CBS12 News Investigates: Cell phone dead zones in faculties

Many parents give their kids mobile phones for security, especially to take to high school in case there’s an emergency.

In Parkland final 12 months, cellular telephones were a lifeline for college students. But in some colleges in and surrounding Palm Beach County, mobile smartphone provider can be spotty.

“One friend of mine, he becomes harm and I couldn’t assist him due to the fact I didn’t have good reception,” said Suncoast Community High School pupil Camorris Peterson.

“In positive areas, down the hall toward the cease of the constructing [service] is actually horrific. But after you get toward the center it’s really correct.”

CBS12 News Investigates has received more than one proceedings about cellular telephone useless zones at Suncoast, and uncovered wireless patron complaints about dropped calls close to 8 different Palm Beach County Schools using a map located at DeadCellZones.Com.

“It’s big, big trouble of people that suppose they should have coverage but don’t,” said Jeff Cohn, found the father of DeadCellZones.Com.

Over the years, his internet site has collected thousands of court cases throughout u . S. His map allows wi-fi customers to drop pins wherein they’ve had issues, and describe their troubles.
Cohn stated it’s commonplace to get hold of reviews of dead zones internal of faculty buildings because of their vicinity when it comes to cell cellphone towers and the construction in their buildings.

“If you’ve got a number of cinderblock partitions or a variety of metallic in the building, that can restrict indicators from the outdoor working internal a study room,” stated Cohn.

After analyzing the places of every excessive faculty and middle school in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie counties on DeadCellZones.Com, we discovered nine colleges in Palm Beach County with reviews of cellular telephone lifeless zones much less than one mile from campus.

Boynton Beach Community High School and Congress Middle School in Boynton Beach had numerous reviews of T-Mobile dead zones, Jupiter Community High School in Jupiter had a Verizon lifeless sector nearby, Lake Worth Community High School in Lake Worth had a T-Mobile dead quarter close by, Olympic Heights Community High School in Boca Raton had a Sprint useless quarter nearby, Palm Beach Gardens Community High School in Palm Beach Gardens had an ATT lifeless zone close by, Palm Springs Community Middle School in Palm Springs had a Sprint lifeless zone nearby, Royal Palm Beach Community High School in Royal Palm Beach had a T-Mobile dead quarter nearby, and Suncoast Community School had a Sprint dead sector close by.

CBS12 News Investigates asked mother and father and college students to carry out their personal exams outside of lecture room hours.

One T-Mobile person at Royal Palm Beach Community High School attempted to call his mother from inside a faculty building.

His mom supplied a display screenshot, showing the call failed. Another scholar using Sprint tried to call from South Fork High School in Martin County, but her name failed too.

School districts had various responses to the issue of mobile cellphone lifeless zones on campus.

A spokesperson for Indian River schools said “We don’t have an problem with [dead zones], in truth, we’ve suggestions in our code of behavior addressing cellular cellphone use in colleges by college students, so they’re not allowed to use their cells and make calls at some point of the day.”

In Martin County, the school spokesperson said, “We aren’t aware of any ‘lifeless zones,’ however there is continually the capability for sure buildings or places to enjoy varying degrees of wi-fi sign strength/quality. Our Educational Technology personnel continuously evaluations our systems and infrastructure to make sure we are providing the satisfactory wi-fi enjoy possibly to our college students and a team of workers.”

A spokesperson for Okeechobee County Schools said, “We have some stated lifeless spots at several, but no longer all of our colleges. The District has hooked up [cell phone] repeaters at every campus – we were knowledgeable that these repeaters could enhance reception.” The district did now not reveal in which the stated useless zones had been positioned, due to security issues.

A spokesperson for Palm Beach County Schools said if college students or team of workers enjoy issues, they have to call or text the use of wifi. “All faculties have wifi and the district has utilized a part of the penny income tax to make the network infrastructure in colleges extra sturdy,” a spokesperson said. “Message and make contact with structures that use the internet may be extra reliable than cellular carrier in a few homes.”

In St. Lucie County, the district becomes no longer aware of any reports of lifeless zones, however, is taking proactive measures.

“Communication and having that capability is extraordinarily important,” said St. Lucie Schools Chief Operating Officer Terence O’Leary.

He said the district has hooked up numerous mobile repeaters, which assist signals to penetrate via buildings designed to face up to storm pressure winds.

Their structures have numerous redundancies, such as pervasive wifi.

O’Leary stated these structures may be expensive, particularly while they’re mounted at some stage in a district that has hundreds of homes.

He said a single device, like a mobile telephone repeater, can value between $10,000 and $20,000.

“We are planning to proactively ensure all of our campuses have got admission to,” he stated. “But that calls for funding.”