Police will not ticket Wisconsin students for using cellphones in class

By Emily Pofahl

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    MUKWONAGO, Wisconsin (WISN) — Mukwonago police will not be ticketing students for using cellphones in school.

The Mukwonago village board voted Wednesday to table the proposal from the district “indefinitely” after backlash from parents.

The Mukwonago School District implemented an all-out ban on the devices this school year. Students are allowed to bring them but can’t use the devices during the school day. Mukwonago Schools Superintendent Joe Koch told the board in a November meeting that since the ban was implemented this year, the district has had a hard time enforcing it.

“We’ve had parents on the phone with our administration being, I would say, very aggressive with their language,” Koch said. “You know, using profanity with our administrators as they try to administer this policy and telling their children that it’s OK to use your phone in school. That leaves us little option then.”

The district emphasized to parents and to the town board that police would only ticket repeat offenders. Koch brought up the citation as an alternative to expulsion for students who continued to use their phones. When a board trustee asked how many students would likely be cited if the ordinance was in place now, Koch said only one.

Parents at the November and December village board meetings, however, called the ordinance overreach.

“That makes the ordinance seem like nothing more than an attempt at a heavy-handed scare tactic to unnecessarily intimidate the students,” one parent said Wednesday.

One of the village board members, Trustee Scott Reeves, said that he changed his mind on this ordinance after all the outcry from the public.

“In the past, trustees have sat up here and changed their vote because of public opinion. And I feel that this should not be an exception. I plan on voting no on this,” Reeves said.

When asked what it meant to table the ordinance indefinitely, the board said, “It means it goes away.”

“I’m relieved,” said Kenneth Sallee, a Mukwonago parent. “It does seem like the board members listened to parents. I think they do agree that there’s no reason to have police involved in enforcing school policy.”

WISN 12 News reached out to the school district Wednesday night for comment, but did not hear back.

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