TRENTON -- New Jersey lawmakers are considering lifting a ban on an item once considered so disruptive and synonymous with drug dealers that it was outlawed on school grounds.
Soon, if state Senators Ron Rice and Jim Whelan get their way, the once controversial pager, also known as a beeper, will be considered contraband in schools no longer.
The Democratic lawmakers don't think teens actually want a pager. But that's the point, they said.
"Fast forward almost three decades and it's no longer an issue," said Rice (D-Essex), the original sponsor of the law banning pagers in schools. "The law has clearly outlived its usefulness, and it's time to come off the books."
The pager, popular with doctors and other professionals before cellular telephones became ubiquitous, became problematic in schools over concern that students were using them to arrange drug deals or tip off dealers that police were nearby.
Nationwide, schools began to crackdown on pagers in the late 1980s, and New Jersey passed a law in 1989 that not only banned them in schools but outlawed the sale of beepers to anyone under the age of 18 unless they needed it for a job or medical reasons.
''Beepers are status symbols to some youngsters," Rice, a former police detective said as he pushed for the ban in the summer of 1989. "They represent power, influence and easy access to crack and money.''
But teens often ignored the law and the ban on selling pagers to young people was repealed in 1996. Now, it's finally time to lift the ban on beepers in schools, Whelan (D-Atlantic) said.
"Keeping a law on the books that bans pagers in school seems futile," Whelan said. "Social dynamics have changed so significantly that it no longer makes sense to keep the law."
Adam Clark may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.