of mobile camera phones into their behaviour policy.

The move follows concern about the use of the phones to take photographs secretly of teachers and fellow pupils.

The camera phones have already been banned in some schools, gyms, restaurants and night-clubs, and the superintendent of the Houses of the Oireachtas has also expressed concern that the phones could impinge on the privacy of TDs and senators.

The principal of Newbridge College in Co Kildare, Mr Patrick O'Mahony, called yesterday on the Department of Education to sit down with the schools' management representatives and the unions to formulate "a unified approach" on the issue.

However, a spokeswoman said the Department would not be issuing guidelines on this matter. "It's a matter for individual schools."

The ASTI advised schools to incorporate rules guiding the use of camera phones into their behaviour policy.

A TUI spokeswoman said the union would have "huge concerns" about the inappropriate use of these phones. Teachers were concerned about the invasion of privacy for students, as well as themselves. "The vast majority of schools ban the use of mobile phones during school hours anyway and we would support this."

Camera phones, retailing at about €400, were launched here in October, but their presence in schools has become much more noticeable since Christmas.

"Inappropriate use" of the new phones will result in confiscation and perhaps suspension at St Mary's College in Rathmines, Dublin. The principal, Mr Clive Byrne, said "inappropriate use" included the taking of photographs in classrooms.

Belvedere College in Dublin has introduced a new rule banning the use of photo and video equipment, including camera phones, in areas such as the swimming pool and dressing rooms, without prior consent of management.

The principal, Father Leonard Moloney, said he would also be writing to parents to discourage the use of camera phones at school. While mobile phones were necessary, the camera phones were unnecessary and a security risk, he said.

A camera phone has already been confiscated at Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, Co Dublin after a pupil took a photograph of a teacher. Newpark principal, Mr Derek West, said the rules forbidding the use of mobile phones also applied to the new camera phones.

Christ the King Girls' School in Cork bans all mobile phones. If a pupil is caught with a phone, it is confiscated and returned only after a parent calls to the school.