The message is simple: Leave your cell phone at home or risk having it confiscated.

Reacting to last month’s fiasco at Union County High School involving rumors of gang violence, school trustees finally put their collective foot down, voting Monday to approve first reading of a policy banning cell phones at the school.

Under the new policy, students are not permitted to possess cell phones while on school property and during normal school hours. Students who violate the policy will have their cell phones confiscated and won’t get them back until the end of the school year.

The new policy was proposed in response to what chairman Wanda All called “gross misuse” of cell phones by students, including taking pictures of tests and sending them to other students; texting and “Facebooking” during class time; and helping spread rumors like the one last month that brought a large contingent of law enforcement personnel to the high school campus.

School is a place for learning, not texting friends or checking out your Facebook page. Taking pictures of exams with your cell phone and sending them to friends is cheating. Using your cell phone to spread rumors of gang violence borders on breaking the law.

More than one student’s cell phone will probably be confiscated before the school year is over and trustees will probably hear from irate parents who still have to pay the bill for those phones.

Some could argue the case for cell phones, citing their usefulness during an emergency. Teachers, administrators and school resource officers, however, have their own cell phones, which should more than compensate for the ones that are now banned.