System offers final chance to claim confiscated phones

It's last call for nearly 4,000 confiscated cell phones.

Richmond County parents and pupils are being urged to claim the phones taken over the past 15 years that have collected in the school system's Department of Public Safety, where they're stacked in boxes on shelves of the evidence room and line the dispatch room.

The deadline to pick up the phones was Sept. 30, but Public Safety Director Julia Porter-Stein pushed it back to Jan. 3 after seeing the number of phones still sitting around. If not picked up, the phones will be donated to charity or discarded.

In July, the school board relaxed its rule under which cell phones were confiscated for 365 days, a policy considered harsh by many. Since then, Public Safety has been trying to give away the 5,725 phones it has collected. Most were never claimed after the 365 days expired.

The department began with 4,566 phones in July and still has 3,997.

Under the new policy, on the first offense, a parent has 10 days to claim a phone before it is turned in to Public Safety.

For a second offense, and for phones not claimed at the school on the first offense, Public Safety takes the phone for 30 days.

If not picked up 10 days after that time expires, the phone is discarded, recycled or donated to charity.

On the third offense, the phones are seized and immediately discarded, recycled or donated.

When the new policy was adopted, the board also allowed Public Safety to return the phones taken under the old policy.

Pupils and parents began picking up phones soon after the board's decision, Ms. Porter-Stein said. But interest has diminished, and the department wants to free up space in its evidence room.

"I need to clear this area," she said. "This will certainly give us more room to store evidence."

Reach Greg Gelpi at (706) 828-3851 or greg.gelpi@augustachronicle.com.