Gary Jensen, principal at Benicia High School, doesn't know what hit him in the face at lunchtime or who among the students huddled at picnic tables in the quad targeted him.

But he knows why.

Last Monday was the first day of the school's new cell phone policy, with stepped-up penalties focused on confiscating phones for long periods of time, rules students almost universally called extreme, harsh and "dumb."

The administrator's effort to eliminate beeping, buzzing, ringing and texting from the educational process has been an ongoing battle at schools across the state and country.

Students and their parents argue for 24-7 access to phones for safety and logistical reasons while educators are pleading for moderation, if not outright bans of the distracting devices on campus.

District and school policies regarding cell phones and the like range from unlimited access to on-campus embargos. Penalties range from warnings to confiscation, detention, fines or suspension for repeat offenders.

At Benicia High School, a first offense for using a phone in class now means confiscation until that Friday at 3 p.m., at which time the student, with a parent, can pick it up from the principal. For a second offense, the device will sit in Jensen's metal cabinet until the end of the semester. A third offense will keep it there until the end of the year.

In the past, warnings were given and phones confiscated for the class period, or maybe the day.

Students still can use the phones during lunch and before or after school.

Yet to teenagers, losing a phone for a day, if not an hour, is considered unbearable. A week or a semester is unthinkable.

"When you take a cell phone away from a student, it's like taking an arm or a leg," said an unapologetic Jensen. "We're simply stating 'not during class time.' I can't overemphasize that."

Struggle to keep up

With the prevalence of the ever-changing technology, school officials have struggled to keep up with new policies and rules for usage. Many have only realized after the fact that those phones with cameras are capturing test questions for friends or that iPhone access to the Internet means Facebook instead of physics in class.

In Benicia, the new penalties at the high school mirror those at the district's middle school for the last few years, where they dramatically cut down on distractions in class.

"I think we've tried a lot of other things, and it wasn't working" at the high school, said district Superintendent Janice Adams. "There's no doubt there will be some parents inconvenienced and not happy with it."

By Friday, Jensen had 40 confiscated phones in his cabinet waiting for pickup, as well as several angry e-mails and phone calls logged from parents.

The anger bubbled to the surface at lunchtime as students clutched phones in one hand and sandwiches or chips in another.

"It's like cell phones are being treated like drugs," said junior Brendan O'Shea, admitting he occasionally sends text messages in class and probably will continue to do so on the sly. Taking the phone away for "a whole week is ridiculous."

But moms and dads have been the harshest critics.

In a post-Columbine world, parents say they want the peace of mind of knowing they can communicate with their children in an emergency. They also want the ability to coordinate schedules on the fly or check on whereabouts. A dime and pay phone are no longer an alternative.

Family responsibilities

Indeed, many of the text messages hitting student phones during the school day are from their parents, students say.

Benicia senior Garen Damo, 17, said she is the oldest of six kids, responsible for helping her mom care for her siblings.

"I agree cell phones are a problem," she said, adding that confiscating the device is "too harsh." She offered detention as an alternative and some flexibility for students in her position.

At the same time, students say cell phones aren't just phones anymore. They are high-powered computers with educational benefits, allowing them to record lectures, look up information online, photograph science experiments or solve algebraic equations with phone-based calculators.

At Benicia High School, administrators might consider allowing such usage in the future, but for now the rule is simple: Not in class. Period.

English teacher Lisa Honeycutt is 100 percent on board with that.

"I'm tired of fighting the fight," she said, noting that the buzzing and tapping before Monday was nearly constant, with students unable to resist the powerful urge to see who was calling or texting. "It's an absolute compulsion for them."