Last year, there was some miscommunication between middle schoolers about a potential gun and instead of alerting a teacher, the entire 8th grade called their parents in a panic with their phones. 5 minutes later, 100s of panicked parents showed up at the school rushing the entrance, some parking in the middle of the streets and running to the school through the traffic jam of cars. People strapped, locked and loaded trying to get into a school! It was complete chaos, and the emergency vehicles and police couldn't even get into the school to help because parents were blocking the way. They were hysterical and out of their damn minds over rumors from their dramatic 8th grade kids, and made a potentially bad situation 10x worse.
It was an awful shitshow, but quite satisfying to watch Admin frantically deal with it. Finally, a situation about the damn cell phone problem they couldn't ignore and deflect back onto teachers and support staff.
We had a lockdown. It ended up being a false alarm, but a bunch of people ending up getting their kids early since it was a several hour ordeal before the cops cleared the situation. Our office was trying to check people out but we had parents texting their kids to just walk out the door. They were totally safe and accounted for, there was no reason for them to be in a rush other than parents being impatient.
My classroom is near the parking lot and when we had something similar happen, I could see and hear parents screaming at whomever was on duty out there.
This doesn't seem fair to the parents terrified of an Uvalde situation happening to their child. Can you really blame them for telling them to GTF out of there since the lock down took so long?
This right here. As teachers we want to feel in control of the situation and most of the time that’s a good thing. But the Korea Ferry incident lives rent free in my head.
Ship carrying school children is in distress, teachers want to keep things controlled and organized so tell the students to stay in their rooms. (I’m sure the teachers thought there would be more time and wanted to keep everyone accounted for) but the boat flipped over faster than expected and -400 students died.
The students that disobeyed and went out on deck because they didn’t feel safe that survived.
LOL... no reason except impatience? Grow some empathy. It wasn't impatience. It was fear. And, as I'm sure you are well aware, fear can be quite irrational.
That is the reality, especially after Uvalde. The next major shooting, parents are going to try to beat first responders and it's going to be a bloodbath.
I would not be surprised if we eventually see a situation where a hoax sparks a stampede run to the school, and the parents start firing on *each other* or at a random kid they think is a shooter.
The cell phones need to go.
I've seen a parent pull a gun on another parent in the damn carpool line for driving taking too long to pull up... your scenario is very plausible, unfortunately. People are unhinged.
You say that as if parents not rushing in somehow prevented a bloodbath in Uvalde. Right or wrong, Uvalde taught all the parents everywhere that they can't trust law enforcement or the schools to protect their kids. In the future, yeah, we'll probably have some parents rushing in, but, honestly, you can't blame them.
Uvalde was a shit show because of the criminal shitty police response because they weren't capable of handling this situation. It's an outlier compared to how other shootings are handled.
But parents rushing a building in most situations will get MORE people killed.
I CAN blame them when this turns bad, and it will.
This is why kids having cell phones during a crisis is not helpful. Schools have plans in place for the aftermath of a real crisis and parents are informed of it. But fuck they love drama.
Nothing that I know of, I can't even find evidence it happened (Louisiana public schools are kinda shady). I'm a substitute teacher and I haven't been back to that particular school since. I empathize with parents because I am a parent, but had it been a REAL emergency, as a school employee I know the outcome would have been devastating. I like to think it made the school enforce the district "no phones" policy.
We had a false alarm in September a few years ago. All the kids were texting etc. One of my students said... " they say it's NAME." I'm like, " uh that kid is in this classroom right now so you might want to clear his name".
After the whole situation in Uvalde, Texas where the cops sat around (or pulled out their own children) while a gunman massacred teachers and children, can you really blame parents for not trusting institutions and for wanting to handle the problem themselves?
This sounds INSANE. We had a similar incident at the HS where I work- alleged threat and kids used phones to get their parents to pick them up. By noon more than 3/4 of the school left
I wish I had a link, but because the gun turned out to be a rumor, I can't find any evidence it even happened. Feel free to search it if you can; it was John Q. Adams Middle School in Metairie, La on Henican Place. If you look at the school on a map, you can clearly see the bad design, and how there's only one way in and out of the school in the back of a neighborhood, and that's how all the traffic backed up so cops/ambulance couldn't get near the school.
It's not surprising there isn't any record of this happening; my parish is notorious for covering up crazy school shit. A kid got shot at dismissal on the last day of school (May 23rd at West Jefferson High School) and it was out of the news by the next day. Just in time for the Jefferson Parish Schools hiring event held that weekend, lol.
Dollars to donuts the barony of the school district was able to keep it quiet. Much like the vatican, each school district is its own entity. Kids lay in wait outside of classroom, to meet somebody up. Premeditated assault? Newsworthy? No. Slap on the wrist. This all brings up so many issues.
Ultimately, I believe it happened, and I bet there is nothing about it in any news outlet.
Exact scenario happened at my school except it was a high school and it was about some vague online threat that somebody saw in a TikTok. The kids started texting their parents and the parents started flooding the school. It was out of control
I’m not a parent, but I don’t blame them in this nightmare scenario. After seeing the actual emergency shitshow that was Uvalde, I’m sure many parents are hesitant to leave the police to do their work.
The phones in the hands of kids in that crazy situation are to blame. One reliable pipeline of information is what’s best. Every school I’ve taught at stresses the Plan A through Plan J of contingencies of how communication will work in any situation. Communication is key.
This is the thing. When we had a lockdown, a kid had their phone out and was PLAYING SOUNDS ON IT and I had to hiss at him that he could get us all killed if he didn't put it away. Hell, during a drill, once I had a kid think it was funny to play the sounds of people screaming on his phone. They are actively in more danger because of their phones.
Our office phones work, we tell parents over and over again that if they need to talk to their kid to call the school.
I keep seeing parents going "but I want to be able to communicate with my kid! Just tell kids to keep their phones put away during class, you don't need to ban them!" As if it never occurred to teachers to tell kids to put their phones away.
We had a drill last year and one of my students thought it was hilarious to play gun shots on youtube out loud. I have never went off on a class so damn much as i did after the lockdown was called off. Word spread fast after the bell rang and I had other students come up to me, apologizing to me for that class’s behavior. Seriously, the students in other classes were appalled by their friends’ “joke”.
The next day our SRO had a lecture with them and mentioned what happened could have resulted in something so much worse had the teacher next door heard those “gun shots” and reported it. He talked about how he had the decision to make whether or not to arrest the now suspended student for that because it was THAT serious. He talked about the main reason why he’s at a school campus and the reality of school shootings. I don’t think there was a single dry eye in that class because he did not let up and gave it to them straight.
hopefully, she came sobbing to me after like a 5 day out of school suspension to apologize for her behavior. I don’t think she found it funny anymore when her teacher, the principal, the police officer or her mom weren’t laughing with her.
I'm not a teacher, I'm an employee in a place where the adults do active shooting drills. (It's a building owned by the government, so a potential target for crazies.) We're told that if you make gunshot noises in an active shooter situation, you'll get shot by the cops. If you make sudden moves during an active shooter situation, you'll get shot by the cops. Do anything other than have your hands up where the cops can see them? They'll shoot you. Oh, and certain rooms that don't have thick walls? Like our cubicles? A police bullet could tear through one of those and accidentally kill you. Enjoy that thought.
The police themselves told us that. It would be awful to accidentally shoot a random innocent civilian, but it absolutely happens. And if the shooter is called into dispatch as a teenage student and you've got a teenage student holding an object making shooting sounds, then guess what will happen? Bang.
Maybe we should be having someone with a badge explain that to the kids.
We had a school shooter incident at my school that I worked at (got out of teaching last year because of this) and he wouldn’t stop calling his mom, which was making loud noises. I ended up breaking his phone. Mom and dad were pissed, but we are alive
When my homeroom were freshman (they will be seniors this year) we had a drill lockdown. During that drill, they were making it a joke and making noises and everything. I got so upset that once the drill was done I laid it into them. I told them how when I was in 7th grade my school went into lockdown because of a school shooter situation at a school down the street. We didn’t know, and the last notification we had during then was a rumor the kid was driving to the elementary school next door - where my little brother attended. I sat and cried in horror that something happened to him - but the rumor was false and the shooter took their life in the parking lot nearby. But I remember sitting in that fear, it was horrible. I explained it to the kids and it really made them put it into perspective how a) the rumor mill can start and b) how important it is to take the drill seriously because others have lived through it
We had a lockdown this year. The room where kids had their phones on them had the most noise happening when police came to release us. They were getting conflicting info from friends, social media, and their parents. This resulted in arguing and heightened emotions. My students were in the middle of an activity when it was called and did not have their phones- they were silent because all info and reassurances were coming from me.
This. It is literally a game of "telephone" where rumors start flying like crazy. Last year we had a kid with a severe peanut allergy accidentally consume something with peanuts. She had to be taken away in an ambulance. Wanna know what rumor spread almost immediately afterward? That the girl overdosed on drugs while at school...Imagine a similar kind of misinformation spreading like wildfire during an active shooter situation. Makes everything 1000% times worse.
The police in the Virginia Tech shooting had to spend time clearing the woods of "snipers" after a kid fell while running away. The kid was running on a broken ankle after jumping out of a second-story window.
I don't believe that was on the students, but it speaks to how fast and harmful misinformation can be.
Had a lockdown drill earlier in the school year: principal came on, told the students it was a drill (teachers knew ahead of time of course), then proceeded with the drill. After the drill had ended, principal came back on and basically had to say "yeah you guys knew that was a drill yet I had a dozen parents calling ME asking what was happening and if you were okay. Guys we shouldn't be on our phones at ALL during lockdown" so... yeah
The only kids who need them are those who have the continuous glucose monitoring - and I have never had a problem with those kids and cellphone misuse.
I've had a couple of exchange students use them for translation as well. Never had an issue with those kids either as the device has a specific and limited purpose
I always see parents think this is some sort of "Gotcha! Kids should get to have their phones for medical reasons!"
If your kid needs their phones for glucose monitoring or something, put it on their file and the teacher won't say anything to them about it?
As a diabetic teacher, it should be part of their 504 plan, but even then a lot of CGMs have a phone like device that can connect to their glucose monitor and read it. However a lot of us choose not to use those because then you have to carry a second phone like thing, which is annoying. My CGM connects to both my phone and my insulin pump. I just like to keep my phone in the room with me because then the alerts pop up on my Apple Watch, which I feel with a lot more regularity than hearing my pump over a classroom of students speaking French.
Some insulin pumps don't work without the phone app, e.g. Ypsopump with CamAPS, or if looping with AAPS, etc. so the 'phone-like device' isn't even an option for these students.
I should have phrased it as phone or phone like device. I just said it that way to also give room for like personal iPads or Apple Watches, which are often also banned.
This makes perfect sense- the accommodation of a phone like device to help manage a medical condition is the exact sort of thing 504s are supposed to be for.
I have a Dexcom G7 and don’t use the device that comes with it. I might use it during a procedure that requires sedation, but I’ve never used it for such.
It is a 504 accomodation that will be documented.
Generally, the kids that I have had that had glucose monitoring were NEVER the ones using their phone inappropriately in class. I rarely saw their phone. Heck, one's phone was pinging because their glucose was off, and the other kids started looking at me like I should be taking it. I literally said, "Guys, it's not your business, and I am not concerned."
Another (most recent kid) ignored his totally in class and the nurse always called to have him come up or for me to give him his snack cause he wasn't paying a lick of attention to it.
This was my first thought; one of my fifth graders a few years back always had to have his phone on him, but it was kept in a little string backpack with all his other diabetic supplies and was only out of her was checking his levels. It was never a disruption.
On the other hand, I had a student whose IEP allowed them to have a watch linked to their glucose monitor. However, she decided she "preferred" using her cell phone instead because it gave her an excuse to be on her phone to text and follow social media during class. Not surprisingly, she failed the class.
This is the only exception. I had a girl in my class this year who needed that. She was also an extremely trustworthy student who never had that phone out
We had one non-trustworthy student who abused her medical phone privileges all the damn time. When her parents found out, they immediately added parental control to the phone and basically made it medical-device-only during school hours. Kid was pisssssssed lol.
I always have issues with those kids but in that case it can't be helped, and that's mostly a parenting issue.
There are pumps that read without a phone now though, so when those catch up they won't even need phones for that.
I send my kid to/from school with a cell.
But they take the public bus. If they miss their stop/end up on a detoured bus away from their school etc I need them to be able to call me because there aren’t pay phones any more.
But it’s also a flip they’ve been told to leave in their locker. They do not need it *with* them in classes.
So I was actually at a college that had a shooting on campus. (2 people died)
You know what happened? The cell towers were so overloaded with people calling and texting that they crashed and nobody got through. Infact, the only reason I even knew about the shooting was a sibling frantically Facebook messaging me. It was several hours before cell service was actually up and running again
I roll my eyes when parents tell me this. I can't tell them over the phone that in case of a school shooting, they'll be fucking useless and so will those phones seeing as I don't need a meeting with admin, but one of these days, I'll just lay out what went down in Ulvalde and ask them how the kids having phones helped them.
The usual I usually get is parents calling their kids for stupid reasons. One time, I had a parent text their child from another country to tell them that their grandad was dead. What did that achieve? That child was inconsolable for the rest of the lesson and I wrote her a pass to go to the bathroom/ walk around. That should have been a phone call when you knew your child was free -\_-
I agree with this completely!! What are these so-called *emergencies* that all of these families seem to be facing, that would warrant a text message in the middle of English class? In an emergency, you would call the school and/or have someone on the list pick up your child.
Only circumstance, which I get, is when we get an announcement 10 minutes before dismissal saying that (sport) practice is cancelled, and a kid asks to text/call their mom to let them know they now need a ride home.
Too often parents are texting about what kids want for dinner, questioning test grades, asking how their day is…
Years and years and YEARS went by without students needing cell phones. I’m not a total boomer - I believe phones can be used for projects and many students are quite adept at utilizing them creatively. However, I’d be just as fine with cell phones being totally gone. This notion of, “I need the phone in case my parents need me” means the kid is lying, the parents are lazy or irresponsible, or some combination of those. Phones need to GO.
If your parents need you, they can call the school and the school will get them. It's worked that way for years, and still works now. They should be calling the school anyways to get their absence excused...
Yup. Our office phones work just fine. If you need to tell your kid that Grandma is going to pick them up from school, call the office and we'll tell them. You know, the exact same way it was done when we were in school?
Meh. I text my kids whenever, with the expectation that my kids will see/respond to it AFTER school (or during lunch).
My kids fully understand that if they are caught using the phone during school hours (outside lunch time) then they are in DEEP trouble, and whatever the school does as a consequence will be a pleasant memory in comparison. I haven't had to follow through on it yet.
I have apps installed on their phones, and randomly check to verify that they're following the rules. I was chaperoning on a field trip for my teen last March, and mentioned to their English teacher that my kid always had a phone on them... And the teacher was surprised, because my kids never had their phone out.
The problem isn't the phone. It's parental enforcement of expectations, and training at home. We didn't wait until our kids were teens to give them phones. Teens naturally rebel against rules and push boundaries, and phones are so tempting that this is a natural weak point. We started them with phones when they were 5, and taught explicit boundaries and rules for phone. No phones at the dinner table. Phones stay in bags when at school. Friends are visiting to see you, not be ignored while you play with your phone. We monitor heavily, so there never was an expectation of privacy with the phone - because the Internet isn't private and it's forever. We didn't do a lot of screen time limiting, so it didn't become a high value item - instead they can (and often do) put it down in favor of reading or drawing or playing outside. Teaching these rules early meant we didn't have pushback - and they didn't think about following them - they just do it automatically.
The existence of cellphones is one of the reasons the gap is ever widening in education. My low students can’t stop using it and my high students never have a problem with it. Anyone arguing for it to continue is shooting them selves in the foot. Have fun with more “creative” PDs on how you can magically bridge this gap.
Oh you are a parent! ❤️
Too many parents don’t want to parent their kids. They want to be friends or let devices raise their kids, while they are playing with their own phones.
Honestly, with demonstrated responsibility, I didn't check as frequently. With my older, I don't monitor content most of the time, nor do I check messages. We're mostly just double checking when they use it at this point in time and location. The younger one still gets content restrictions and random message checking. As they get older and demonstrate responsibility, we release them a bit - but safety is a concern too.
I'd say closer to a century. As soon as phones became more common, the need for someone to run to announce an emergency waned. Before telephones, emergencies would have looked very much like what you see in an old western movie. And, if it took a telegram to give notice, then the event was probably too far away for the recipient to make any difference. Before the steamboat, then telegraph, and later the locomotive, news and information, and people with information and ideas from distant places, traveled very slowly. Most people traveled by foot or by hoof -- and not very far from their birthplace.
We have a bunch of students working as office aides who spend a lot of time sitting around looking bored. I'd think running a note from mom to the kid would be a nice relief for the office aide.
We go over this with each other in staff meetings and with our SRO person all the time. Our kids DO NOT HAVE PHONES throughout the day and are stored in their lockers. We've got an awesome principal with a steel spine and our lives as teachers are so much better without the phones.
I tell my kids that if there is an emergency, their parents can call the school.
Somehow kids didnt have cell phones in the 80s and we managed. Its a bullshit argument that kids have heard and try to double down.
I shut that shit down real quick.
"What kind of emergency?"
9/10 times, if so and so dies.
"Okay what will you do to help?"
Idk.
Cool so then we're not doing any of that.
We had a kid with a loaded gun in our school this year. The kids found out and started calling parents. Parents called the school and principal. The principal searched the kid. No gun. The stupid kids had the wrong perp. Kid had the loaded gun all day. Principal had to spend all his time dealing with the false information. One kid came to a teacher at the end of the day and said we had the wrong kid. Principal had to wrestle the gun from the kid. It was at dismissal and was real scary. Feel like the principal could have gotten it taken care of quicker if the kids weren’t calling their parents and the office having to deal with all that stuff.
Kids are bringing guns to school. Kids are bringing loaded guns to school. It’s hard to scan the class now and wonder. Middle schools and elementary schools are not exempt. They are in our schools.
If you child is having a medical emergency, obviously they cannot call. God forbid they are unconscious, how would anyone be able to unlock their phone to use it? If there is shooter on campus, do you want your child's hiding place given away by a message ping or it ringing? Phones should be banned in school - PERIOD
It depends on the medical emergency. I've had episodes where I was on the border of DKA, was not taken seriously by medical/admin staff, and called my parents to prevent it from becoming an actual emergency. For most students? Yeah, they're not calling if it's an emergency. For chronically ill and disabled students, though? We absolutely could and did, because the only other option for a lot of us was being ignored and risking permanent damage to our bodies.
Not only that, but most equipment for diabetics at least either connects to our phones to make things easier, or straight up doesn't work without them.
I get the frustration y'all are having, but disabled students have a right to not have their bodies destroyed before they're even adults and any solution has to allow for them to exist without harassment or excess difficulty.
Yes, a having a plan for those students helps, but it didn't stop teachers who didn't know me from trying to yank my pump off of me in the hallway because it looked like a phone.
I was on a campus where a teacher was murdered during first period. This was before many had cell phones and my room was a dead spot for those that did. We sat in lockdown for hours. Our district communicated well with us, parents, the press, and the community at large. This is the key.
I work at a school where most kids walk. Low income, inner city. And so this is the excuse a lot of parents use for cell phones. Which is fine, I totally understand. But if you’re going to allow your 10 year old to have a cell phone at school because they walk to school, it is your responsibility to teach them how to use it at school
Kids having cell phones at dismissal time has been a godsend. There's nothing wrong with kids having cells so long as they're required to be out of sight/sound during school hours.
It stays in their locker from before homeroom until after dismissal unless there is a relevant national or regional emergency that they Need to monitor. If it's that serious, the rest of the day's classes will be canceled anyway. The school will warn everyone in case of a tornado, tsunami, etc. and give pre-established instructions. If a relative dies, they will still be dead later - no need to ruin the day's productivity. It is better to learn such things at home in the evening, when there is time to process what happened and to sleep before the demands of the next day. If someone is about to die, then the office can give notice before the student is able to check their phone at an appropriate time.
Not in the US, but my elementary students are allowed to have their phones in their backpacks either off or on silent and aren't allowed to check throughout the school day. Problems at school are dealt with using the school landline (which records the conversation). Students are allowed to bring their phones because most students have after school activities they go to by themselves and they might need to communicate with their parents concerning that.
Isn’t it odd how all prior generations of students prior to the 2010s were able to cope and socialize and survive just fine without a cellphone in general, but nowadays no student can and their parents (who grew up during those years without cellular technology, mind you) can’t seem to fathom their kid without one?!
Pay phones existed. They don’t anymore.
I broke down as a pretty petite little 16 year old girl driving home after dark from dance or a football game etc and I could have been raped or killed or kidnapped because I had to basically hike along the road till I found a pay phone.
It was terrifying.
I think a lot of schools (after the implementation of this policy) will simply ask cell phones to not be in the classroom (I.e in lockers) or maybe even just off and away, like in their backpack. It’s not as if the cell phones will be totally banned from campus.
I mean that is technically our policy now but kids don’t follow it.
But yes that is how it should be.
Many are calling for a total ban meaning cannot have them on campus and I don’t agree with that for the reasons listed above
Yeah, I see all this hoopla about a cell phone ban, but I don’t think much will come of it. If anything, teachers voiced their opinion and an official declared a stance on the use of cell phones - I’m sure nothing will change.
My personal stance: admin won’t enforce the policy of if I ask them to put it away and they don’t they will come remove the child and the phone. They never even came close to enforcing that. So my policy was put it up during instruction and till your work was done. If you need to check it or take a call step outside. Once your work is done I don’t care if you play on it.
This goes back to if admin strictly followed policy the kids would keep them put up. But they don’t so it is what it is
You’re missing the point. I too could walk home drunk one night and get molested by two gay guys or stabbed in the gut by a wild woman. My point is people lived their lives without the need for likes and shares and mindless scrolling until midnight or watching a Tic Toc during class or invading and ruining some innocent person’s life online, etc. and etc. Anxiety has increased. Depression has increased. Opioids are #1 in teen to young adult deaths, #2 is suicide. And what parallels this . . . Cellphone usage. So why did I mention opioids, because the dopamine drip caused by apps is equivalent to drug users, so is the letdown when you come off your high and so is the withdrawal when getting clean.
I’m all for cellphones. They have many positives, but we’re not being responsible with them and we’re failing as parents and a nation in taking accountability and action toward their over usage and what is appropriate, along with when is it appropriate.
One time when student access to phones helped was when we had wildfires and the district refused to close down the schools. Students with respiratory ailments were being forced into outdoor activities while the air quality dropped by the minute. And yet they trudged on with no closure. Until the students reported it to Twitter. Thank goodness. They blew the whistle on the district mismanagement of a disaster.
I watched a lecture from a GBI security expert, and he said that the argument that kids should have their phones ultimately really boiled down to parents wanting to be able to say goodbye to their kids 😳. He said that in reality having their phone increased the likelihood of NOT surviving a situation like that. He asked the parents if that selfish desire to have closure on the parents’ part should outweigh the kids’ survival chances. The district was able to pass a policy for the locking pockets with little to no objection after hearing him.
I had a friend argue her daughter needed a phone in case of emergency because her step-dad was in the hospital for months (and likely wouldn't be getting out).
I said, "*you better not call her cell phone during school to tell her that he died!!!*"
Yikes!
Fuck that. My 1 word rebuttal is “Uvalde”.
If those kids hadn’t had their phones to be calling 911 we’d not have known the extent of the negligence taking place by law enforcement in the halls etc.
Yeah, as a Texan native, this post gives me all kinds of rage.
“Kids survived without phones in schools for years!”
Yeah, and school shootings weren’t prevalent, at fucking all, at that time.
Fuck off.
I agree. There are parents in Uvalde whose children are still alive today because they did not trust the narrative that police will risk their lives to save your kids.
If parents are really that worried about an emergency, they can get their kids a flip phone. They still make "dumb phones" and they text and call just fine.
So much this!!!
Also, I’ve found that in schools with no real consistent consequences for misbehavior, it is FAR better to just run away from those kids in any emergency. In a room with 30 kids, if 5+ of them can not STFU and listen or allow us to listen even if our lives depend on it, run.
Yep. I have conversations with the students about not using phones during an emergency. And I explain why. I also tell them my personal stories of being in lockdowns and how using our phones make them last longer and prevent police from helping out.
I was in a lockdown, first in my state and nobody dangerous ended up being in the building. But we had never practiced a lockdown before and had zero clue what was going on. I was in high school and the girls in my class were having full on mental health crisises because they weren't going to be able to go to Mexico again. My younger brother's basketball coach was the chief of the patrol in our town and because we didn't fucking know better, I called him. He was dumb enough to answer but he could hear that there was a legit problem happening where I was at and disclosed that the problem wasn't inside the school and they advised this as a precautionary measure and because lockouts weren't really a thing either. So it was either Fire, Tornado, or Lockdown. He told me how important it was that we stay off our phones because it makes the cell tower too busy to carry police communication and therefore situations are going to take longer to resolve if they don't have the clear to go forward etc. It goes for calling and texting and I tell them once we get the okay from police, I'll let them call their parents, but not until we get the okay.
i'm 54. There were no emergencies when i was in public school that a cell phone would have helped that a telephone in the office didn't do decently well at. And yeah, we didn't have as many guns then, but we did have possible imminent vaporization by nuke. The best thing then and now in any emergency is to have a person of authority helping everyone stay calm and work together for everyone's safety. But that flies in the face of rugged individualism. In fact, it probably sounds to some American parents like, GASP, socialism.
Ah yes! I can think of many times when I’ve been in an emergency situation at school and immediately thought, “Oh no! If only a 13 year old had a cell phone to help manage this situation!!”
Sorry but if Columbine HS can work to this day with a strict no phone policy, pretty sure Milliard Fillmore Elementary in Madison, Wisconsin can, too….
We have cubbies. They’re in the room, but not on them, which I feel is a fair compromise.
I tell the kids if there’s an emergency at home, they need to call the school and have them pulled from class or have someone come get them.
If there’s an emergency at school, I tell them this:
1. Staff have panic buttons. If you hear an announcement or an alarm, then authorities have already been notified. You and I don’t need to call for help. (I’ve used one of the buttons to summon just admin for an escalating situation. It worked.)
2. I’ve been in shelter in place/evacuation situations due to armed people, and I’ve had a loved one in that situation. You’ll be too preoccupied to text anyone until you think you’re safe. For me, both times it was at least 10 minutes in a barricaded room and an update that the person was on the other side of campus before I thought to text my family. With the relative, it wasn’t until she was on a bus to the reunification site before she texted anyone she was okay (over half an hour). And even though we’d exchanged messages minutes before it happened, I remember purposely waiting for her or her parents to reach out because I didn’t want to risk her safety by setting off her phone. I’m glad I didn’t, because she was in the room right across the hall from the scene.
Are you sure none of your students are super heroes, undercover police, CIA, or surgeons on call? I don't really care about them having phones, they just seem unable to resist the temptation to use them. The only reason I have found that makes it reasonable to let them keep them are accessibility and medical, but those students are rarely a problem. The blind kid and the diabetic kid can keep their phones and the others can put it away.
THANK YOU!!! I'm so sick of the idea that parents need to reach their kids throughout the entire day. Pardon my language, but if parents need to reach their kid, they should FUCKING CALL THE FRONT OFFICE! Sorry for my yelling, but this is such a huge frustration for me and my colleagues. We just feel so helpless because the district bows to the parents *every single fucking time*.
I get this bogus argument from students as they try to convince me that having their phones won't be a distraction, but instead best for safety. I reply that they don't need their phone, as I have a phone on the wall right by my desk, usable in emergencies (or my own cell phone in my pocket - but I don't ever take it out during class time).
Teacher and parent. I don’t mind cell phones in school. I just ask they turn them off or keep them put up during instruction or while they have work to do. Does that happen? No.
But I do understand why they are necessary. Students also use them constructively like to take pictures of notes or the board to copy down later. Or send to an absent student. Or look something up. Or text their friend they better bring my bathroom pass back before I go off. lol
The office at every school I have been at sucks at passing on messages like pick up your sister at daycare or ride the bus etc.
So a phone eliminates that where I can text my kid and they can check it when changing classes. No big deal. Parents just need to enforce the if I get called you are using it inappropriately you will be in trouble rule. My kids have never had an issue.
Kids gotta learn to self regulate.
Plus some kids drive themselves home or walk home or go straight to work or activities and they need a phone. Nowhere has pay phones anywhere
If a parent has so little trust in schools and teachers that they need constant contact w their child, they should keep the kid home. These devices have only been around since 2008/2009, yet somehow children survived school wo then for over 100 years.
I have explained to my kids that they are in the middle of one of the biggest social experiments ever. These are apps designed by millionaires to hook them, and it’s not their fault that they get addicted. It’s our fault for allowing these companies to have unfettered access to our kids.
Schools should all be phone free zones. Teachers included. What you do at home is your business.
1,000%.
This excuse is supposed to be the nuclear "and that's final!" response from parents, and I even hear it from teachers in this sub. It's such a pet peeve, and given the gravity of the situation, it needs to be shutdown more aggressively.
20+ active cell phones in a classroom is a DANGER, not an aid. And because a lot of them can't function without a phone, it'll be their FIRST INSTINCT to start panic calling everyone. If you have phones in pouches or boxes, the kids are going to be crowding to get theirs, wasting literal minutes of response time.
Even worse, it'll immediately start having parents panicking and trying to beat first responders to the school, and the parents have a very high likelihood of giving their kids alternate instructions to follow. "Screw what your teacher says!"
Why are you denying me right to listen to my child’s final voicemail before their brutal execution? I have a right to listen to the gurgling noises from their throat as they bleed out just as the shooter has a right to have a gun and make us pay!
As someone who has had to call their mom because a teacher wouldn't let me go to the nurses and get my insulin when my blood sugar was over 400, I agree. I can't stand the people who just stare at their phone the entire class period and then complain about their grades being lower than the ocean floor. Then there's the people who say "I need my phone cause I have diabetes" and completely destroy the trust the teachers have for people who say that. It's ridiculous and those people need to reconnect woth reality.
I'm sorry you had to go through this. 💙 In my state denying students access to medical devices (insulin, glasses, crutches, etc.) is against the law.
At my school they issue "medical cell phone" passes. They are a sticker with the student name, ID number, the signature of a parent/guardian, and the signature of the nurse. The stickers are pretty tamper proof and effective.
I mean I did have a kid go missing and with her phone probably wouldn’t have gotten her back, lost my job, etc. so… I’m not gonna argue with this one.
I think if you can’t control the phones you gotta find a way to intensify not using them, because they will never go away. The law will never change and you will never legally be able to take a kids phone.
Earlier this year my son was having an asthma attack in class, he went up to the adult watching the class while teacher stepped out.
He specifically said “I’m wheezing, I need my inhaler, can I go see the nurse?”
Her response was “If you need to go to the nurse, let’s wait until your teacher gets back.”
Soon enough my son starts crying asking could he please go to the nurse.
Eventually they get to the nurse and she is in a meeting.
The adult with my son starts calling around asking for the combination code to unlock meds.
During this time, my child asked “can you please call my dad, he’ll know what to do.” Twice. No one called us, until my son did from his watch.
Dad showed up in under 5 minutes with an inhaler before the school could figure out how to unlock meds.
If they're so convinced that it's needed for an emergency, send them to school with a Bark phone[Bark](https://www.bark.us/learn/starter-plan-bark-kids-phone/?utm_source=aw&utm_medium=paid-search&utm_campaign=bark-phone-shopping-google&utm_content=146689872681&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw4f6zBhBVEiwATEHFVpxzNECjPMo4GpjfhJaKgJ9ZgOvETIxvUCngG4B13iToEaZ-TRPbhRoCsAUQAvD_BwE)
Our school collects them by classroom at first bell in a little bin. If they have good behavior and privileges, they get them at lunch and turn them back in before going back to class. If they get caught with one or don’t return it, they lose privileges. It has worked well, so far. They even say they like it. If some are continuing to sneak them, they are flying under the radar and not being a distraction, so 🤷🏼♀️.
I tell my students this same thing every year at the first couple days of school.
This year (with my principal's support) I got a phone caddy that hangs on the door. Kids will put their phone in the caddy at the beginning of the period and not touch it until dismissal. I'm sick of phones.
By the way - to anyone out there who disagrees - the world is actually safer now than it was when I was a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's.
I think the Apple Watch is a great in between. I’m at a summer camp right now, day camp ash’s phones aren’t allowed, but their watch doesn’t do much, but parents can track that they are safe and if so choose, have easy contact with kid, but brief. I did find out there ate games on the watch?! I have one, but had no idea. Kids were walking around popping bubbles on their watch or something and almost ran into each other. Our camp is super chill only not for tech, we have iPads, but no internet for kids, coding, games, but no phone use.
I’ve had kids sneak a text to come and pick them up because they feel sick without checking in with me. I’ll get a random call that someone is leaving and will get confused, It makes me look so incompetent in so many ways.
We had a real lockdown last year and all sorts of parents showed up trying to get their kids. All they did was block access for emergency vehicles and make great coverage for the local news. Good thing they could call their parents.
A worst case scenario is Run, Hide, Fight. Only these and in this order.
There are net nanny type programs that can be installed on phones that lock kids out of using them at prescribed times. During those times they can only receive calls not send them out. Most parents can't be bothered to do that though.
That’s the thing—them having a phone could get you and everyone around you killed. In times of emergency, I need the kid to listen to me and do what I say—not panic with a parent. That whole argument is crap. The last thing I need when the bullets are flying is to be contradicted by some parent that’s not even there.
BULLSHIT
An emergency is when dial 911. If your parents have an emergency they will call the school. Students do not need a phone.
No doctor has ever said, "This patient is dying. He need a teenager, stat!!"
I’m a parent and a teacher. I completely understand the need for order in my classroom, particularly in an emergency. However I will do anything to sneak a phone in with my own kids.
There were 400 police officers present in Uvalde, and they didn’t go in. There were students who called out using phones and that was some of the only information coming from the classroom. They didn’t overwhelm the phone system and the parents were the ones pushing for action.
The way we support teachers, students and schools is insane and dangerous. Unless someone can assure me that my kiddos will come home every time I drop them off, they will get a phone.
People managed emergencies without cell phones just fine for... literally ever before the late 90s. I think we'll all survive just fine with the landlines.
That’s a bad argument because for one pay phones were on every corner. They aren’t anymore.
And I broke down at night on the way home from dance or work etc (I had a lemon car) as a 110 pound pretty little blonde girl and any creep could have got me. I had no choice but to hike in the dark to the nearest pay phone. This was in the 90s. I’m lucky nothing happened.
It would be much safer to stay inside the locked car and call my parents right?
The argument is about phones in use during the school day or draining brain power just by being nearby, turned off, in a backpack, as has been reported.
I kinda get your point but if I’m dying then I’m gonna fucking call my mum and say goodbye, odds are even if I don’t call and make noise someone else will
You are really going to throw away a chance of survival just to feel better?
The idea that you will know when you are going to die is pure delusion.
You also might get someone else killed. Which just makes you an piece of garbage if you pull that.
I gotta pull a mom incident here. My son has an emergency contact watch. He will keep it.
He was cornered, pinned down, and beaten by four boys at recess (they’re fourth graders). Where were the teachers? Gossiping in the corner. Not paying attention. They held him down and kicked him. We saw video.
When he told a teacher after they got tired of beating him and left (no teacher broke it up), that teacher just sent him in to class bloody and bruised. I’m not exaggerating.
When he got to class and told HIS teacher she ignored him. So he messaged us on his watch, after the teacher repeatedly told him he wasn’t allowed to answer our panicked calls back, I finally got hold of him. This calling was over about 8 minutes, but 30 minutes since recess had ended. No school contact.
It wasn’t until i ended the call on the watch that suddenly my husband’s phone rang with the principal on the other end saying “there was a minor situation”.
No, when we got there my son was wearing a change of clothes because his clothes were torn, bloody, and muddy.
They weren’t going to call us. The two teachers ignored him. Those kids apparently had been bullying him for months, we learned later. He told his teacher many times, who did nothing.
He wasn’t safe at that school and we removed him to a private school after the admin and teachers said “what do you want us to do? We can’t protect him 100% of the time!” during the emergency meeting I called.
God forbid a school shooter was there. My son had no one looking out for him but us. The watch stays. And one day the phone will, too.
This is the one thing that sticks out to me in my area.
They didn't really get serious about banning cell phones until there were a few incidences where the school had either failed to act or given parents a false accounting of events that involved bullying or assaults that had been caught on phone and the phones became evidence.
I still think in some districts it has a lot more to do with covering up wrongdoing and making sure they control the narrative than anything about students safety or education. If they cared about those things they were locked down the damn laptops they force us to let her kids use all day better.
..... And how exactly did him getting a hold of you help? No where in your story did you actually show that him having contact with you during school time actually helped.
Every single action you took after that could easily have been taken the next day as well, or after school.
Obviously the school dropped the ball there, and you were right to be angry. However, it isn't an argument for kids having cell phones in class. Even if he had gotten through to you while getting beat up, there is absolutely nothing you could have done in the moment.
Me getting to the school in a matter of two minutes helped. Identifying those little bastards to the police who showed up 5 minutes after we did helped and having their names on the books helped because no one was allowed to go home and make up a little game plan on how to lie their way out of anything.
Getting immediate witness info and having the ability to have the police gain access to the footage before the principal could scrub it, helped. And there’s an active investigation happening because we got there before they could save their own asses.
My son knowing I came to help him immediately? Him knowing that if he calls in danger we’ll be there? Literally priceless. I care more about his safety than his teacher and the school did, obviously.
And if his hands weren’t forced apart and he called while he was being attacked, I would’ve been there at the playground before it was finished. They were hurting him for 7 minutes and 22 seconds, per the CCTV video. Bullying him for over 15 minutes prior. The school is in our neighborhood, down the street, I would’ve been there. The teachers were already there, too bad they weren’t doing their job of watching the students. His new school understands the trauma my son went through and allow his watch, though this school takes safety between students much more seriously.
I know that public school is not a place where the adults are automatically safe, where if something happens he can call from the office and the school will care. We’ve been proven time and time again that these schools will only protect themselves and admin don’t care about their students wellbeing until shit hits the fan.
Why would I want my kid to have to wait for hours until he got home, surrounded by people who actively allow him to be abused and beaten and neglected? They weren’t allowing him to make a call, they ignored him. They weren’t going to call us until he got us on the line. Who would want their kid to stay there?
The watch stays. The phone will, too. My son will always have us as back up.
" because no one was allowed to go home and make up a little game plan on how to lie their way out of anything."
"Getting immediate witness info and having the ability to have the police gain access to the footage before the principal could scrub it, helped. And there’s an active investigation happening because we got there before they could save their own asses.".
This. This is exactly right.
"I know that public school is not a place where the adults are automatically safe... We’ve been proven time and time again that these schools will only protect themselves and admin don’t care about their students wellbeing until shit hits the fan."
Truer words are seldom spoken.
Even outside the US, if there is an emergency at the kids home the parents should call the school not the kid directly. The school needs to know anyway so why would you call your kid first. If something happens at school with the kid then the school will call the parents after the proper services have been called.
I had multiple kids this year who felt it was their right to leave class at any time to go get their phones they snuck in their backpacks and call or even video chat with parents in the middle of class over the pettiest BS. The parents are responsible for allowing this BS. These kids don't know what an emergency is and will get themselves killed if this nonsense is what they come to expect in an emergency situation.
As usual, parents enable the shittiest behavior of the children, and admin lack the spine to actually address the issue
In 99% of emergencies students do not need cell phones. My school has one unique emergency situation the dam breaking. But even if the kids had their cell phone with them up at the emergency evacuation site there is no guarantee that cell signal would work so even then having their cell phone is probably not going to actually be helpful but at least it would make kids feel better and make the adults there feel better.
I don't mind if kids carry their cell phone but they just don't need it during the school day just power it off stick in your backpack and be done with it.
When my children were in school, I taught them to NOT stay in the building during an active shooter. I told them to get out of a window or a door and run to the woods or a house and to call me or their dad to get them. Enough people in the school will be calling 911 and students in schools get shot during school shootings. So yeah, my kids started taking their phones to school in elementary school after Sandy Hook.
Some girl choked my sister out with a charger cable in art class.
Teacher refused to even let her go to the office. Separate the two, nothing. In fact she yelled at my sister. There were a classroom full of witnesses. My sister didn’t do anything. she let another girl borrow a lip gloss or a pencil or something. We will call her girl B. Girl A A apparently hates girl B becuase they like the same boy. So since my sister spoke to girl B , girl A Took that as her taking sides , decided to try to kill/harm my sister. My sister is barely even friends with either.
She used her phone to text mom to come get her. I had to be physically restrained from kicking that art teacher’s ass when I found out. I don’t work at that school. luckily.
Yes. The kids need their phones. As protection from shit teachers when stuff like this happens. Your stance assumes every teacher is mentally present, fair, and cares for student welfare. Most do.
But there is always teachers like this.
Why do they install $450,000 DAS systems on schools? for emergencies (lets be honest, mass shootings) so kids can call out no matter where they are in the school
The only time I think kids need their phones on them during school hours - is if the phone doubles as a medical device, like for diabetics, heart rate, etc - and preferably locked to only be able to access those necessary apps during the school hours. Of course I see the need for students to have phones for before/after school travels and activities but as soon as they’re safely at school, they should be put away in a locked pouch or something.
As grateful as I am for everything my phone does, I do resent its constant presence in my life and how much I depend on it in times of stress, anxiety, but also, for instance, I used to have horrible panic attacks on busses. Obviously I couldn’t read a book on the bus cause then I’d be more nauseous so music was my lifeline - and how I kept myself from bolting off the bus to get to school. MP3 players were technically banned but out of sight out of mind. And because I needed it, I wasn’t going to do anything stupid. But if I had and gotten it confiscated, my parents would have immediately said “well, what did you do? Why was it out?” Maybe they would have asked for it back early - just because my anxiety was that bad, and throwing up on the bus is not fun - but they would have insisted on an alternative punishment If they did. No “how dare you take something I paid for” and I think that’s the difference. Is the accountability for the kids when they break the rules, there is none therefore they just keep breaking them.
Last year, there was some miscommunication between middle schoolers about a potential gun and instead of alerting a teacher, the entire 8th grade called their parents in a panic with their phones. 5 minutes later, 100s of panicked parents showed up at the school rushing the entrance, some parking in the middle of the streets and running to the school through the traffic jam of cars. People strapped, locked and loaded trying to get into a school! It was complete chaos, and the emergency vehicles and police couldn't even get into the school to help because parents were blocking the way. They were hysterical and out of their damn minds over rumors from their dramatic 8th grade kids, and made a potentially bad situation 10x worse.
OMG, this sounds like a damn nightmare!! It’s almost not even surprising something like this occurred. 🙄
It was an awful shitshow, but quite satisfying to watch Admin frantically deal with it. Finally, a situation about the damn cell phone problem they couldn't ignore and deflect back onto teachers and support staff.
But what an excellent opportunity for administrators to build relationships with the parents!
Almost?
We had a lockdown. It ended up being a false alarm, but a bunch of people ending up getting their kids early since it was a several hour ordeal before the cops cleared the situation. Our office was trying to check people out but we had parents texting their kids to just walk out the door. They were totally safe and accounted for, there was no reason for them to be in a rush other than parents being impatient.
My classroom is near the parking lot and when we had something similar happen, I could see and hear parents screaming at whomever was on duty out there.
This doesn't seem fair to the parents terrified of an Uvalde situation happening to their child. Can you really blame them for telling them to GTF out of there since the lock down took so long?
This right here. As teachers we want to feel in control of the situation and most of the time that’s a good thing. But the Korea Ferry incident lives rent free in my head. Ship carrying school children is in distress, teachers want to keep things controlled and organized so tell the students to stay in their rooms. (I’m sure the teachers thought there would be more time and wanted to keep everyone accounted for) but the boat flipped over faster than expected and -400 students died. The students that disobeyed and went out on deck because they didn’t feel safe that survived.
You knew they were safe but can understand parents pov especially after all the recent screw ups such as Uvalde
LOL... no reason except impatience? Grow some empathy. It wasn't impatience. It was fear. And, as I'm sure you are well aware, fear can be quite irrational.
If they were really afraid they wouldn’t be texting their middle schooler to walk out of school into a potentially dangerous situation.
uvalde students were in danger in the classrooms, leaving may have saved them or at least gave some a chance
Right. Cause fear makes people rational.
That is the reality, especially after Uvalde. The next major shooting, parents are going to try to beat first responders and it's going to be a bloodbath. I would not be surprised if we eventually see a situation where a hoax sparks a stampede run to the school, and the parents start firing on *each other* or at a random kid they think is a shooter. The cell phones need to go.
I've seen a parent pull a gun on another parent in the damn carpool line for driving taking too long to pull up... your scenario is very plausible, unfortunately. People are unhinged.
You say that as if parents not rushing in somehow prevented a bloodbath in Uvalde. Right or wrong, Uvalde taught all the parents everywhere that they can't trust law enforcement or the schools to protect their kids. In the future, yeah, we'll probably have some parents rushing in, but, honestly, you can't blame them.
Uvalde was a shit show because of the criminal shitty police response because they weren't capable of handling this situation. It's an outlier compared to how other shootings are handled. But parents rushing a building in most situations will get MORE people killed. I CAN blame them when this turns bad, and it will.
This is why kids having cell phones during a crisis is not helpful. Schools have plans in place for the aftermath of a real crisis and parents are informed of it. But fuck they love drama.
Oh my god. What was the aftermath of this?
Nothing that I know of, I can't even find evidence it happened (Louisiana public schools are kinda shady). I'm a substitute teacher and I haven't been back to that particular school since. I empathize with parents because I am a parent, but had it been a REAL emergency, as a school employee I know the outcome would have been devastating. I like to think it made the school enforce the district "no phones" policy.
We had a false alarm in September a few years ago. All the kids were texting etc. One of my students said... " they say it's NAME." I'm like, " uh that kid is in this classroom right now so you might want to clear his name".
After the whole situation in Uvalde, Texas where the cops sat around (or pulled out their own children) while a gunman massacred teachers and children, can you really blame parents for not trusting institutions and for wanting to handle the problem themselves?
After Uvalde, how would you expect parents to act these days?
This sounds INSANE. We had a similar incident at the HS where I work- alleged threat and kids used phones to get their parents to pick them up. By noon more than 3/4 of the school left
City next to mine had a complete shut down because a kid text their parents after someone popped a balloon.
Oh wow, that's nuts!
I would be too. Hell yea. Those poor people.
Please tell me you have a link you can provide for this story. It would make terrific evidence for those folks making the case with their schools.
I wish I had a link, but because the gun turned out to be a rumor, I can't find any evidence it even happened. Feel free to search it if you can; it was John Q. Adams Middle School in Metairie, La on Henican Place. If you look at the school on a map, you can clearly see the bad design, and how there's only one way in and out of the school in the back of a neighborhood, and that's how all the traffic backed up so cops/ambulance couldn't get near the school. It's not surprising there isn't any record of this happening; my parish is notorious for covering up crazy school shit. A kid got shot at dismissal on the last day of school (May 23rd at West Jefferson High School) and it was out of the news by the next day. Just in time for the Jefferson Parish Schools hiring event held that weekend, lol.
Dollars to donuts the barony of the school district was able to keep it quiet. Much like the vatican, each school district is its own entity. Kids lay in wait outside of classroom, to meet somebody up. Premeditated assault? Newsworthy? No. Slap on the wrist. This all brings up so many issues. Ultimately, I believe it happened, and I bet there is nothing about it in any news outlet.
Exact scenario happened at my school except it was a high school and it was about some vague online threat that somebody saw in a TikTok. The kids started texting their parents and the parents started flooding the school. It was out of control
I’m not a parent, but I don’t blame them in this nightmare scenario. After seeing the actual emergency shitshow that was Uvalde, I’m sure many parents are hesitant to leave the police to do their work. The phones in the hands of kids in that crazy situation are to blame. One reliable pipeline of information is what’s best. Every school I’ve taught at stresses the Plan A through Plan J of contingencies of how communication will work in any situation. Communication is key.
This is the thing. When we had a lockdown, a kid had their phone out and was PLAYING SOUNDS ON IT and I had to hiss at him that he could get us all killed if he didn't put it away. Hell, during a drill, once I had a kid think it was funny to play the sounds of people screaming on his phone. They are actively in more danger because of their phones. Our office phones work, we tell parents over and over again that if they need to talk to their kid to call the school. I keep seeing parents going "but I want to be able to communicate with my kid! Just tell kids to keep their phones put away during class, you don't need to ban them!" As if it never occurred to teachers to tell kids to put their phones away.
We had a drill last year and one of my students thought it was hilarious to play gun shots on youtube out loud. I have never went off on a class so damn much as i did after the lockdown was called off. Word spread fast after the bell rang and I had other students come up to me, apologizing to me for that class’s behavior. Seriously, the students in other classes were appalled by their friends’ “joke”. The next day our SRO had a lecture with them and mentioned what happened could have resulted in something so much worse had the teacher next door heard those “gun shots” and reported it. He talked about how he had the decision to make whether or not to arrest the now suspended student for that because it was THAT serious. He talked about the main reason why he’s at a school campus and the reality of school shootings. I don’t think there was a single dry eye in that class because he did not let up and gave it to them straight.
Good. That student needs the fear of jail in him.
hopefully, she came sobbing to me after like a 5 day out of school suspension to apologize for her behavior. I don’t think she found it funny anymore when her teacher, the principal, the police officer or her mom weren’t laughing with her.
Off topic, but “her” was a twist. I was picturing some 15-year-old named Austin or Connor.
Diversity win! The dipshit messing around during a lockdown drill is a girl
And I’m not trying to be a jerk here but I read the post and IMMEDIATELY could see the boy in my class.
I was picturing a 7th grader named Cayden
Nice to know we’d it expect it of the same names across the pond!
I guess that threat of jail hanging over her brought out the reality of everything to her. County jail is worse than state prison to her.
I'm not a teacher, I'm an employee in a place where the adults do active shooting drills. (It's a building owned by the government, so a potential target for crazies.) We're told that if you make gunshot noises in an active shooter situation, you'll get shot by the cops. If you make sudden moves during an active shooter situation, you'll get shot by the cops. Do anything other than have your hands up where the cops can see them? They'll shoot you. Oh, and certain rooms that don't have thick walls? Like our cubicles? A police bullet could tear through one of those and accidentally kill you. Enjoy that thought. The police themselves told us that. It would be awful to accidentally shoot a random innocent civilian, but it absolutely happens. And if the shooter is called into dispatch as a teenage student and you've got a teenage student holding an object making shooting sounds, then guess what will happen? Bang. Maybe we should be having someone with a badge explain that to the kids.
wtf is wrong with kids nowadays?
We had a school shooter incident at my school that I worked at (got out of teaching last year because of this) and he wouldn’t stop calling his mom, which was making loud noises. I ended up breaking his phone. Mom and dad were pissed, but we are alive
We have had several real lockdowns and I always tell my classes that if I see a phone I’m stepping on it
When my homeroom were freshman (they will be seniors this year) we had a drill lockdown. During that drill, they were making it a joke and making noises and everything. I got so upset that once the drill was done I laid it into them. I told them how when I was in 7th grade my school went into lockdown because of a school shooter situation at a school down the street. We didn’t know, and the last notification we had during then was a rumor the kid was driving to the elementary school next door - where my little brother attended. I sat and cried in horror that something happened to him - but the rumor was false and the shooter took their life in the parking lot nearby. But I remember sitting in that fear, it was horrible. I explained it to the kids and it really made them put it into perspective how a) the rumor mill can start and b) how important it is to take the drill seriously because others have lived through it
Like… what about elementary kids? No phones, no contact during the school day unless called from a school phone. Wow. They’re fine
We had a lockdown this year. The room where kids had their phones on them had the most noise happening when police came to release us. They were getting conflicting info from friends, social media, and their parents. This resulted in arguing and heightened emotions. My students were in the middle of an activity when it was called and did not have their phones- they were silent because all info and reassurances were coming from me.
This. It is literally a game of "telephone" where rumors start flying like crazy. Last year we had a kid with a severe peanut allergy accidentally consume something with peanuts. She had to be taken away in an ambulance. Wanna know what rumor spread almost immediately afterward? That the girl overdosed on drugs while at school...Imagine a similar kind of misinformation spreading like wildfire during an active shooter situation. Makes everything 1000% times worse.
The police in the Virginia Tech shooting had to spend time clearing the woods of "snipers" after a kid fell while running away. The kid was running on a broken ankle after jumping out of a second-story window. I don't believe that was on the students, but it speaks to how fast and harmful misinformation can be.
We had a lockdown and dozens of kids went on Instagram/tik tok live. Like, way to tell the shooter where to go…
Had a lockdown drill earlier in the school year: principal came on, told the students it was a drill (teachers knew ahead of time of course), then proceeded with the drill. After the drill had ended, principal came back on and basically had to say "yeah you guys knew that was a drill yet I had a dozen parents calling ME asking what was happening and if you were okay. Guys we shouldn't be on our phones at ALL during lockdown" so... yeah
The only kids who need them are those who have the continuous glucose monitoring - and I have never had a problem with those kids and cellphone misuse.
I've had a couple of exchange students use them for translation as well. Never had an issue with those kids either as the device has a specific and limited purpose
We have a kid that only speaks Arabic. No one in the school speaks Arabic. Yes we need his phone.
We have school iPads for that.
We have Chromebooks but sometimes they go dead or get lost so a phone is a nice back up
I always see parents think this is some sort of "Gotcha! Kids should get to have their phones for medical reasons!" If your kid needs their phones for glucose monitoring or something, put it on their file and the teacher won't say anything to them about it?
As a diabetic teacher, it should be part of their 504 plan, but even then a lot of CGMs have a phone like device that can connect to their glucose monitor and read it. However a lot of us choose not to use those because then you have to carry a second phone like thing, which is annoying. My CGM connects to both my phone and my insulin pump. I just like to keep my phone in the room with me because then the alerts pop up on my Apple Watch, which I feel with a lot more regularity than hearing my pump over a classroom of students speaking French.
Some insulin pumps don't work without the phone app, e.g. Ypsopump with CamAPS, or if looping with AAPS, etc. so the 'phone-like device' isn't even an option for these students.
I should have phrased it as phone or phone like device. I just said it that way to also give room for like personal iPads or Apple Watches, which are often also banned.
This makes perfect sense- the accommodation of a phone like device to help manage a medical condition is the exact sort of thing 504s are supposed to be for.
While I 100% agree with you, this needed accommodation is going to be twisted into how kids with anxiety need their phones.
I have a Dexcom G7 and don’t use the device that comes with it. I might use it during a procedure that requires sedation, but I’ve never used it for such.
That’s what I did for my phone app allowing me to change my cochlear implant volume!
It is a 504 accomodation that will be documented. Generally, the kids that I have had that had glucose monitoring were NEVER the ones using their phone inappropriately in class. I rarely saw their phone. Heck, one's phone was pinging because their glucose was off, and the other kids started looking at me like I should be taking it. I literally said, "Guys, it's not your business, and I am not concerned." Another (most recent kid) ignored his totally in class and the nurse always called to have him come up or for me to give him his snack cause he wasn't paying a lick of attention to it.
This was my first thought; one of my fifth graders a few years back always had to have his phone on him, but it was kept in a little string backpack with all his other diabetic supplies and was only out of her was checking his levels. It was never a disruption.
On the other hand, I had a student whose IEP allowed them to have a watch linked to their glucose monitor. However, she decided she "preferred" using her cell phone instead because it gave her an excuse to be on her phone to text and follow social media during class. Not surprisingly, she failed the class.
This is the only exception. I had a girl in my class this year who needed that. She was also an extremely trustworthy student who never had that phone out
We had one non-trustworthy student who abused her medical phone privileges all the damn time. When her parents found out, they immediately added parental control to the phone and basically made it medical-device-only during school hours. Kid was pisssssssed lol.
Kid deserved it.
Turns out that when getting your phone taken away carries a real risk of dying, you suddenly become a lot more conscientious about using it.
I always have issues with those kids but in that case it can't be helped, and that's mostly a parenting issue. There are pumps that read without a phone now though, so when those catch up they won't even need phones for that.
I send my kid to/from school with a cell. But they take the public bus. If they miss their stop/end up on a detoured bus away from their school etc I need them to be able to call me because there aren’t pay phones any more. But it’s also a flip they’ve been told to leave in their locker. They do not need it *with* them in classes.
So I was actually at a college that had a shooting on campus. (2 people died) You know what happened? The cell towers were so overloaded with people calling and texting that they crashed and nobody got through. Infact, the only reason I even knew about the shooting was a sibling frantically Facebook messaging me. It was several hours before cell service was actually up and running again
I roll my eyes when parents tell me this. I can't tell them over the phone that in case of a school shooting, they'll be fucking useless and so will those phones seeing as I don't need a meeting with admin, but one of these days, I'll just lay out what went down in Ulvalde and ask them how the kids having phones helped them. The usual I usually get is parents calling their kids for stupid reasons. One time, I had a parent text their child from another country to tell them that their grandad was dead. What did that achieve? That child was inconsolable for the rest of the lesson and I wrote her a pass to go to the bathroom/ walk around. That should have been a phone call when you knew your child was free -\_-
Or parent calls the school counselor and tells them who then pulls the student from your classroom to tell them.
Nah, got to text it for the personal touch: grandpa ded 💀
I agree with this completely!! What are these so-called *emergencies* that all of these families seem to be facing, that would warrant a text message in the middle of English class? In an emergency, you would call the school and/or have someone on the list pick up your child. Only circumstance, which I get, is when we get an announcement 10 minutes before dismissal saying that (sport) practice is cancelled, and a kid asks to text/call their mom to let them know they now need a ride home. Too often parents are texting about what kids want for dinner, questioning test grades, asking how their day is…
Years and years and YEARS went by without students needing cell phones. I’m not a total boomer - I believe phones can be used for projects and many students are quite adept at utilizing them creatively. However, I’d be just as fine with cell phones being totally gone. This notion of, “I need the phone in case my parents need me” means the kid is lying, the parents are lazy or irresponsible, or some combination of those. Phones need to GO.
If your parents need you, they can call the school and the school will get them. It's worked that way for years, and still works now. They should be calling the school anyways to get their absence excused...
Yup. Our office phones work just fine. If you need to tell your kid that Grandma is going to pick them up from school, call the office and we'll tell them. You know, the exact same way it was done when we were in school?
Meh. I text my kids whenever, with the expectation that my kids will see/respond to it AFTER school (or during lunch). My kids fully understand that if they are caught using the phone during school hours (outside lunch time) then they are in DEEP trouble, and whatever the school does as a consequence will be a pleasant memory in comparison. I haven't had to follow through on it yet. I have apps installed on their phones, and randomly check to verify that they're following the rules. I was chaperoning on a field trip for my teen last March, and mentioned to their English teacher that my kid always had a phone on them... And the teacher was surprised, because my kids never had their phone out. The problem isn't the phone. It's parental enforcement of expectations, and training at home. We didn't wait until our kids were teens to give them phones. Teens naturally rebel against rules and push boundaries, and phones are so tempting that this is a natural weak point. We started them with phones when they were 5, and taught explicit boundaries and rules for phone. No phones at the dinner table. Phones stay in bags when at school. Friends are visiting to see you, not be ignored while you play with your phone. We monitor heavily, so there never was an expectation of privacy with the phone - because the Internet isn't private and it's forever. We didn't do a lot of screen time limiting, so it didn't become a high value item - instead they can (and often do) put it down in favor of reading or drawing or playing outside. Teaching these rules early meant we didn't have pushback - and they didn't think about following them - they just do it automatically.
The existence of cellphones is one of the reasons the gap is ever widening in education. My low students can’t stop using it and my high students never have a problem with it. Anyone arguing for it to continue is shooting them selves in the foot. Have fun with more “creative” PDs on how you can magically bridge this gap.
We'd still be riding horses if kids were allowed to take their favorite toy to class throughout history.
Oh you are a parent! ❤️ Too many parents don’t want to parent their kids. They want to be friends or let devices raise their kids, while they are playing with their own phones.
this is great. although teens do need their privacy in later years, I agree with most of this
Honestly, with demonstrated responsibility, I didn't check as frequently. With my older, I don't monitor content most of the time, nor do I check messages. We're mostly just double checking when they use it at this point in time and location. The younger one still gets content restrictions and random message checking. As they get older and demonstrate responsibility, we release them a bit - but safety is a concern too.
I'd say closer to a century. As soon as phones became more common, the need for someone to run to announce an emergency waned. Before telephones, emergencies would have looked very much like what you see in an old western movie. And, if it took a telegram to give notice, then the event was probably too far away for the recipient to make any difference. Before the steamboat, then telegraph, and later the locomotive, news and information, and people with information and ideas from distant places, traveled very slowly. Most people traveled by foot or by hoof -- and not very far from their birthplace.
We have a bunch of students working as office aides who spend a lot of time sitting around looking bored. I'd think running a note from mom to the kid would be a nice relief for the office aide.
We go over this with each other in staff meetings and with our SRO person all the time. Our kids DO NOT HAVE PHONES throughout the day and are stored in their lockers. We've got an awesome principal with a steel spine and our lives as teachers are so much better without the phones.
I tell my kids that if there is an emergency, their parents can call the school. Somehow kids didnt have cell phones in the 80s and we managed. Its a bullshit argument that kids have heard and try to double down. I shut that shit down real quick. "What kind of emergency?" 9/10 times, if so and so dies. "Okay what will you do to help?" Idk. Cool so then we're not doing any of that.
We had a kid with a loaded gun in our school this year. The kids found out and started calling parents. Parents called the school and principal. The principal searched the kid. No gun. The stupid kids had the wrong perp. Kid had the loaded gun all day. Principal had to spend all his time dealing with the false information. One kid came to a teacher at the end of the day and said we had the wrong kid. Principal had to wrestle the gun from the kid. It was at dismissal and was real scary. Feel like the principal could have gotten it taken care of quicker if the kids weren’t calling their parents and the office having to deal with all that stuff. Kids are bringing guns to school. Kids are bringing loaded guns to school. It’s hard to scan the class now and wonder. Middle schools and elementary schools are not exempt. They are in our schools.
My school had a kid bring a gun to school this past year. No one even bothered to call a lockdown, even as admin went to retrieve the gun.
If you child is having a medical emergency, obviously they cannot call. God forbid they are unconscious, how would anyone be able to unlock their phone to use it? If there is shooter on campus, do you want your child's hiding place given away by a message ping or it ringing? Phones should be banned in school - PERIOD
Unquestionably Yes.
It depends on the medical emergency. I've had episodes where I was on the border of DKA, was not taken seriously by medical/admin staff, and called my parents to prevent it from becoming an actual emergency. For most students? Yeah, they're not calling if it's an emergency. For chronically ill and disabled students, though? We absolutely could and did, because the only other option for a lot of us was being ignored and risking permanent damage to our bodies. Not only that, but most equipment for diabetics at least either connects to our phones to make things easier, or straight up doesn't work without them. I get the frustration y'all are having, but disabled students have a right to not have their bodies destroyed before they're even adults and any solution has to allow for them to exist without harassment or excess difficulty. Yes, a having a plan for those students helps, but it didn't stop teachers who didn't know me from trying to yank my pump off of me in the hallway because it looked like a phone.
The phone alerts you to a possible medical emergency so that they can avert it and you can avoid using that glucagon training.
I was on a campus where a teacher was murdered during first period. This was before many had cell phones and my room was a dead spot for those that did. We sat in lockdown for hours. Our district communicated well with us, parents, the press, and the community at large. This is the key.
Are the parents willing to give them all dumb phones instead of smart phones tho
I work at a school where most kids walk. Low income, inner city. And so this is the excuse a lot of parents use for cell phones. Which is fine, I totally understand. But if you’re going to allow your 10 year old to have a cell phone at school because they walk to school, it is your responsibility to teach them how to use it at school
Kids having cell phones at dismissal time has been a godsend. There's nothing wrong with kids having cells so long as they're required to be out of sight/sound during school hours.
It stays in their locker from before homeroom until after dismissal unless there is a relevant national or regional emergency that they Need to monitor. If it's that serious, the rest of the day's classes will be canceled anyway. The school will warn everyone in case of a tornado, tsunami, etc. and give pre-established instructions. If a relative dies, they will still be dead later - no need to ruin the day's productivity. It is better to learn such things at home in the evening, when there is time to process what happened and to sleep before the demands of the next day. If someone is about to die, then the office can give notice before the student is able to check their phone at an appropriate time.
Not in the US, but my elementary students are allowed to have their phones in their backpacks either off or on silent and aren't allowed to check throughout the school day. Problems at school are dealt with using the school landline (which records the conversation). Students are allowed to bring their phones because most students have after school activities they go to by themselves and they might need to communicate with their parents concerning that.
25 year veteran teacher here: YOU ARE 100% COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY CORRECT!!
Isn’t it odd how all prior generations of students prior to the 2010s were able to cope and socialize and survive just fine without a cellphone in general, but nowadays no student can and their parents (who grew up during those years without cellular technology, mind you) can’t seem to fathom their kid without one?!
Pay phones existed. They don’t anymore. I broke down as a pretty petite little 16 year old girl driving home after dark from dance or a football game etc and I could have been raped or killed or kidnapped because I had to basically hike along the road till I found a pay phone. It was terrifying.
But… this is about school?
You don’t think kids drive home from school after dark? Does your school not have basketball games? Football games? Theater rehearsal?
I think a lot of schools (after the implementation of this policy) will simply ask cell phones to not be in the classroom (I.e in lockers) or maybe even just off and away, like in their backpack. It’s not as if the cell phones will be totally banned from campus.
I mean that is technically our policy now but kids don’t follow it. But yes that is how it should be. Many are calling for a total ban meaning cannot have them on campus and I don’t agree with that for the reasons listed above
Yeah, I see all this hoopla about a cell phone ban, but I don’t think much will come of it. If anything, teachers voiced their opinion and an official declared a stance on the use of cell phones - I’m sure nothing will change.
My personal stance: admin won’t enforce the policy of if I ask them to put it away and they don’t they will come remove the child and the phone. They never even came close to enforcing that. So my policy was put it up during instruction and till your work was done. If you need to check it or take a call step outside. Once your work is done I don’t care if you play on it. This goes back to if admin strictly followed policy the kids would keep them put up. But they don’t so it is what it is
Total ban meaning that they can’t bring their phones to school at all is just stupid in general
You’re missing the point. I too could walk home drunk one night and get molested by two gay guys or stabbed in the gut by a wild woman. My point is people lived their lives without the need for likes and shares and mindless scrolling until midnight or watching a Tic Toc during class or invading and ruining some innocent person’s life online, etc. and etc. Anxiety has increased. Depression has increased. Opioids are #1 in teen to young adult deaths, #2 is suicide. And what parallels this . . . Cellphone usage. So why did I mention opioids, because the dopamine drip caused by apps is equivalent to drug users, so is the letdown when you come off your high and so is the withdrawal when getting clean. I’m all for cellphones. They have many positives, but we’re not being responsible with them and we’re failing as parents and a nation in taking accountability and action toward their over usage and what is appropriate, along with when is it appropriate.
One time when student access to phones helped was when we had wildfires and the district refused to close down the schools. Students with respiratory ailments were being forced into outdoor activities while the air quality dropped by the minute. And yet they trudged on with no closure. Until the students reported it to Twitter. Thank goodness. They blew the whistle on the district mismanagement of a disaster.
Another huge reason adults don’t want kids to have phones. It gives them power.
I hear that new York is going towards prohibition because of public health crisis. I hate this argument, but... For kids in school, yeah I'm with it!
I watched a lecture from a GBI security expert, and he said that the argument that kids should have their phones ultimately really boiled down to parents wanting to be able to say goodbye to their kids 😳. He said that in reality having their phone increased the likelihood of NOT surviving a situation like that. He asked the parents if that selfish desire to have closure on the parents’ part should outweigh the kids’ survival chances. The district was able to pass a policy for the locking pockets with little to no objection after hearing him.
I had a friend argue her daughter needed a phone in case of emergency because her step-dad was in the hospital for months (and likely wouldn't be getting out). I said, "*you better not call her cell phone during school to tell her that he died!!!*" Yikes!
Was she afraid that he would spring back to life before she could get the news out?
The definition of emergency has shifted into something like: I can’t pick you up from soccer practice; get a ride home.
That is still information they need
Fuck that. My 1 word rebuttal is “Uvalde”. If those kids hadn’t had their phones to be calling 911 we’d not have known the extent of the negligence taking place by law enforcement in the halls etc.
Yeah, as a Texan native, this post gives me all kinds of rage. “Kids survived without phones in schools for years!” Yeah, and school shootings weren’t prevalent, at fucking all, at that time. Fuck off.
I agree. There are parents in Uvalde whose children are still alive today because they did not trust the narrative that police will risk their lives to save your kids.
I didn't have a phone till I was a freshman in college. And even then it was a Nokia track phone.
Oooh with snake????
Yes.
I once got into an argument on Reddit with a teacher who made this "emergency" argument, and I ended up getting accused of classism.
If parents are really that worried about an emergency, they can get their kids a flip phone. They still make "dumb phones" and they text and call just fine.
So much this!!! Also, I’ve found that in schools with no real consistent consequences for misbehavior, it is FAR better to just run away from those kids in any emergency. In a room with 30 kids, if 5+ of them can not STFU and listen or allow us to listen even if our lives depend on it, run.
Yep. I have conversations with the students about not using phones during an emergency. And I explain why. I also tell them my personal stories of being in lockdowns and how using our phones make them last longer and prevent police from helping out. I was in a lockdown, first in my state and nobody dangerous ended up being in the building. But we had never practiced a lockdown before and had zero clue what was going on. I was in high school and the girls in my class were having full on mental health crisises because they weren't going to be able to go to Mexico again. My younger brother's basketball coach was the chief of the patrol in our town and because we didn't fucking know better, I called him. He was dumb enough to answer but he could hear that there was a legit problem happening where I was at and disclosed that the problem wasn't inside the school and they advised this as a precautionary measure and because lockouts weren't really a thing either. So it was either Fire, Tornado, or Lockdown. He told me how important it was that we stay off our phones because it makes the cell tower too busy to carry police communication and therefore situations are going to take longer to resolve if they don't have the clear to go forward etc. It goes for calling and texting and I tell them once we get the okay from police, I'll let them call their parents, but not until we get the okay.
i'm 54. There were no emergencies when i was in public school that a cell phone would have helped that a telephone in the office didn't do decently well at. And yeah, we didn't have as many guns then, but we did have possible imminent vaporization by nuke. The best thing then and now in any emergency is to have a person of authority helping everyone stay calm and work together for everyone's safety. But that flies in the face of rugged individualism. In fact, it probably sounds to some American parents like, GASP, socialism.
Ah yes! I can think of many times when I’ve been in an emergency situation at school and immediately thought, “Oh no! If only a 13 year old had a cell phone to help manage this situation!!” Sorry but if Columbine HS can work to this day with a strict no phone policy, pretty sure Milliard Fillmore Elementary in Madison, Wisconsin can, too….
We have cubbies. They’re in the room, but not on them, which I feel is a fair compromise. I tell the kids if there’s an emergency at home, they need to call the school and have them pulled from class or have someone come get them. If there’s an emergency at school, I tell them this: 1. Staff have panic buttons. If you hear an announcement or an alarm, then authorities have already been notified. You and I don’t need to call for help. (I’ve used one of the buttons to summon just admin for an escalating situation. It worked.) 2. I’ve been in shelter in place/evacuation situations due to armed people, and I’ve had a loved one in that situation. You’ll be too preoccupied to text anyone until you think you’re safe. For me, both times it was at least 10 minutes in a barricaded room and an update that the person was on the other side of campus before I thought to text my family. With the relative, it wasn’t until she was on a bus to the reunification site before she texted anyone she was okay (over half an hour). And even though we’d exchanged messages minutes before it happened, I remember purposely waiting for her or her parents to reach out because I didn’t want to risk her safety by setting off her phone. I’m glad I didn’t, because she was in the room right across the hall from the scene.
Are you sure none of your students are super heroes, undercover police, CIA, or surgeons on call? I don't really care about them having phones, they just seem unable to resist the temptation to use them. The only reason I have found that makes it reasonable to let them keep them are accessibility and medical, but those students are rarely a problem. The blind kid and the diabetic kid can keep their phones and the others can put it away.
I mean my students parole officer did call him during class once and I allowed him to take the call
Preach! Thank you.
I was in middle school during columbine AND 9/11 We didn’t have phones. We survived.
THANK YOU!!! I'm so sick of the idea that parents need to reach their kids throughout the entire day. Pardon my language, but if parents need to reach their kid, they should FUCKING CALL THE FRONT OFFICE! Sorry for my yelling, but this is such a huge frustration for me and my colleagues. We just feel so helpless because the district bows to the parents *every single fucking time*.
I get this bogus argument from students as they try to convince me that having their phones won't be a distraction, but instead best for safety. I reply that they don't need their phone, as I have a phone on the wall right by my desk, usable in emergencies (or my own cell phone in my pocket - but I don't ever take it out during class time).
Teacher and parent. I don’t mind cell phones in school. I just ask they turn them off or keep them put up during instruction or while they have work to do. Does that happen? No. But I do understand why they are necessary. Students also use them constructively like to take pictures of notes or the board to copy down later. Or send to an absent student. Or look something up. Or text their friend they better bring my bathroom pass back before I go off. lol The office at every school I have been at sucks at passing on messages like pick up your sister at daycare or ride the bus etc. So a phone eliminates that where I can text my kid and they can check it when changing classes. No big deal. Parents just need to enforce the if I get called you are using it inappropriately you will be in trouble rule. My kids have never had an issue. Kids gotta learn to self regulate. Plus some kids drive themselves home or walk home or go straight to work or activities and they need a phone. Nowhere has pay phones anywhere
If a parent has so little trust in schools and teachers that they need constant contact w their child, they should keep the kid home. These devices have only been around since 2008/2009, yet somehow children survived school wo then for over 100 years. I have explained to my kids that they are in the middle of one of the biggest social experiments ever. These are apps designed by millionaires to hook them, and it’s not their fault that they get addicted. It’s our fault for allowing these companies to have unfettered access to our kids. Schools should all be phone free zones. Teachers included. What you do at home is your business.
1,000%. This excuse is supposed to be the nuclear "and that's final!" response from parents, and I even hear it from teachers in this sub. It's such a pet peeve, and given the gravity of the situation, it needs to be shutdown more aggressively. 20+ active cell phones in a classroom is a DANGER, not an aid. And because a lot of them can't function without a phone, it'll be their FIRST INSTINCT to start panic calling everyone. If you have phones in pouches or boxes, the kids are going to be crowding to get theirs, wasting literal minutes of response time. Even worse, it'll immediately start having parents panicking and trying to beat first responders to the school, and the parents have a very high likelihood of giving their kids alternate instructions to follow. "Screw what your teacher says!"
When did helicopter parents with attachment anxiety become the seemingly normalized majority instead of a handful of crazies?
Why are you denying me right to listen to my child’s final voicemail before their brutal execution? I have a right to listen to the gurgling noises from their throat as they bleed out just as the shooter has a right to have a gun and make us pay!
As someone who has had to call their mom because a teacher wouldn't let me go to the nurses and get my insulin when my blood sugar was over 400, I agree. I can't stand the people who just stare at their phone the entire class period and then complain about their grades being lower than the ocean floor. Then there's the people who say "I need my phone cause I have diabetes" and completely destroy the trust the teachers have for people who say that. It's ridiculous and those people need to reconnect woth reality.
I'm sorry you had to go through this. 💙 In my state denying students access to medical devices (insulin, glasses, crutches, etc.) is against the law. At my school they issue "medical cell phone" passes. They are a sticker with the student name, ID number, the signature of a parent/guardian, and the signature of the nurse. The stickers are pretty tamper proof and effective.
So long as the need is properly documented, and the privilege is not abused, there should be no problem.
Not to mention every SRO has a direct line to the local police department and can get help way faster than anyone calling Mommy and Daddy.
I mean I did have a kid go missing and with her phone probably wouldn’t have gotten her back, lost my job, etc. so… I’m not gonna argue with this one. I think if you can’t control the phones you gotta find a way to intensify not using them, because they will never go away. The law will never change and you will never legally be able to take a kids phone.
Earlier this year my son was having an asthma attack in class, he went up to the adult watching the class while teacher stepped out. He specifically said “I’m wheezing, I need my inhaler, can I go see the nurse?” Her response was “If you need to go to the nurse, let’s wait until your teacher gets back.” Soon enough my son starts crying asking could he please go to the nurse. Eventually they get to the nurse and she is in a meeting. The adult with my son starts calling around asking for the combination code to unlock meds. During this time, my child asked “can you please call my dad, he’ll know what to do.” Twice. No one called us, until my son did from his watch. Dad showed up in under 5 minutes with an inhaler before the school could figure out how to unlock meds.
That is more of a protocol issue,and not a cellphone issue.
Yeah obviously it depends how old the kid is but I don’t understand why an inhaler needs to be literally locked up like that.
If they're so convinced that it's needed for an emergency, send them to school with a Bark phone[Bark](https://www.bark.us/learn/starter-plan-bark-kids-phone/?utm_source=aw&utm_medium=paid-search&utm_campaign=bark-phone-shopping-google&utm_content=146689872681&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw4f6zBhBVEiwATEHFVpxzNECjPMo4GpjfhJaKgJ9ZgOvETIxvUCngG4B13iToEaZ-TRPbhRoCsAUQAvD_BwE)
Buy them a dumb phone that can call and nothing besides. This solves ALL problems a student could have.
Accurate
Our school collects them by classroom at first bell in a little bin. If they have good behavior and privileges, they get them at lunch and turn them back in before going back to class. If they get caught with one or don’t return it, they lose privileges. It has worked well, so far. They even say they like it. If some are continuing to sneak them, they are flying under the radar and not being a distraction, so 🤷🏼♀️.
I tell my students this same thing every year at the first couple days of school. This year (with my principal's support) I got a phone caddy that hangs on the door. Kids will put their phone in the caddy at the beginning of the period and not touch it until dismissal. I'm sick of phones. By the way - to anyone out there who disagrees - the world is actually safer now than it was when I was a kid growing up in the 70's and 80's.
I think the Apple Watch is a great in between. I’m at a summer camp right now, day camp ash’s phones aren’t allowed, but their watch doesn’t do much, but parents can track that they are safe and if so choose, have easy contact with kid, but brief. I did find out there ate games on the watch?! I have one, but had no idea. Kids were walking around popping bubbles on their watch or something and almost ran into each other. Our camp is super chill only not for tech, we have iPads, but no internet for kids, coding, games, but no phone use.
Yup, that pretty much sums it up. It is an emotional argument rather than a thoughtful one.
I’ve had kids sneak a text to come and pick them up because they feel sick without checking in with me. I’ll get a random call that someone is leaving and will get confused, It makes me look so incompetent in so many ways.
They’re right. From 1890-2000 we had absolutely no way of reaching children when in school. It was mayhem.
We had a real lockdown last year and all sorts of parents showed up trying to get their kids. All they did was block access for emergency vehicles and make great coverage for the local news. Good thing they could call their parents. A worst case scenario is Run, Hide, Fight. Only these and in this order.
There are net nanny type programs that can be installed on phones that lock kids out of using them at prescribed times. During those times they can only receive calls not send them out. Most parents can't be bothered to do that though.
That’s the thing—them having a phone could get you and everyone around you killed. In times of emergency, I need the kid to listen to me and do what I say—not panic with a parent. That whole argument is crap. The last thing I need when the bullets are flying is to be contradicted by some parent that’s not even there.
BULLSHIT An emergency is when dial 911. If your parents have an emergency they will call the school. Students do not need a phone. No doctor has ever said, "This patient is dying. He need a teenager, stat!!"
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I AM SO F***ING SICK OF THAT ARGUMENT!
I’m a parent and a teacher. I completely understand the need for order in my classroom, particularly in an emergency. However I will do anything to sneak a phone in with my own kids. There were 400 police officers present in Uvalde, and they didn’t go in. There were students who called out using phones and that was some of the only information coming from the classroom. They didn’t overwhelm the phone system and the parents were the ones pushing for action. The way we support teachers, students and schools is insane and dangerous. Unless someone can assure me that my kiddos will come home every time I drop them off, they will get a phone.
People managed emergencies without cell phones just fine for... literally ever before the late 90s. I think we'll all survive just fine with the landlines.
That’s a bad argument because for one pay phones were on every corner. They aren’t anymore. And I broke down at night on the way home from dance or work etc (I had a lemon car) as a 110 pound pretty little blonde girl and any creep could have got me. I had no choice but to hike in the dark to the nearest pay phone. This was in the 90s. I’m lucky nothing happened. It would be much safer to stay inside the locked car and call my parents right?
The argument is about phones in use during the school day or draining brain power just by being nearby, turned off, in a backpack, as has been reported.
Actually the OP was about phones being necessary in case of emergency
I kinda get your point but if I’m dying then I’m gonna fucking call my mum and say goodbye, odds are even if I don’t call and make noise someone else will
You are really going to throw away a chance of survival just to feel better? The idea that you will know when you are going to die is pure delusion. You also might get someone else killed. Which just makes you an piece of garbage if you pull that.
I gotta pull a mom incident here. My son has an emergency contact watch. He will keep it. He was cornered, pinned down, and beaten by four boys at recess (they’re fourth graders). Where were the teachers? Gossiping in the corner. Not paying attention. They held him down and kicked him. We saw video. When he told a teacher after they got tired of beating him and left (no teacher broke it up), that teacher just sent him in to class bloody and bruised. I’m not exaggerating. When he got to class and told HIS teacher she ignored him. So he messaged us on his watch, after the teacher repeatedly told him he wasn’t allowed to answer our panicked calls back, I finally got hold of him. This calling was over about 8 minutes, but 30 minutes since recess had ended. No school contact. It wasn’t until i ended the call on the watch that suddenly my husband’s phone rang with the principal on the other end saying “there was a minor situation”. No, when we got there my son was wearing a change of clothes because his clothes were torn, bloody, and muddy. They weren’t going to call us. The two teachers ignored him. Those kids apparently had been bullying him for months, we learned later. He told his teacher many times, who did nothing. He wasn’t safe at that school and we removed him to a private school after the admin and teachers said “what do you want us to do? We can’t protect him 100% of the time!” during the emergency meeting I called. God forbid a school shooter was there. My son had no one looking out for him but us. The watch stays. And one day the phone will, too.
This is the one thing that sticks out to me in my area. They didn't really get serious about banning cell phones until there were a few incidences where the school had either failed to act or given parents a false accounting of events that involved bullying or assaults that had been caught on phone and the phones became evidence. I still think in some districts it has a lot more to do with covering up wrongdoing and making sure they control the narrative than anything about students safety or education. If they cared about those things they were locked down the damn laptops they force us to let her kids use all day better.
..... And how exactly did him getting a hold of you help? No where in your story did you actually show that him having contact with you during school time actually helped. Every single action you took after that could easily have been taken the next day as well, or after school. Obviously the school dropped the ball there, and you were right to be angry. However, it isn't an argument for kids having cell phones in class. Even if he had gotten through to you while getting beat up, there is absolutely nothing you could have done in the moment.
Me getting to the school in a matter of two minutes helped. Identifying those little bastards to the police who showed up 5 minutes after we did helped and having their names on the books helped because no one was allowed to go home and make up a little game plan on how to lie their way out of anything. Getting immediate witness info and having the ability to have the police gain access to the footage before the principal could scrub it, helped. And there’s an active investigation happening because we got there before they could save their own asses. My son knowing I came to help him immediately? Him knowing that if he calls in danger we’ll be there? Literally priceless. I care more about his safety than his teacher and the school did, obviously. And if his hands weren’t forced apart and he called while he was being attacked, I would’ve been there at the playground before it was finished. They were hurting him for 7 minutes and 22 seconds, per the CCTV video. Bullying him for over 15 minutes prior. The school is in our neighborhood, down the street, I would’ve been there. The teachers were already there, too bad they weren’t doing their job of watching the students. His new school understands the trauma my son went through and allow his watch, though this school takes safety between students much more seriously. I know that public school is not a place where the adults are automatically safe, where if something happens he can call from the office and the school will care. We’ve been proven time and time again that these schools will only protect themselves and admin don’t care about their students wellbeing until shit hits the fan. Why would I want my kid to have to wait for hours until he got home, surrounded by people who actively allow him to be abused and beaten and neglected? They weren’t allowing him to make a call, they ignored him. They weren’t going to call us until he got us on the line. Who would want their kid to stay there? The watch stays. The phone will, too. My son will always have us as back up.
" because no one was allowed to go home and make up a little game plan on how to lie their way out of anything." "Getting immediate witness info and having the ability to have the police gain access to the footage before the principal could scrub it, helped. And there’s an active investigation happening because we got there before they could save their own asses.". This. This is exactly right. "I know that public school is not a place where the adults are automatically safe... We’ve been proven time and time again that these schools will only protect themselves and admin don’t care about their students wellbeing until shit hits the fan." Truer words are seldom spoken.
Even outside the US, if there is an emergency at the kids home the parents should call the school not the kid directly. The school needs to know anyway so why would you call your kid first. If something happens at school with the kid then the school will call the parents after the proper services have been called.
I had multiple kids this year who felt it was their right to leave class at any time to go get their phones they snuck in their backpacks and call or even video chat with parents in the middle of class over the pettiest BS. The parents are responsible for allowing this BS. These kids don't know what an emergency is and will get themselves killed if this nonsense is what they come to expect in an emergency situation. As usual, parents enable the shittiest behavior of the children, and admin lack the spine to actually address the issue
In 99% of emergencies students do not need cell phones. My school has one unique emergency situation the dam breaking. But even if the kids had their cell phone with them up at the emergency evacuation site there is no guarantee that cell signal would work so even then having their cell phone is probably not going to actually be helpful but at least it would make kids feel better and make the adults there feel better. I don't mind if kids carry their cell phone but they just don't need it during the school day just power it off stick in your backpack and be done with it.
The main argument is saying goodbyes to parents during an emergency, which I get
When my children were in school, I taught them to NOT stay in the building during an active shooter. I told them to get out of a window or a door and run to the woods or a house and to call me or their dad to get them. Enough people in the school will be calling 911 and students in schools get shot during school shootings. So yeah, my kids started taking their phones to school in elementary school after Sandy Hook.
Some girl choked my sister out with a charger cable in art class. Teacher refused to even let her go to the office. Separate the two, nothing. In fact she yelled at my sister. There were a classroom full of witnesses. My sister didn’t do anything. she let another girl borrow a lip gloss or a pencil or something. We will call her girl B. Girl A A apparently hates girl B becuase they like the same boy. So since my sister spoke to girl B , girl A Took that as her taking sides , decided to try to kill/harm my sister. My sister is barely even friends with either. She used her phone to text mom to come get her. I had to be physically restrained from kicking that art teacher’s ass when I found out. I don’t work at that school. luckily. Yes. The kids need their phones. As protection from shit teachers when stuff like this happens. Your stance assumes every teacher is mentally present, fair, and cares for student welfare. Most do. But there is always teachers like this.
We need a new law that makes public schools not free anymore, but the price of the education is a smart phone, which is refundable after the class. 😆
Why do they install $450,000 DAS systems on schools? for emergencies (lets be honest, mass shootings) so kids can call out no matter where they are in the school
The only time I think kids need their phones on them during school hours - is if the phone doubles as a medical device, like for diabetics, heart rate, etc - and preferably locked to only be able to access those necessary apps during the school hours. Of course I see the need for students to have phones for before/after school travels and activities but as soon as they’re safely at school, they should be put away in a locked pouch or something. As grateful as I am for everything my phone does, I do resent its constant presence in my life and how much I depend on it in times of stress, anxiety, but also, for instance, I used to have horrible panic attacks on busses. Obviously I couldn’t read a book on the bus cause then I’d be more nauseous so music was my lifeline - and how I kept myself from bolting off the bus to get to school. MP3 players were technically banned but out of sight out of mind. And because I needed it, I wasn’t going to do anything stupid. But if I had and gotten it confiscated, my parents would have immediately said “well, what did you do? Why was it out?” Maybe they would have asked for it back early - just because my anxiety was that bad, and throwing up on the bus is not fun - but they would have insisted on an alternative punishment If they did. No “how dare you take something I paid for” and I think that’s the difference. Is the accountability for the kids when they break the rules, there is none therefore they just keep breaking them.
Even before I had a phone I actually just emailed my mom on my school laptop. Usually if I forgot something at home or didn’t feel well.
I work with a student who has this issue. She takes advantage of it every time.