Teacher Suspended For Homemade Cellphone Jammer

[Sewa_Yunga]

God damnit, now I have a picture of Mr. Torgue teaching highschool classes in my head, just without the EXPLOOOSIOOONS!!! WEWEWEWREREWERWEOOOOW!! *plays air guitar*

There you go, I corrected your spelling for you. xD

No, I just meant the actual explosions that follow Torgue anywhere. I fully expect that teacher to talk in capitals only.

STOP LOOKING AT YOUR PHONE! BECAUSE OF YOU I JUST LOST MY ACADEMIC FOCUS!
DEEETEENTION!!! WEEEEOW-WEEEEEOW!!!

 

[Olas]

He sounds like a pretty awesome teacher. Every classroom should have a jammer like this. He was going above and beyond to make up for the schools failing and got punished for it.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Ok, could we please talk about the fact that this was used to be a wrestler?

And could we also talk about how his students were being taught science by a wrestler?

Because I can't get over that.

 

[JSoup]

I'd be surprised if a suspension is all that happens. There were a number of arrests just for having them in the early 2000s and every now and again you see a story about someone getting hard jail time for same.

They still have landlines at a school. This would not prevent anyone from dialing 911. In fact, most schools have a LANDLINE PHONE IN EVERY ROOM.

Most? I can believe "a lot", but "most"?
Every classroom I was taught in and the ones I'm currently teaching in don't have phones, not including the intercom box and the phone in my pocket. Colleges are a different story in that regard, but even then, not all collages have open line phones. My previous collage, the phones linked to an automated system.

Really? My school district is an aging community with less than 2000 residents in the whole school district. Pre-K through 12th grade has 324 students. Every room has a hardline phone. All the schools I've ever been in, every room has a hardline phone.

Might be a regional thing? I figured this would be something were we'd had some people saying they had a phone in other room and other people saying the opposite.

 

[Recusant]

Not only that, but Pacemaker companies actually store the pacemaker in a faraday cage that would prevent a jammers or anything else using radio frequencies (RF) from being able to impact it in any way.

So please understand that you are perpetuating a myth or urban legend here.

The major consideration is really just restricted to the ability to make emergency calls.

Didn't know that about the Faraday cages; that's interesting. I also didn't know that many models are now even MRI-safe. The days of legal requirements to put up "microwave oven in use" signs are over- but they're just that, over. My information was, as I said, out of date. It was not false; neither an urban legend nor a myth.

 

[Strazdas]

Im surprised he wasnt arrested. Jamming cell phone signals is illegal with possibility of jail time.

I can hardly imagine how frustrating it must be for the fine teachers of the world who have to try and get these kids to focus on their studies.

When you are trying to utilize 19th century techniques in 21st century world no wonder its frustrating why, when there are much easier and more fun ways to get the same information, people are bored in your class.

In his defense, Liptak stated that he never intended his device to be used for malicious means, and he could have switched it off at any time should an emergency arise. "My intent for using the device was to keep students academically focused on schoolwork. It is counter productive to stop instruction and lose academic focus when I have to tell a student to put his or her cell phone away."

He would not be able to know if an emergency had arrised. See, the thing about Jamming being illegal is that its also illegal not only to make emergency calls but to also RECIEVE emergency calls, such as ones from your family. as such, there is absolutely no way for him to know whether an incoming call was energency or not, so his statement is bullshit.

Hell, I'll be honest, I support the teacher in this one. The damn thing having an easy to use switch or even a deadman, and making sure everyone knows "turn this off to use phones again" and it solves all the emergency problems while still being functional.

Perhaps he could just install some iron pipe in the walls, or have a couple powerful microwaves running at all times instead? Jamming devices may be illegal, but not the act of interfering with a signal itself through secondary means like a good old Faraday cage.

Still wouldnt work for incoming calls, as you cant guess when that is going to happen.

Faraday cage is not illegal, but it also causes electric discharge inside it as soon as you have any electronics inside. This has been known to cause anything from mild nausea to hallucinations (accidental faraday cages is actually a significant amount of cause for ghost stories caused by electronic field induced hallucinations), so no way it would be allowed in a school.

Honestly I'm in more support with this teacher or rather I don't get why the entire school boards don't have one already, that is if they can afford it?

....because its illegal?

Fun fact, I'm a student pilot, and this made me even more curious as to why mobile phones have to be switched off during a flight...

Let me answer that. So the passengers would have to pay premium for satelite phones on a plane. Thats it. Cell phone signals have absolutely 0 chance of interfering with anything on a plane. not only plane computers are shielded from FAR worse interference (think lightning strikes if were talking commercial jets) but they operate on entirely different frequencies. there is simply no way for a cellphone to interfere unless it was intentionally modified as a form of terrorism or something.

Firstly, yes, they do interfere with onboard equipment. (radio equipment. You can hear interference on the radios sometimes if there's nearby mobile phones)

This is what i call a myth.

Now imagine you fly over a city at 20,000 feet. Your mobile is now potentially in range of thousands of mobile phone masts all at once. Which, as it turns out, with certain combinations of old analogue phones and infrastructure could... In effect cripple ALL of the towers your phone connected to, because they weren't intended to handle that.

Cell phone signals are not powerful enough to travel 20,000 feet. at that height you simply have no signal. your phone is in range of 0 towers at that height. Even if the towers transmitted "loud" enough to reach the phone, your phones transmitter is nowhere near powerful enough to answer.

If a kid still uses their phone in class after being told not to - take it off them. Quite simple really. Im sure the school has rules stating kids cant use phone in class.

It is illegal to confiscate an item of your student. you can get fired for that.

 

[47_Ronin]

Kids spend too much time on their phones? Everybody does now a days. Shy people must be having a blast seeing sunlight again, since everybody and their mothers are spacing out with their phones in the middle of the street. Same must go for pickpockets. I bet they're seeing their biggest increase in clients since the invention of baggy-pants.

It is illegal to confiscate an item of your student. you can get fired for that.

I find that hard to believe. Which country are you talking about?

 

[CaitSeith]

Liptak was previously reprimanded in 2013 after he used violent questions on a test referencing the velocity of a student thrown against a wall by a teacher and the mass of a car running over a baby.

I can't tell if I find that unsettling or funny. I'll let my dark sense win this time and go with unsettlingly funny.

PS captcha: meow meow No, captcha! Not kittens! Babies are OK, but kittens are out of question!

 

[Lightknight]

Every example that the FCC lists is just regarding emergency calls being impacted.

This is something that can be managed with how the device is set up. Done properly and you can get the device to only target the classroom with minimal bleedout through the walls.

I read that in this case his jammer was strong enough to affect the nearby cell tower which is why Verizon started investigating. It does seem that this guy lacked the technical expertise to limit the range on the jammer properly. Since it was homemade it might have also hit frequencies outside the range a professional jammer would use.

Homemade jammer? Holy heck this guy should get more than a suspension. No telling what range of frequencies it blocked. The standard sort are intentionally only good for like 30 meters.

Not only that, but Pacemaker companies actually store the pacemaker in a faraday cage that would prevent a jammers or anything else using radio frequencies (RF) from being able to impact it in any way.

So please understand that you are perpetuating a myth or urban legend here.

The major consideration is really just restricted to the ability to make emergency calls.

Didn't know that about the Faraday cages; that's interesting. I also didn't know that many models are now even MRI-safe. The days of legal requirements to put up "microwave oven in use" signs are over- but they're just that, over. My information was, as I said, out of date. It was not false; neither an urban legend nor a myth.

Actually, publically available jammers have never been designed to hit the same frequencies that pacemakers have used.

The reason I said you're perpetuating an urban legend is because people claimed that jammers do this. They don't. The way that pacemakers have been impacted is by other RF devices. Like some phones can transmit on an RF frequency so people were able to successfully demonstrate the pacemaker vulnerability with their cell phones until manufacturers learned from that exploit and added the Faraday protection.

Now, in the example above where a guy created his own homemade Jammer? Who the heck knows what range it impacts?

 

[Nielas]

Every example that the FCC lists is just regarding emergency calls being impacted.

This is something that can be managed with how the device is set up. Done properly and you can get the device to only target the classroom with minimal bleedout through the walls.

I read that in this case his jammer was strong enough to affect the nearby cell tower which is why Verizon started investigating. It does seem that this guy lacked the technical expertise to limit the range on the jammer properly. Since it was homemade it might have also hit frequencies outside the range a professional jammer would use.

Homemade jammer? Holy heck this guy should get more than a suspension. No telling what range of frequencies it blocked. The standard sort are intentionally only good for like 30 meters.

Seems only the Escapist article explicitly says that it was a homemade jammer. The Arstechnica article only says that he looked online and found some sold on Amazon and found Youtube videos on how to make your own.

Still, he clearly underestimated its power if it disrupted the cell tower significantly enough that Verizon sent people to investigate. The cell network is redundant but taking out a cell tower is still bad.

 

[Lightknight]

Every example that the FCC lists is just regarding emergency calls being impacted.

This is something that can be managed with how the device is set up. Done properly and you can get the device to only target the classroom with minimal bleedout through the walls.

I read that in this case his jammer was strong enough to affect the nearby cell tower which is why Verizon started investigating. It does seem that this guy lacked the technical expertise to limit the range on the jammer properly. Since it was homemade it might have also hit frequencies outside the range a professional jammer would use.

Homemade jammer? Holy heck this guy should get more than a suspension. No telling what range of frequencies it blocked. The standard sort are intentionally only good for like 30 meters.

Seems only the Escapist article explicitly says that it was a homemade jammer. The Arstechnica article only says that he looked online and found some sold on Amazon and found Youtube videos on how to make your own.

Still, he clearly underestimated its power if it disrupted the cell tower significantly enough that Verizon sent people to investigate. The cell network is redundant but taking out a cell tower is still bad.

It's possible that the tower was nearby the classroom. But still, with the standard being 30 meters it'd have to be right outside. Do you think a teacher would spring for a premium one to extend over the entire school? That'd be really expensive.

 

[Zhit]

Anyone pick up the previous suspended for stuff? Too awesome. Think of being the kid that read those test questions for the 1st time--mass of the car running over a baby?! That would have been the best test question of all high school tests.

 

[Therumancer]

The way I see it is this, kids survived for generations going to school without phones and the need for "immediate emergency communications", so as a result I see no big deal, other than it violating the laws against jamming equipment which I can see existing for some good reasons.

See, as one of those old folks, I'll be turning 40 next month, I went to school during the 1980s and 1990s where cell phones were rare, although when I was graduating pagers were becoming more of an issue as a lot of students carried them around "in case someone at home needs to reach me" and then of course this was abused into skipping class. Not to mention a couple of infamous cases where there were criminal organizations involving kids using them ranging from teenager call girls communicating with their pimps and clients, to at least one drug ring, all of which was sensational stuff at the time.

Simply put landlines are fine, if parents need to get ahold of students they can call the office, and if there is an emergency 9/11 can be called from the same place, not to mention that I'd be surprised if schools don't still have a nurse on staff for most emergencies.

Perhaps the school system should contact the FCC about getting permission to install jammers in all school buildings making schools a "cell free zone" relying entirely on hard lines.

It might have something to do with going to a school at a time when I had to be careful of roaming dinosaurs, but I don't see phone access as being anything necessary and the less distractions the better.

Of course then again, I suppose now that I have become old and jaded I would probably suggest we fill the classrooms with restraint fitted chairs, tape the eye lids of the students open, and put headphones on them, and then use a projector and audio-stimulation to pipe education directly into their young little brains. Sure it would be uncomfortable, but think of it... order, peace and quiet (and teacher/operators can be issued ball gags just in case), no more school violence, and everyone will be focused on their stud... errr programming. Schools with bigger budgets can replace that system with the projector with video goggles and sensory deprivation chambers.

 

[Grampy_bone]

It's sad that he even had to use a jammer. Schools should have a "no phones allowed at all ever" policy. You put your phone in your locker at the beginning of the day, and any kid found with a cell in-hand gets immediate detention. If parents need to talk to you they call the school, like they did for 100+ years prior to common availability of cell phones.

What the fuck kind of school needs every kid to have a cell on-hand in order to call 911 at any moment? Give me a break.