Teacher called...for a third time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:20 years ago my high school had a rule that it had to be in your locker. And if it came out, assistant principals would confíscate it. And parents had to go pick it up to get it back.

I understand teachers not taking phones but I fail to see why principals or admins can’t?

That’s a good idea! The responsibility of the phone is the parent’s, so the parent is inconvenienced and to come collect the phone if mis-used. Not the teacher.

Administrators are rightfully wary about confiscating phones. Parents have a tendency to get defensive and angry when a school takes their child’s property.

Our administration used to collect phones that were confiscated by teachers throughout the day. This stopped because our front office workers were getting routinely abused by they parents who came to pick them up.

This is exactly why most teachers don't give parenting advice. The ones who would be on the receiving end are the least likely to take it. The student's behavior does not improve and the the teacher has to deal with angry tirades.

[Anonymous]

I would take the phone away indefinitely for such disrespectful behavior. No use at home or school. If I returned the phone, it would be handed to me at night so there was zero chance it made it to school. If there is a school shooting is a lazy and dumb excuse not to parent your kid. No kid NEEDS a phone.

[Anonymous]

OP, the teacher has made 3 calls. The last two were avoidable. This is clearly on you. Be a parent. Don’t expect teachers to parent your kids. WTH is wrong with you? Take away the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stories like these make me mad. Not being defensive as my kids have never gotten in trouble due to this, but why are all teachers not having students put phone on a table up front when they get into class? It is like baiting kids to be distracted when taking the phones away removes the distraction. I have zero patience for helpless teachers like these not implementing a simple solution.

We cannot enforce that. When kids refuse, I cannot take their phones from them. Admin doesn’t have time or the inclination to do so.

Another teacher here. A coworker of mine was put on leave for taking a phone. That is absolutely against policy. We can nicely and repeatedly ask students to put them away. That’s it. There’s no penalty at all for using phones at our high school, so naturally they are out regularly.

The students who don’t have their phones out are the ones who report their parents check on their phone usage. It seems that the only thing that works at our school is hoping that students have engaged parents.

If you don't mind me asking, which school/county do you work for? This seems like horrible policy, I am sorry it puts you in this position!

In our DCPS middle school, they take all phones and watches in the morning and hold them in the office until dismissal. If a kid sneaks a device through, it gets confiscated. Works great, no distraction during day, none of the videos/posting/social media happening during the day. (I realize this can/still does happen after school hours, but taking 8 hours out of the day to make them phone free is a plus in my book. Not sure how DCPS or charter high schools handle phones -- I would love if it was similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School shootings are very much real. All of my 3 children have experienced a gun being brought to school. Every single one of them. And they all have attended a mix of different schools.

Your child’s phone will not stop a bullet…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stories like these make me mad. Not being defensive as my kids have never gotten in trouble due to this, but why are all teachers not having students put phone on a table up front when they get into class? It is like baiting kids to be distracted when taking the phones away removes the distraction. I have zero patience for helpless teachers like these not implementing a simple solution.

We cannot enforce that. When kids refuse, I cannot take their phones from them. Admin doesn’t have time or the inclination to do so.

Another teacher here. A coworker of mine was put on leave for taking a phone. That is absolutely against policy. We can nicely and repeatedly ask students to put them away. That’s it. There’s no penalty at all for using phones at our high school, so naturally they are out regularly.

The students who don’t have their phones out are the ones who report their parents check on their phone usage. It seems that the only thing that works at our school is hoping that students have engaged parents.

If you don't mind me asking, which school/county do you work for? This seems like horrible policy, I am sorry it puts you in this position!

In our DCPS middle school, they take all phones and watches in the morning and hold them in the office until dismissal. If a kid sneaks a device through, it gets confiscated. Works great, no distraction during day, none of the videos/posting/social media happening during the day. (I realize this can/still does happen after school hours, but taking 8 hours out of the day to make them phone free is a plus in my book. Not sure how DCPS or charter high schools handle phones -- I would love if it was similar.

I am at a school in LCPS where we’ve been told in writing so not take these kids’ phones. There’s only 2 high schools so far in Loudoun that have schoolwide no phone policies - Heritage and Loudoun Valley. It is completely dependent upon admin setting that rule and, most importantly, reinforcing it. Otherwise, it becomes every teacher’s individual policy and it’s far, far less effective because the kids know we can’t actually take the phone or give a consequence. You can’t grade for participation anymore so even hitting them with a daily 0 for not participating in class won’t work.

Ultimately it’s going to come down to school districts implementing universal no phone policies and having real consequences that support teachers’ abilities to do more than just say “put that away.” Until then, the only people who have the ability to confiscate a problematic phone are the owners - the parents.

[Anonymous]

Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

[Anonymous]

You high schoolers should be able to figure out when he is allowed to use his phone in class and when it isn’t allowed. The phone stays away until the teacher says students can use them. Don’t underestimate him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

So you took away the phone?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

So you took away the phone?

No she got mad at the school and then called a doctor to pursue a diagnosis

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is 16 and a sophomore. His grades are not the best and we've been course correcting since the start of the school year. We have suspected that he is not paying attention in class and not motivated. We've received 3 phone calls throughout the year about DS not paying attention, being disruptive, using earbuds and being on his phone. We took the phone today and there was some action (snap), but not a whole lot. We did find a VPN app.

We are absolutely heartbroken that after multiple conversations, intervention (tutoring twice a week) and consequences that DS is just not getting it. He is not taking school seriously and the disrespectful attitude is appalling to us. Today we received the 3rd call and we're determined to make it crystal clear to DS this time around.
Other than the issues above, DS is generally respectful at home, does not do drugs/drink and is generally enjoyable to be around.

What would you do?

I will talk to the teacher and blame the school closure for this behavior. My friend DS got a phone call from the school and she told them it wasn't his fault, it was the school board and the Government fault for closing schools down. MY DS was in 2nd grade when they closed down, and in 3rd grade they only had school for 2 months and twice a day....
Then in 4th grade he had to wear a facemask all day so they didn't have the real school experience yet. In 5th grade was when they were getting back to "normal'. BUT I don't think it was, now in 6th grade the middle school teachers are forgetting that they are still acting like 2nd graders, because they never had the change to grow up. Most kids in class are acting up, and if you read online some people side effects of COVID Shots and COVID school closure. Lucky my DS is trouble marker, and its well behaved, but even the girls are misbehaving in the classroom and acting up. Its funny no one is doing a study on some kids will never grow up and will stay in 2020 for the rest of their lifes and we only have the school leaders and the Goverment to blame for this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

So you took away the phone?

No she got mad at the school and then called a doctor to pursue a diagnosis

We were never once mad at the teacher or the school, we're elated that they cared enough to call. Troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

So you took away the phone?

No she got mad at the school and then called a doctor to pursue a diagnosis

We were never once mad at the teacher or the school, we're elated that they cared enough to call. Troll.

You openly blame the teachers for not setting boundaries with the phone in the second paragraph even though it’s clear YOU haven’t set any boundaries with the phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

So you took away the phone?

No she got mad at the school and then called a doctor to pursue a diagnosis

We were never once mad at the teacher or the school, we're elated that they cared enough to call. Troll.

You openly blame the teachers for not setting boundaries with the phone in the second paragraph even though it’s clear YOU haven’t set any boundaries with the phone.

Maybe work on reading comprehension. Expressing frustration is completely different. Who says we don't accept responsibility, we clearly do. But I guess you don't make any mistakes and your children are perfect...douches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Update: We spoke to the school again and only because we had requested educational testing back in Dec did the teachers uncover that the phone was an issue across classes. They're still fighting us on testing btw.

We also found out that the teachers encourage phone use at the end of class or during down time and refer to it as "open phone time".

We had no idea the culture was so permissive! How is our student supposed to have boundaries with technology when they encourage it?

Needless to say, we've put the hammer down and contacted a dr for a neuropsych to evaluate for adhd among other things.

Oh f this s. You need to parent your child. No teacher is "encouraging" it. I'm a teacher. 30 years ago, if the lesson didn't run the whole period, the last 10 minutes were a loud, party time where kids would talk and interact. Today, if the lesson doesn't run the whole period, the last 10 minutes are silent where all the kids are on their phones and not interacting with each other. THAT is what "open phone time" means. Get your evaluations but step up as a parent.