Parent advocates who lobbied for Away All Day phone policy feel blindsided, ignored by new MCPS phone policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

The PP mentioned diabetics because someone used diabetics as the reason why all kids need phones. If your child has a documented medical condition or some other condition that necessitates cell phone usage during the day in excess of what is allowed by MCPS policy, that would be addressed in their IEP/504 etc. If your kid just "needs" to contact their parents during the day, you need to figure out how to get them focused on their schoolwork so they can manage without you for a few hours.

[Anonymous]

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Raise your kids to pay attention in class, people. Or sufficiently so that they get good grades. We're an ADHD family, and even my kid with severe ADHD was able to tear himself away from his phone, listen to his teachers and do the actual work. He graduated with a 4.67 weighted GPA and a dozen APs.

Public schools do a lot for students, but at some point you need to live with system-wide decisions you won't like. Pull yourself together and deal with it.

Your kid doesn’t have severe ADHD.

PP you replied to. You want to see his neuropsychological results? You are being extremely offensive and have no clue about the hard work we put in, as a family, and the hard work he put in, plus the judicious use of Adderall.

Shame on you. Don't you dare minimize other people's struggles just because they have pushed themselves to achieve.

You actually minimize other people’s struggles when you claim that your kid has a “severe” neurodevelopmental disorder yet can get a 4.9 with multiple APs … and has no problem with distractions like cell phones. Lol.

DP.

It was a 4.67 and "severe" case of the zoomies, not level 3 autism.

As someone with severe adhd who went to Yale that PP should STFU—they clearly don’t know that people with adhd can have high IQ. I’m very dependent on my phone as an adult professional with adhd. It was recommended to my kid as part of their accommodations.

I totally believe you, since you clearly couldn’t get focused enough to read that 504 plans are not affected by the new policy. If you child has a 504 plan that includes use of a phone, your child can use it in class. I’m also saddened that a presumed graduate of Yale would write so poorly to not agree the introductory phrase with the subject.

No 504 plan should include use of a phone. FFS.

seriously...what disability requires that a personal cell phone must be used during school hours?

Glucose monitoring, for one. Medication reminders. Visual assistance for low vision and blind students.

None of those are phone functions.

Actually, they all are phone functions because phones can run things called "apps" that enable new features and connectivity to other devices. You see, many type-1 diabetics can use a continuous glucose sensor that sends signals to a phone to alert when glucose is dangerously low or high. It can also provide critical information in real time to parents also by transmitting the information over cellular and WiFi data service connections.

You meant computer functions. Put your apps on a tablet.
No phone needed.

[Anonymous]

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Raise your kids to pay attention in class, people. Or sufficiently so that they get good grades. We're an ADHD family, and even my kid with severe ADHD was able to tear himself away from his phone, listen to his teachers and do the actual work. He graduated with a 4.67 weighted GPA and a dozen APs.

Public schools do a lot for students, but at some point you need to live with system-wide decisions you won't like. Pull yourself together and deal with it.

Your kid doesn’t have severe ADHD.

PP you replied to. You want to see his neuropsychological results? You are being extremely offensive and have no clue about the hard work we put in, as a family, and the hard work he put in, plus the judicious use of Adderall.

Shame on you. Don't you dare minimize other people's struggles just because they have pushed themselves to achieve.

You actually minimize other people’s struggles when you claim that your kid has a “severe” neurodevelopmental disorder yet can get a 4.9 with multiple APs … and has no problem with distractions like cell phones. Lol.

DP.

It was a 4.67 and "severe" case of the zoomies, not level 3 autism.

As someone with severe adhd who went to Yale that PP should STFU—they clearly don’t know that people with adhd can have high IQ. I’m very dependent on my phone as an adult professional with adhd. It was recommended to my kid as part of their accommodations.

I totally believe you, since you clearly couldn’t get focused enough to read that 504 plans are not affected by the new policy. If you child has a 504 plan that includes use of a phone, your child can use it in class. I’m also saddened that a presumed graduate of Yale would write so poorly to not agree the introductory phrase with the subject.

No 504 plan should include use of a phone. FFS.

seriously...what disability requires that a personal cell phone must be used during school hours?

Glucose monitoring, for one. Medication reminders. Visual assistance for low vision and blind students.

How did students manage these things...oh... 15 years ago? Or children without a smart phone?

Sometimes they ended up in a hospital or even dead because their glucose was too low or too high. At the very least, they often had worse and delayed information that meant worse control of conditions like diabetes. By chance, are you Maurice Ronald?

Growing up our school had a few pay phones to call parents. My kid was fed food by a teacher they thought they should not eat and asked and teacher said it was fine. Kid asked to go to the nurse as they thought they were having a reaction and teacher said no because it was too close to pick up. When I picked my child up they were having a full on reaction and it was a long night at the ER getting it under control. So, yes, my kid has a watch to call me.

At my kid's ES, we don't have food at school parties, school birthday treats, or any outside food distributed to kids by teachers to avoid any issues with allergies etc. A HS kid should absolutely know not to accept food that causes an issue for a health condition rather than accepting to be "fed food" by a teacher. If your kid's food issue is so severe, many kids with allergies have 504s allowing for accommodations. No reason why your kid couldn't get a 504, rather than insisting that all kids use phones, just because your kid needs one due to their specific health condition.

[Anonymous]

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Raise your kids to pay attention in class, people. Or sufficiently so that they get good grades. We're an ADHD family, and even my kid with severe ADHD was able to tear himself away from his phone, listen to his teachers and do the actual work. He graduated with a 4.67 weighted GPA and a dozen APs.

Public schools do a lot for students, but at some point you need to live with system-wide decisions you won't like. Pull yourself together and deal with it.

Your kid doesn’t have severe ADHD.

PP you replied to. You want to see his neuropsychological results? You are being extremely offensive and have no clue about the hard work we put in, as a family, and the hard work he put in, plus the judicious use of Adderall.

Shame on you. Don't you dare minimize other people's struggles just because they have pushed themselves to achieve.

You actually minimize other people’s struggles when you claim that your kid has a “severe” neurodevelopmental disorder yet can get a 4.9 with multiple APs … and has no problem with distractions like cell phones. Lol.

DP.

It was a 4.67 and "severe" case of the zoomies, not level 3 autism.

As someone with severe adhd who went to Yale that PP should STFU—they clearly don’t know that people with adhd can have high IQ. I’m very dependent on my phone as an adult professional with adhd. It was recommended to my kid as part of their accommodations.

It’s not “severe” anything if you went to Yale.

Dp. Adhd is not a disorder of inattentive. It's a disorder of attention. People with adhd can easily hyperfocus on a subject for 20 hours a day, months or even years at a time. Even to the exclusion of eating sleeping and self care. People with adhd are very often the most successful people in the world.

Oh ok - so now a “severe disability” is that you are really successful.

I'm wo during what your disability might be? Yes being able to hyperfocus on quantumastrology but being incapable of the executive functioning to buy groceries, feed yourself, maintain friendships, pay your mortgage, etc is a disability. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

No, I'm saying that the VERY small number of kids who need access to a phone at all times due to disability should not drive general schoolwide policy. That's what IEPs, 504s, and emergency health plans are for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

The PP mentioned diabetics because someone used diabetics as the reason why all kids need phones. If your child has a documented medical condition or some other condition that necessitates cell phone usage during the day in excess of what is allowed by MCPS policy, that would be addressed in their IEP/504 etc. If your kid just "needs" to contact their parents during the day, you need to figure out how to get them focused on their schoolwork so they can manage without you for a few hours.

As a parent you lock down the cell phone. The real problem is that MCPS doesn't lock down their wifi so the restrictions are lifted when kids use wifi vs. cellular. They just need to start by locking down the wifi.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

No, I'm saying that the VERY small number of kids who need access to a phone at all times due to disability should not drive general schoolwide policy. That's what IEPs, 504s, and emergency health plans are for.

Not all schools will give IEP's or 504's and not all parents have the money to hire attorneys. We were denied an IEP for a serious concern. We just address it outside of school as do we spend the money on help or an attorney where we still will not get much help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

No, I'm saying that the VERY small number of kids who need access to a phone at all times due to disability should not drive general schoolwide policy. That's what IEPs, 504s, and emergency health plans are for.

Not all schools will give IEP's or 504's and not all parents have the money to hire attorneys. We were denied an IEP for a serious concern. We just address it outside of school as do we spend the money on help or an attorney where we still will not get much help.

What was the "serious concern"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

No, I'm saying that the VERY small number of kids who need access to a phone at all times due to disability should not drive general schoolwide policy. That's what IEPs, 504s, and emergency health plans are for.

+100. All policies will have exceptions/special cases but the amount of those should be much smaller than the amount of people positively impacted by a policy. Phones need to be taken away and appropriate disciplinary procedures followed. Seeing as the code of code is being updated, this policy should be directly addressed so teachers, principals, and families know what to expect.

[Anonymous]

I wonder how they will spin this when they retaliate on teachers and try to ruin teacher careers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Raise your kids to pay attention in class, people. Or sufficiently so that they get good grades. We're an ADHD family, and even my kid with severe ADHD was able to tear himself away from his phone, listen to his teachers and do the actual work. He graduated with a 4.67 weighted GPA and a dozen APs.

Public schools do a lot for students, but at some point you need to live with system-wide decisions you won't like. Pull yourself together and deal with it.

Your kid doesn’t have severe ADHD.

PP you replied to. You want to see his neuropsychological results? You are being extremely offensive and have no clue about the hard work we put in, as a family, and the hard work he put in, plus the judicious use of Adderall.

Shame on you. Don't you dare minimize other people's struggles just because they have pushed themselves to achieve.

You actually minimize other people’s struggles when you claim that your kid has a “severe” neurodevelopmental disorder yet can get a 4.9 with multiple APs … and has no problem with distractions like cell phones. Lol.

DP.

It was a 4.67 and "severe" case of the zoomies, not level 3 autism.

As someone with severe adhd who went to Yale that PP should STFU—they clearly don’t know that people with adhd can have high IQ. I’m very dependent on my phone as an adult professional with adhd. It was recommended to my kid as part of their accommodations.

It’s not “severe” anything if you went to Yale.

Dp. Adhd is not a disorder of inattentive. It's a disorder of attention. People with adhd can easily hyperfocus on a subject for 20 hours a day, months or even years at a time. Even to the exclusion of eating sleeping and self care. People with adhd are very often the most successful people in the world.

Oh ok - so now a “severe disability” is that you are really successful.

I'm wo during what your disability might be? Yes being able to hyperfocus on quantumastrology but being incapable of the executive functioning to buy groceries, feed yourself, maintain friendships, pay your mortgage, etc is a disability. Duh.

Yes, there are many Yale grads so disabled that they cannot feed themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS consistently shows they don't want to do hard things for the benefit of kids. Path of least resistance every single time.

This is absolutely correct, not just in this context.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid doesn't need a phone at lunch. If it's a true urgent issue, they can go back to their locker and send a message. It puts such a burden on school staff to police phones that are distracting kids from their education. Just make it simple and let the kids go through their school day without additional phone time.

you are out of touch. Kids don't use lockers. Besides taking away their phone doesn't mean they will pay attention. They use their computers all the time for non school related functions. And yes it is a burden on school staff.

They would use lockers if that's the only way to bring a phone to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the parent of a T1 diabetic who uses her smart phone to monitor glucose, and she has it in her 504 plan that she can have her phone on her. It's important. BUT the diabetes rate in the juvenile population is like 0.002% - not even an average of 1 kid per MCPS high school. So, the BuT tHe KiDs wItH DiSaBiLitiEs!!! argument for why phones need to be allowed doesn't hold a ton of water.

There are far more disabilities and health issues and diabetics. If you are saying your kid should get one and only kids with diabetes, that is pretty disengenuous. There are many reasons why kids need to contact their parents. Parents need to try to manage these phones but MCPS needs to stop giving access to the wifi to kids outside devices as if you have them blocked on cellular, they just do it through the wifi.

No, I'm saying that the VERY small number of kids who need access to a phone at all times due to disability should not drive general schoolwide policy. That's what IEPs, 504s, and emergency health plans are for.

Not all schools will give IEP's or 504's and not all parents have the money to hire attorneys. We were denied an IEP for a serious concern. We just address it outside of school as do we spend the money on help or an attorney where we still will not get much help.

If your kid has a legitimate medical need for a phone (glucose monitoring with an app is one) then they will get it in the 504. But the fact is there are very, very few legitimate medical/disability needs that require access to a personal smart phone. I cannot really think of any except medical medication monitoring via an app. And no this would not extend to an alarm reminding the kid to go to the nurse’s office for ADHD meds.