Students Want Cell Phone Law Enforced

HOUSTON - Students and teachers at one southwest Houston high school want the city to help them enforce a law against cell phones in school zones, KRPC Local 2 reported Monday.

Students and faculty at Emery Weiner High School are taking the law into their own hands, trying to battle distracted driving in their school zone.

Holding up signs with slogans like "no texting" and "slow down," the students yelled at suspected speeders and cell phone users coming through their campus.

"It's so common," senior Leah Shugart said.  "A lot of e-mailing and texting."

Driving while on a cell phone through a school zone is already illegal, but the law requires school zones to post signs notifying drivers of the penalty before police can enforce it. The other stipulation is that all the school zones in a city must have the signs before its enforceable. But with more than 1,500 school zones at $175 per sign, the city of Houston says it is financially unfeasible to pay for all the signs.

"Putting up all these signs would be financially prohibitive," said Alvin Wright, public information officer for the city of Houston Public Works department.

Parents said that should not be an excuse.

"I think if you put a law into place, you need to put the resources in place to back it up," said one mother. "They [the city] need to look at their budget and find somewhere else to cut to look after the safety of the children."

In the meantime, students are hoping their curbside demonstrations will raise some awareness.

"We hope that this will get some more parents and students involved," said Shugart.

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