New Jersey may drop ban on pagers in schools

New Jersey has an old law banning students from bringing pagers to school without written permission from the school board.

Lawmakers are moving to repeal it.

State Sen. Ron Rice, who sponsored the 1989 legislation, said it has outlived its usefulness.

“We were at a time when you didn’t have cellphones and all the text messages and things like that,” said Rice, D-Essex. “So, the pager was really used by drug dealers to take advantage of kids to be their street runners and their salespeople, and they were disturbing the schools.”

The technology has changed, and Rice said schools now are free to develop their own policies about cellphones on school property.

“Now I really wish young people had pagers and not some of these cellphones and iPhones and iPads because I think they’re more detrimental. They just don’t make noise in school now,” he said. “They just text you, ‘I’ll get the drugs after school.’ They don’t go beep-beep any more.”