District trying to curtail cell phone gossip

If Gossip Girl was casing the halls of North Charleston High School for scandalous bits, she’d be sorely disappointed that no one would get the dirt.

The Charleston County School District will be limiting cell phone access on campus in response to a fight earlier this month that led to 26 student arrests.

Superintendent Nancy McGinley told school board members on Tuesday that the district is increasing communication with police and community leaders to recognize problems in the neighborhoods before they make it onto the campus. And they’ll be sidelining student communication to stop gossip in its tracks.

“(Cell phones) cause more rapid spread of rumors,” McGinley says. “They end up cultivating more widespread involvement in incidents that would otherwise be isolated.”

District spokesman Elliot Smalley says this will involve a renewed focus on violations of the existing cell phone policy.

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