Should Students be Allowed to Have Their Phones in School?

[Sigblitz]

Not sure why we're so hung up on kids having phones in school. How many decades did we go through where kids went to school and all we had was land lines?

And they close school if the AC is broken. What is this AC in school?

 

[MCgrease08]

When I was a kid I got along fine without a phone in school or being connected to my parents 24/7. Kids need some space to grow.

That said, I have two phones with me when I'm at work. It's also acceptable to keep tabs on them and even check messages or take important calls when in meetings. Not sure why school should be so much different.

I think there's room for a conversation about whether school should be a place where we teach kids how to memorize and regurgitate facts (or worse, propaganda) or whether they are taught to explore sources of information with the technology of the day.

If the phone becomes a distraction or is used to interrupt or disrupt class then you take it away. Otherwise it's kind of weird to send the message that school has different rules than every other place they spend their time. It's up to parents to teach kids when to put phones away and be present. School often is one of those times /places, but I don't think there should be a blanket rule that no phone = good. Phone = bad.

 

[Expat]

Hell I sometimes think we would all be better off without them.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

When I was a kid I got along fine without a phone in school or being connected to my parents 24/7. Kids need some space to grow.

That said, I have two phones with me when I'm at work. It's also acceptable to keep tabs on them and even check messages or take important calls when in meetings. Not sure why school should be so much different.

I think there's room for a conversation about whether school should be a place where we teach kids how to memorize and regurgitate facts (or worse, propaganda) or whether they are taught to explore sources of information with the technology of the day.

If the phone becomes a distraction or is used to interrupt or disrupt class then you take it away. Otherwise it's kind of weird to send the message that school has different rules than every other place they spend their time. It's up to parents to teach kids when to put phones away and be present. School often is one of those times /places, but I don't think there should be a blanket rule that no phone = good. Phone = bad.

Is it acceptable to be watching youtube, or tiktok or texting your friends about non-work related subjects while you're in a meeting? Because that's what the kids are doing, and that's the complaint that teachers have against them being allowed.

 

[Super Bee]

I think it makes one question the teachers and administration.

I DO NOT want my kids to have to lose communication capability, because staff cannot adequately discipline.

My child or grandchild touches their phone in class, they are...
- verbally warned the first time
- sent to the office for written warning, the second time
- suspended the third offense

Seems pretty simple. School is about learning. Please teach my children!

Sounds good but administration could not care less. In my wifes school kids are allowed to keep phones with them but not be on them during class. . . but do they listen? Nope? What are the consequences? Nothing, teachers hands are tied. Just try to take a phone, you will have the kids parent in there raising a total **** storm.

They had a student performing a sex act on another student in the middle of a class room. . during class, it was recorded by several students. Take a guess what happened to the students. There is zero discipline in the schools anymore.

We need more Morgan Freemans to run these schools.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

View attachment 294389

Excuse the language , but WTAF is a "Success Teacher"??? I thought that was shop class and home ec when i was in school!!!

Paraprofessionals. Someone assigned to non-mainstream students to help them navigate school successfully, literally and/or figuratively.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

They had a student performing a sex act on another student in the middle of a class room. . during class, it was recorded by several students. Take a guess what happened to the students. There is zero discipline in the schools anymore.

Were they minors? I'd have had the police seize their phones and go after the participants as well as the teacher/admin that allowed it for child porn charges.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Paraprofessionals. Someone assigned to non-mainstream students to help them navigate school successfully, literally and/or figuratively.

So college kids with a part time gig?

 

[manifest destiny]

If the student has a phone that isn't being misused (cheating), used inappropriately (during class) and doesn't create a distraction (rings/beeps during class) then what exactly is the issue? If on the other hand, the student with the phone is doing any or all the above in parenthesis, then the phone becomes contraband and the offending student subject to discipline. Punish the abusers, misusers and deviants. Telling every student they are prohibited from possessing a phone because some might misuse theirs is akin to telling Indpls citizens they are prohibited from owning firearms because some misuse them. It isn't the phone. It's the student.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Most of us here survived without a cell phone at school.

The "but what if I need to get in touch with my kid?" Easy. Call the Office.
"Hi, this is Mr. Monkey. Can you tell my son Cheeky that his orthodontist appointment was cancelled so he needs to ride the bus home? I will not be picking him up after school. His homeroom teacher is Mrs. Butterworth. Thank you."

 

[Super Bee]

Were they minors? I'd have had the police seize their phones and go after the participants as well as the teacher/admin that allowed it for child porn charges.

The cops would be at these schools daily. Everyone talking pictures of themselves and sending them to everyone else. Most students know what every other student looks like naked. Pictures and videos are passed around daily.

I was shocked when I was first told these stories.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

The cops would be at these schools daily. Everyone talking pictures of themselves and sending them to everyone else. Most students know what every other student looks like naked. Pictures and videos are passed around daily.

I was shocked when I was first told these stories.

What's stopping you from reporting it? It's illegal.

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill

 

[Kurr]

I think ya'll hit it on the head without knowing it. They aint not wanting the phones in classes, I bet they aint wanting the cameras recording exactly what they are teaching in some of them classes.

 

[Super Bee]

What's stopping you from reporting it? It's illegal.

Is it?

If you have a couple 18 year old kids exchanging pictures of them naked whats illegal about that?

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Most students know what every other student looks like naked. Pictures and videos are passed around daily.

Is it?

If you have a couple 18 year old kids exchanging pictures of them naked whats illegal about that?

"Most students" sounds like more than a couple of kids. Unless of course there are only 3 kids in the school.

 

[loudgroove]

I was an Audio instructor at an audio school for a while. for the most part I didn't have any issues with phones. Since most students were just (legally) adults, I couldn't take a phone from the few that were always being disruptive with them. But I could embarrass them by calling them out in class by asking them "why are you looking at your lap and smiling?" But I found them very useful for the slow learners or the ones that had learning disabilities. I had no problem with them recording the class or a one on one instrustion. One student had an issue going from point a to point b to point c. He could understand it more by starting with c than a and then b. So he could skip around the video or audio file with the way he could understand. That made the class a lot less disruptive by not having him ask so many questions about stuff that I hadn't got to yet.

 

[Super Bee]

"Most students" sounds like more than a couple of kids. Unless of course there are only 3 kids in the school.

I did not go around and verify ever story I was told, ask for ages, ask to see the pictures, interview witness', ect. Kids are doing drugs in the school daily, smoking cigarettes, watching porn on their phones during class. Am I to call the local PD on every story I hear? Theres one already in the school. I am guessing they already know.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

If used effectively, cellular communication is an excellent way to parent your kids. It's not necessary to be completely out of touch with your kids these days.

The use of the phone is an important part of the upbringing of the kids also. It's the job of the parent and the teacher to train the youth on proper usage.

A couple of slight quibbles. Even without a cell phone I wasn't completely out of touch with my kids at school. Except maybe field trips for my oldest (cell phones weren't extremely common when he was in grade school). If needed they could use the school phone or I could contact the office, same as when I was in school.

2nd it isn't the job of the teacher to train them in proper use. Let them know what is exceptable maybe, my daughter teachers vary from no use in class period to study/self work is okay for music, to if you're done with your work have at it.

Otherwise it's kind of weird to send the message that school has different rules than every other place they spend their time. It's up to parents to teach kids when to put phones away and be present. School often is one of those times /places, but I don't think there should be a blanket rule that no phone = good. Phone = bad.

Why is it weird? I had different rules at school vs home vs this friend vs that friend house. Or even this friends house vs working with this friends dad. Not to mention different (very different) rules at places like the arcade.

 

[Timjoebillybob]

I did not go around and verify ever story I was told, ask for ages, ask to see the pictures, interview witness', ect. Kids are doing drugs in the school daily, smoking cigarettes, watching porn on their phones during class. Am I to call the local PD on every story I hear? Theres one already in the school. I am guessing they already know.

Except for the cell phones, you're describing schools going back I have no idea of how long. My grandparents adopted a girl whose parents were close friends. She had been expelled for having sex in school. This was in the 50s, (possibly late 40s) parents couldn't afford out of district tuition so... They adopted her for the year and then changed it back.

I know drugs were common in the 70s and 80s, as for tobacco the local high school had a smoking section outside for students with a note from a parent.

 

[manifest destiny]

I know drugs were common in the 70s and 80s, as for tobacco the local high school had a smoking section outside for students with a note from a parent.

The high school I graduated from had a desiganted outside smoking area. Teachers and students would gather between periods or during lunch, inhale their cancer sticks and then get back to class. The world kept turning.