The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum posts an update noting that the Prince George’s County school board has approved the area’s strictest ban against students using cell phones during school hours. No texting, no twittering, and no phone calls will be allowed on school property “from the first bell of the morning to the last bell of the day.”

Birnbaum reported yesterday at length on the reach of the ban:

Under the proposal, students would be required to leave their phones turned off and in their lockers, from the first bell of the morning to the final bell of the school day. Students would be able to use their phones only with the principal’s permission, or if a teacher wanted them to use it for some educational purpose.

[ . . . ]

Prince George’s County has had restrictions on cellphones, but the consequences were unclear and applied unevenly from school to school, board members said. Under the new policy, the first time a student is caught with a cellphone, it will be confiscated and returned at the end of the school day. The second time, a parent will have to pick it up. After a third offense, the student would be prohibited from bringing a cellphone to school at all.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the ban: Students may not post photographs taken on PG school campuses to Facebook. The rationale there is lost on me. If they’re unable to use cell phones on campus, then by default they won’t be taking pictures with their phone pictures. But what about cameras? (Do students still have cameras?) Back when I was student, most of the photographs that I took of my friends — using the daguerrotype technology available back then — I took around school.