Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-8

8 CHICAGO Student Cell Phones to Confronted with such widespread use, many schools are redialing the rules. Educators say they attempt to balance the opportunity to boost student learning with the concerns of classroom distractions or cheating. I was teaching a class and all the students had their phones and someone was texting them or they used the device to communicate with other students about material on a test when it becomes said Greg Fantozzi, principal of Maple Kaneland High School, where teens must stow their phones in lockers during the school day. more, many phones come equipped with cameras and video, which make teachers and administrators little nervous about potentially bad things they can Bullo said. it were a simple phone, it would be Still, York Community High SchoolPrincipal Diana Smith plans to sit down this weekwith students to talk about the possibility of their using cell phones for academic purposes.

The Elm- hurstschool currently requires that phones remain off during the day. we know about kids now is they are used to having so many sources of technology available to Smith said. think we need to be in step with them on In writing new cell phone rules, some schools offer training seminars to show teachers how to make good use of the gadgets. Glenbrook North High School now provides sessions for teach- ers on can you leverage what they have in their technology coordinator Ryan Bre- tagsaid. It has similar primers for students.

The north suburban district began allowing students to use cell phones at their discretion when it revamped the personal technology policy last year. Glenbrook senior John Cram pulled out his phone during a lab experiment in his material science class this fall. He wanted to measure the porosityof a cupcake. Using the camera in his cell phone, Cram took a picture, e-mailed it to himself and then imported the image to Photoshop, where he could more precisely measure each air pocket to calculate the porosity. was out of necessity, really.

It was just a natural Cram said of turning to his cell phone. Science teacher Nathan Un- termansaid he allows students like Cram to use their cell phones during a lab or class exercise just as they might use a Bunsen burner or microscope. He draws the line at tests, though. With teens so attached to cell phones are basically glued to their one administrator remarked several schools also make it a priority to teach students how to use the devices responsibly. This semester at Deerfield High School, students for the first time are allowed to use their phones in hallways between classes in a pilot program that also focuses on telephone etiquette, said Dan Chamberlin, one of the deans.

have to make sure it vibrate, ring or ping in the he said. Students will be disciplined if they arrive late to class because of phone conversations, if they use them to cheat or if they act inappropriately, such asswearing or talking loudly. Last year, when phones were banned, students would leave class to use their phone in the bathroom place you want them to use their cell Chamberlin said. Administrators will review how often students are disciplined, how often they are tardy to class and whether cheating occurs with phones before deciding whether to make the policy permanent. This year, Township High School District 211rewrote its policy that prohibited cell phone use during the school day after of students landed in the office for misusing them.

The northwest suburban district which includes Fremd High School now allows students to use them in designated areas like the cafeteria and front foyer as well as in classrooms under a guidance. Just two months into the school year, 76students have been referred to the office for cell phone misuse across the five high schools. By this time last year, 202violations had occurred, said Daniel Cates, assistant superintendent for administrative services. On a recent Wednesday, Fremd students huddled in groups to research candidates for state and federal office, their thumbs dancing across the palm-size screens. Of the 31students in class, only one did not have a cell phone.

Others had two. senior Lucas Lassilaquipped, holding a cell phone in each hand. For students who forget their phones or have one, Spoor makes phone-related assignments group activities. Some educators said they keep a cell phone or iPad to loan students for classroom use. Spoorsaid he asks students for their e-mail address and cell phone number at the start of the school year.

Spoor who asked the teens for pointers when he first bought an iPhone said he often texts a reminder about big assignments and invites students to text or e-mail him in return. this is just a part of who we are Spoor said of the personal technology. a tidal Many schools allow cell phones as tools At schools where: Always allowed Allowed but not in class Never allowed 78 8 8 23125 71436 413 75 Have phone turned on text in class call in class Percent of students allowed to have cell phones in school SCHOOL CELL PHONE RULES HOW OFTEN TEENS TAKE A CELL PHONE TO SCHOOL Based on teens who own cell phones CELL PHONE USE IN SCHOOL For teens who take a cell phone to school Every day Nearly eight in 10 teenagers say they bring a cell phone with them to school regardless of the policy, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Cell phones in class TRIBUNE ALLOWED NOT ALLOWED But not in class At all times Area of circle represents At least several times a week Less often Never NOTE: Those who answered or not not shown. NOTE: Percentages may not equal 100 due to rounding.

SOURCE: Pew Research Center telephone survey of 800 12-to 17-year-olds including 625 teen cell phone users, conducted from June 26, 2009, to Sept. 24, 2009. Margin of error is 4 percentage points. 586 9917 1186 At all schools Continuedfrom Page1 er, confessed to 21slayings before dying in prison in 1994 of AIDS- related complications. He was on death row in Illinois for the 1984 murder of Danny Bridges, a 15- year-old Uptown prostitute whose dismembered body was discovered when a suspicious janitor cut open a trash bag outside Rogers Parkapartment building.

Three decades later, at least four young men Eyler confessed to slaying in Illinois and Indiana remain unidentified. Two Indiana coroners working near the Illinois border hope to change that, recently launching efforts to identify three of them using DNA. The Cook County medical office, which the Tribune has reported had one unidentified victim, did not respond to requests for comment. The Indiana coroners plan to submit the DNA samples to a national criminal database and to missing-person databases and also use the DNA to compare with samples from families who believe the victims might be their missing loved ones. Eyler was primarily a who murdered hitchhikers or young men he picked up in bars after quarreling with his married boyfriend, said Kathleen Zellner, the Oak Brook attorney who handled his appellate case and then found herself, over hundreds of hours, coaxing him to give details of all the murders.

A Hollywood film on the story is reportedly being developed. Zellner met this year with the Jasper and Newton County coroners, answering their questions for about four hours. was impressed with these Indiana investigators, that they were pursuing she said. It always been that way. In Newton County, the remains of two of victims from the farm property were placed inside battered bankers boxes and apparently forgotten about for decades.

Scott McCord, a full-time paramedic, found the two boxes labeled and after being elected county coroner two years ago and made identifying them personal McCord began referring to the remains as and named them that by giving them an informal identify, it would be tougher to forget about them. He sent bones for analysis at a state lab and plans to send smaller samples to a Texas lab for DNA testing. He plans to submit the samples to the national database and also check them against samples from a family who believes Victim may be a relative. want to get them McCord said. belong here.

They belong in my office. Somewhere out there is a mother or a father or a sister or a brother. They have to be missing these He have much to work with. The investigative reports from the time number only a dozen or so pages, all the evidence they refer to the HushPuppies boots with side buckle, the red- and-white belt with the word sown in is missing, and the original investigator is dead, McCord said. What remains in the records paints a horrific picture of the last moments of the four who were slain at the abandoned farmhouse.

Two of the victims were identified Michael Bauer, a 23-year-old pizza deliverer last seen taking out the trash at his Portage Park home, and John Bartlett, 19, who was staying with his sister in Chicago after being discharged from the Army. Acrime scene photo shows a green garden hose Eyler used to bind his victims looped over what appears to be a rafter inside the now-demolished barn where four men were stabbed to death. In his three-page handwritten confession to the murder of Victim who Eyler described as unidentified black male in his late teens or early Eyler lays out what was a typical murderous pattern that began with a fight with his boyfriend. Angry after the fight, Eyler drove to Terre Haute and encountered a hitchhiker. He offered the man $75 to tie him up and perform asex act on him, then gave him vodka and a sedative as they drove to the farm.

Eyler tied up the man in the barn and put a bandage over his eyes. said, (expletive) make your peace with Eyler wrote. waiting 4-5 minutes, Istabbed him repeatedly in the stomach and chest. He slumped forward, and I knew he was In a strange addendum, Eyler writes that I made a grave for this individual I separated him from the other three bodies because I did not think it was proper to bury this person next to the three Caucasian only was he a psycho killer, but he was a racist as McCord said. Three daysbefore mushroom hunters found the four bodies in 1983, a farmer found human remains in a field in neighboring Jasper County, the partial skeleton of a man Eyler later confessed to slaying.

County Coroner An- drew Boersmahas spent the last four years trying to identify the man, who is thought to have been in his early 20s with a slight build and reddish-brown, shoulder- length hair. He was wearing jeans and a gray hooded jacket, Boersma said, and investigators found a Zippo cigarette lighter with a female name written on it. Boersma is not releasing the name, hoping that family members will be able to identify it. believe this young man needs to find his family and his remains be said Boersma, who also operates a funeral home. set out on this adventure to try and gather all the information we Boersma has also struggled with finding records.

the way it was back he said. was the good old fellas everybody knew everybody. Now we have to take better records. I know Ispent days fishing through microfilm looking for (old records,) and I was glad for what little DNA evidence has been gathered on the remains. Boersma, after several false hits, is somewhat hopeful that DNA supplied by a family will yield a match.

He is now waiting for tests to be completed. And unlike in Newton County, where the remains now rest in two taped-shut- and-sealed blue plastic containers, most of the unidentified remains are buried at McKeever Cemetery, where a cemetery plot was donated. Paul David Ricker, the officer who took the call of human remains being found, raised money with some other police officers to buy a cemetery headstone, Boersma said. It is inscribed with the date the bones were found Oct. 15, 1983.

There is no name, just he said. Indiana coroners push to identify 3 young men slain in Continuedfrom Page1 55 90 94 65 57 294 20 MILES Killer linked to multiple slayings SOURCES: ESRI, TeleAtlas, Tribune archivesNOTE: Some locations are approximate TRIBUNE LAKE JASPER Lake Michigan WIS. NEWTON LAKE COOK WILL KANKAKEE Lake Forest Lake Village Convicted murderer Larry Eyler confessed to killing 21 people, many of them in the Chicago area, before his death in 1994. Four remain unidentified. Two decades later, officials are seeking the names of three of them.

identity remains unknown Locations where victims were discovered Oct. 23, 1982: Chicago resident Steven Crockett, 19, is found stabbed 32 times. April 8, 1983: Gustavo Herrera, 28, is found under a pile of brush by workers building a home. been stabbed and his severed right hand is found nearby. April 15, 1983: Ervin Dwayne Gibson, 16, is found stabbed to death on a rubbish pile atop the stabbed remains of a dog.

May 9, 1983: Jimmy T. Roberts, 16, is found stabbed to death. Aug. 31, 1983: The body of Ralph Calise, 28, a North Side electrical worker, is found stabbed. Sept.

30, 1983: Indiana State Police arrest and detain Larry Eyler in Lake County, after finding a knife in his truck with blood on it. Eyler was charged with murder. A judge rules in 1984 that the evidence had been obtained illegally. Oct. 15, 1983: The skull of a young man is unearthed in a farm field and other bones are found nearby after being plowed over.

The Jasper County Coroner has spent the past four years trying to identify the body. Oct. 19, 1983: Four bodies are found on a farm near Lake Village, Ind. Only two of the victims have been identified. The Newton County coroner has launched an effort to identify the other two.

Aug. 21, 1984: A janitor discovers the dismembered body of Danny Bridges, 15, in the trash near Rogers Park apartment building. Eyler is charged with slaying soon after. July 9, 1986: A Cook County jury convicts Eyler of Bridge's death. He is sentenced to death by lethal injection.

Jan. 8, 1991: Eyler offers to confess to other slayings in exchange for a life sentence. Cook County Attorney Jack O'Malley rejects the offer. 1 1 7 7 8 8 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 March 6, 1994: Eyler dies of AIDS-related complications in Pontiac Correctional Center. March 8, 1994: Eyler's lawyer Kathleen Zellner announces that he confessed to slaying 21 men and boys.

Identities of two of four victims sought. 6 Old police photos of the Newton County, site where four of victims were found. ZBIGNIEW PHOTO Larry Eyler at the Vermillion County Courthouse in Newport, in 1991. TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO Cell phones in school: The subject is new. The story, timeless.

Reporter Tara Malone describes this as a classic collision of old versus new in the classroom. Join the conversation at chicago tribune.com/tribnation Identifying a victims: Reporter Steve Schmadeke describes how this story came about at chicagotribune Product: CTBroadsheet PubDate: 10-12-2010 Zone: ALL Edition: HD Page: MAIN1-8 User: jasmorris Time: Color:.