By Daniel O’Mara, Contributor
Driving down the highway takes focus. Motorists changing lanes, existing road and weather conditions and speed limits require the attention of anyone behind the wheel. With the advent of the smartphone, law enforcement and community leaders are trying to figure out ways to reduce an often dangerous and deadly diversion., At Hopewell Valley Central High School, one teacher is looking to tackle the problem by leveling a “Cell Phone Challenge” at his students., Gary Nucera, a drivers’ education teacher at the school, said he created the challenge as a way to get teens used to the idea of keeping their smartphones in their pockets when driving., “As you look at high school kids, on a daily basis the one thing they’re obsessed with are their cell phone.” he said., For roughly five weeks starting back in January, Nucera’s program urged his sophomore drivers education students to last the entire 52-minute period without looking at their cell phones., Upon entering the classroom, students would voluntarily turn in their phones to Nucera, who would then log how many students were in attendance and match it with how many phones were turned in., “They peer pressured each other,” Nucera said. “There would be two, three kids at a time standing at the door before class reminding people to surrender their phone.”, Students also reserved the option to hold onto their phones for the challenge, but they would receive a “Nucitation,” a faux-citation that followed the same guidelines as the actual police citation for cellphone use while driving., Staying true to the real world, Nucera said the threat of a citation turned the classroom into a courtroom, with pupils playing a jury to either convict or acquit the violator., “A lot of kids were cheering for a trial, because they wanted to convict somebody,” joked Nucera., Two of Nucera’s three drivers education classes were successful in completing the challenge and were rewarded with a pizza party., Likewise, Nucera was praised by the school administrative team for spearheading the district’s initiative to also limit cellphone use in classrooms., “When [Nucera] informed me about the cell phone challenge, I said ‘this is fantastic,’” Hopewell Valley Central High School Principal Tana Smith said. “It’s everything we are trying to teach the kids.”, The district’s push to limit cellphone use in the class was instituted after the school gave students access Google Chromebooks, since officials said they effectively eliminated the need for smartphones and other devices that became an even bigger distraction., “We asked each teacher to come up with their own classroom procedure for cellphones,” Hopewell Valley School District Superintendent Thomas Smith said. “I thought [the cellphone challenge] was such a fun and creative way of underscore, not only the distraction, but the safety.”, In fact, Nucera is not a stranger to creative classroom teaching techniques. This year in his driving course, he conducted an activity that involves what he calls “close call cards.” During this exercise, students figure out how long their favorite phone task will keep their eyes off the road and then walk the hallways blindfolded for that amount of time., “Most of it is scare tactics,” Nucera admitted. “But driving is such a privilege in the first place, and so hard to do without a cellphone, that complicating it by having a cellphone is so dangerous.”
