40 Local Schools To Get Wireless Phones

Help will be just a phone call away for 40 Valley schools that are scheduled to receive free wireless phones in an effort to improve school safety.

As part of the nationwide AT&T; Safe Schools program, Ericsson Mobile Phones will donate three or four phones to 63 elementary schools and one middle school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, and AT&T; Wireless Services will donate 160 free minutes of air time monthly.

The phones will be a great asset for teachers and administrators, said Shirley Di Rado, principal of Colfax Elementary School in North Hollywood, where a ceremony was held Thursday to announce the donation. The phones can be used in some cases to relay a message to a teacher instead of sending a student to the office for a written note.

As evidenced by the North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout in 1997, the written-note method of communication doesn’t work when it’s too dangerous for children to be outside. On that day, Di Rado walked around with a portable microphone telling teachers to stay in their classrooms.

Teachers can use the phones to call 911 in an emergency, to contact the school office, or even to call a parent.

District officials decided which schools would receive phones, said Steven C. Crosby, spokesman for AT&T; Wireless Services. Many of the schools chosen do not have public address systems.

Once the phones are received next week at local schools, teachers and office staff will have a direct link to each other. At Colfax, phones will be distributed to bungalows that are far from the office, kindergarten and special education classes and the principal’s office, for use on field trips.

“The phones are going to make our school safer,” Di Rado said. “I’m really pleased.”