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Texting makes notes a thing of the past
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Passing notes during class still happens occasionally, according to some Chestatee High School students, but texting is much more popular.

Passing intricately folded notes embellished with hearts and block letters is a grade-school tradition that's fading fast.

With the advent of cell phones and text messages, students are daring to text under their desks instead of getting caught passing a note in class, old-school style.

Come on, you remember slyly yawning and passing that note about your hunky crush to your best friend in the desk behind you as you faked a stretch. And remember how embarrassed you were when Mrs. Donchatz snatched it up and read it aloud to the class, and everyone found out you were "madly in love" with Jake Ryan?

Natalie White, a literature teacher and yearbook adviser at Chestatee High School, said these days, about twice a month she snatches up a phone instead of a hand-written note.

"Texting is definitely up," she said. "Yes, they text constantly. I just take their phone away and take it to the front office. ... It's just a distraction. They're not here to text, they're here to learn."

White said students are dismayed to find the consequences to texting in class are also detrimental to their social lives. She said if students want their phones back, their parents must come to the front office and pick them up.

But Chestatee High School junior Hannah Plummer said every once in a while, a teacher will come across a juicy note, and sometimes read it aloud without identifying the author or recipient.

"It was just boyfriend and girlfriend arguing and fighting," Plummer said of one find. "Yeah, it's interesting."

Plummer said most of the time, unless the intended recipient is sitting right next to you, students just try to get away with sending text messages in class.

Gavin Sexton, a senior at Chestatee High, said it has been a while since he's committed the crime of note passing.

"I haven't seen it. Maybe freshman year is the last year," he said. "Texting - it's just plain and simple."

Chestatee High School senior Lisa Atwood said in middle school she used to devise elaborate schemes to get her notes to a friend across the room. She said sometimes she would ball the note up, and when the teacher turned her back, she'd chuck the ball across the room to her friend.

"I think it's kind of an adolescent thing, like it was cool to pass notes," Atwood said. "But now I just turn around and tell them what I have to say. It's too much effort to write it down. And now that we're seniors, teachers are a little bit more lenient."

Atwood said she believes girls are more often the culprits.

"In my closet, I have a huge box filled with notes, especially from eighth grade," she said. "I go back and read them and they're hilarious, like ‘Oh my gosh! Can you believe he broke up with her?' or ‘Can you believe what the teacher is wearing today?'"

As for the meticulously creased notes that turn out looking like stars or footballs, that's out, too.

"I don't think we do that anymore," Plummer said. "They're just square and folded up."

Ultimately, high schoolers said they left note passing behind in middle school.

"Now, it's really not that hard to wait till after class," Atwood said.