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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Ind. Courts - Confiscating a student's cellphone results in appointment of special prosecutor

Yesterday the ILB posted on the continuing story in Spencer County where an adult entertainment business is ignoring a judge's order to close.

I thought of that this morning when I read this story in the Lafayette Journal & Courier where a student in a Purdue business class ignored his professor's request to discontinue using his phone in class, and continued reading messages.

The professor confiscated the phone and said he would turn it into the dean's office. The student called police (apparently by using another phone), who upon arrival ordered the professor to return the phone immediately or be charged with theft.

The professor, it turns out, is also a Superior Court Judge in Tippecanoe County. A special prosecutor has been appointed, for heaven's sake, to look into "the matter". The ILB wonders - What matter? Here is the AP story:

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- A special prosecutor will determine if a judge did anything illegal when he confiscated a Purdue University student's cell phone after it rang during a class he was teaching, and afterward refused to return it.

Tippecanoe County prosecutor Pat Harrington said he sought the special prosecutor to look into Judge Les Meade's actions to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

Senior prosecutor Rob Ives of Carroll County will review Purdue police reports related to the April 16 incident in a classroom at Purdue's Krannert Building.

Meade, who is the elected judge of Tippecanoe Superior Court 5, has taught business law and business ethics classes in Purdue's Krannert School of Management for 28 years.

He said he was teaching a business law class when a student's cell phone began ringing with a musical ringtone. The male student, seated in the front row of the class, took out the phone, opened it and began reading messages as the phone continued to ring, Meade said.

When he asked the student to turn off the phone, Meade said the student ignored him and continued to read messages while the phone continued to ring. The judge said he took the phone away from the student, closed it and put it in his pocket.

"It was still playing music when I put it in my pocket," Meade said.

At the end of the class, the student asked Meade to return the phone, but Meade said he refused, saying he intended to turn it over to the Krannert dean's office the next morning.

Meade said his decision was warranted because he's never encountered a situation - in class or the courtroom - in which a person refused to turn off a cell phone when told to do so.

He said the student left but a few minutes later, two Purdue police officers arrived and asked him if he had taken away the student's phone.

"You have to give it back now. If you don't, it's theft," Meade said, quoting the police officers.

Meade said he identified himself as a judge and said, "This is not theft."

The officers called Lt. Sarah Sheppard to the scene, and she told Meade that failure to return the cell phone would constitute theft. Richard Cosier, dean of the Krannert School of Management, then arrived.

Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said Cosier took the cell phone and returned it to the student, and admonished the student about rules against cell phone use during class.

Meade said he soon received an e-mailed apology from the student stating that "emergency conditions back home" compelled him to call police to recover his cell phone immediately.

Neither Meade nor the student was disciplined, Norberg said.

Since the incident, instructors in Krannert have been advised to dismiss from class any student who causes a similar disruption, Norberg said. [emphasis added]

If a student ignores a professor who asks him to turn off his cellphone, why do these administrators think the student will not similarly iqnore a request to leave class?

[More] I've found another story, this one by Joe Gerrety of the C&P. It includes this:

Since the incident, instructors in Krannert have been advised to dismiss from class any student who causes a similar disruption. If a student refuses to leave after being dismissed, police should be called, Norberg said.

"Judge Meade certainly has a right to keep his classroom in order," Norberg said. "It's just a question of the best way to deal with disruptions."

Is involving the police the best way, or is sending the offending phone to the dean's office overnight the best way? Is the Purdue administration standing behind its professors in minor disciplinary matters the best way, or is sending these matters to a special prosecutor the better route?

Gerrety's story also includes this quote:

"This will be an embarrassing and humiliating situation for me for a couple of days," Meade said Friday. "But the long-term damage is going to be to the university's reputation."
The C&P story includes several comments from readers, including this one from a student in the class:
I really appreciated the way Meade demanded (yes, I said "demanded") respect for the subject, the school, other students and the classroom environment. Rules of Meade’s classroom could easily be summed up as:

Be on time
Be prepared for class
Be respectful of each other and each other’s tuition "investment"

Please don't confuse those expectations with the Honorable Judge Meade going on a “power trip.” He even had a "no hat" policy. These things aren't absurd requests, they used to be common courtesy (ask your parents and if they aren't old enough to remember what it means to take off your cap or listen when someone else speaks, ask your grandparents).

Though I tried to always be respectful of fellow students and my professors, I knew Judge Meade was serious. His class was the only one I would run to because I knew I was being held to a higher level. Meade isn't a bully. Meade just expects more from his students.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 20, 2007 07:34 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts