Pahoa High and Intermediate School will ban electronic devices from campus starting next year. The school will also adopt T-shirt uniforms.

There have been high incidences of theft and even arrests as students swipe each other's cell phones, iPods, CD players and other electronics, said Principal Dean Cevallos.
The ban comes after discussions by the school community council, the school leadership team and three parent meetings. The school resource officer also urged the ban.
Hilo High School implemented a similar ban in 2006 and has succeeded in keeping kids from bringing the distracting devices to campus.
"There's been too much theft, too much of 'you have better than me,'" Cevallos said.
Along with the irritation of phones ringing during class, students have used electronic devices to record low-angle shots of girls in skirts walking up stairs, then posted the videos on YouTube. Students have also YouTubed fights, and are texting and sending inflammatory pictures to each other.
"A lot was going on that we felt was taking away from safety and security on campus," Cevallos said.
Many of the electronic-related problems could be considered "cyberbullying," a Class B infraction under new rules set to be adopted by the Board of Education at a special meeting next Tuesday.
The revisions to Chapter 19 of the student misconduct and discipline code define cyberbullying as "electronically-submitted acts ... that a student has -exhibited toward another student or employee of the department which causes mental or physical harm and is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it creates an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment."
The new rule — which has been several years in the making — comes in response to a statewide and nationwide explosion in electronics-related problems similar to those that Pahoa High is trying to curtail.
Cyberbullying can be punished right along with disorderly conduct, harassment and hazing. Sanctions range from counseling to detention and suspension.
Banned electronic devices are defined as contraband, a Class D offense, the most minor offense under the DOE categories.
At Hilo High, sanctions for a first offense are confiscating the device for the day and giving parents a call. On the second offense, the device is confiscated and returned to the parent.
If a student breaks the rule a third time, the electronic device is kept for a year and the student is slapped with insubordination.
Pahoa High will implement practically identical sanctions.
Cevallos was a vice principal at Hilo High when the ban was put in place.
"The ban, in general, is working for its intended purpose," Hilo Principal Robert Dircks said. "In all reality, though, we should be teaching our students there is an appropriate time and place to use your cell phone. I hear adults' cell phones going off in church."
Hilo High issued 1,240 citations for breaking the rule in the first year of the ban. That number dropped to 930 infractions in 2007-08 and there have been 530 as this school year wraps up.
Also effective in the 2009-10 year, Pahoa High and Intermediate's 750 students will wear T-shirt uniforms.
The shirts for the intermediate school will be lime green and white, and the high school will have kelly green and white shirts.
Students were asked to submit designs, and the shirts will sport a dagger and tribal shark tooth design. Use of the shirts is voluntary.