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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What locker?

I've been seeing in Teacher forums that a lot of kids don't use their lockers because they can't figure out how to use combination locks, not that the lockers are "inconveniently located." Another life skill fail.

This is not true. Most MS kids use lockers, but at the HS level there are not enough lockers for every kid and the schools are large enough that it doesn't make sense. But kids learn to use combination locks in 5th grade, and then use lockers for 6th - 8th.

MCPS doesn't need full-size lockers for kids to put their cell phones in. They could have cell phone lockers that are quite small.

[Anonymous]

+1 on delulu

There is zero chance MCPS takes on keeping phones out of the hands of high school students during lunch. Zero.

Very happy for you to yap away about this, though. Keeping you meddlers out of actual trouble.

Here, enjoy this:

My kid uses their phone during the school day to watch cat videos when they're bored. I know because they send them to me!

Thank you for your valuable time and energy.

PS The Dunning-Krugers who don't understand how ADHD works or what a disability is are the same parents who think the 50% rule is unfair because they don't understand how math works, either lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

What locker?

I've been seeing in Teacher forums that a lot of kids don't use their lockers because they can't figure out how to use combination locks, not that the lockers are "inconveniently located." Another life skill fail.

This is not true. Most MS kids use lockers, but at the HS level there are not enough lockers for every kid and the schools are large enough that it doesn't make sense. But kids learn to use combination locks in 5th grade, and then use lockers for 6th - 8th.

MCPS doesn't need full-size lockers for kids to put their cell phones in. They could have cell phone lockers that are quite small.

Hs is so big they can barely get on the bus so how are they going to grab their phone. Ms and hs are very different. I’d give my kid an old phone to put in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 on delulu

There is zero chance MCPS takes on keeping phones out of the hands of high school students during lunch. Zero.

Very happy for you to yap away about this, though. Keeping you meddlers out of actual trouble.

Here, enjoy this:

My kid uses their phone during the school day to watch cat videos when they're bored. I know because they send them to me!

Thank you for your valuable time and energy.

PS The Dunning-Krugers who don't understand how ADHD works or what a disability is are the same parents who think the 50% rule is unfair because they don't understand how math works, either lol

They just need to cut off the WiFi for outside devices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

The teacher bought the food and gave it to my child who expressed concern and she said they can eat it. In hs, we’ve had other emergencies. We had a 504 at the time. We dropped it as it was useless. You need to monitor your kid. If my kid abuses the phone or for other reasons we take it and lock it away. They have a watch to contact us. Try parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 on delulu

There is zero chance MCPS takes on keeping phones out of the hands of high school students during lunch. Zero.

Very happy for you to yap away about this, though. Keeping you meddlers out of actual trouble.

Here, enjoy this:

My kid uses their phone during the school day to watch cat videos when they're bored. I know because they send them to me!

Thank you for your valuable time and energy.

PS The Dunning-Krugers who don't understand how ADHD works or what a disability is are the same parents who think the 50% rule is unfair because they don't understand how math works, either lol

They just need to cut off the WiFi for outside devices.

or apparently know how phones work either

lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:+1 on delulu

There is zero chance MCPS takes on keeping phones out of the hands of high school students during lunch. Zero.

Very happy for you to yap away about this, though. Keeping you meddlers out of actual trouble.

Here, enjoy this:

My kid uses their phone during the school day to watch cat videos when they're bored. I know because they send them to me!

Thank you for your valuable time and energy.

PS The Dunning-Krugers who don't understand how ADHD works or what a disability is are the same parents who think the 50% rule is unfair because they don't understand how math works, either lol

They just need to cut off the WiFi for outside devices.

or apparently know how phones work either

lol

Parental controls only work on cellular and instagram has a button to bypass. Cutting off WiFi would help for thise of us who restrict phones.

[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.

I am the PP who mentioned continuous glucose monitoring, and I only mentioned it because the person before me claimed there was no legitimate reason why phone could be included in a 504.

Just so we are clear on sequence.

[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.

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.

I am the PP who mentioned continuous glucose monitoring, and I only mentioned it because the person before me claimed there was no legitimate reason why phone could be included in a 504.

Just so we are clear on sequence.

Accommodations only need to be reasonable. If the school has a ban on cell phones, the kid could have a different device for diabetes monitoring. The way things were done before they were linked to cell phones. No reason to bend the rules of the school for this one specific case that isn’t even necessary to do that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Talk to me after your 5th lockdown with your kid hiding in a closet texting, “Mom I’m scared. I love you.” When MCPS communicates with the media but kids and teachers are still crying for hours with no information. When you have a lifeline to your kids and can tell them they are safe and there was no other way for them to know other than that cell phone, there is no way you’d let your kid be without it.
I’d happily do whatever it took to bypass a policy that took my kids phone away. I’d buy another phone, pay the fines and sue the school system.
Teach them how to handle phones properly and wake up to our reality - Republicans care about money from the NRA more than our kid’s lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Talk to me after your 5th lockdown with your kid hiding in a closet texting, “Mom I’m scared. I love you.” When MCPS communicates with the media but kids and teachers are still crying for hours with no information. When you have a lifeline to your kids and can tell them they are safe and there was no other way for them to know other than that cell phone, there is no way you’d let your kid be without it.
I’d happily do whatever it took to bypass a policy that took my kids phone away. I’d buy another phone, pay the fines and sue the school system.
Teach them how to handle phones properly and wake up to our reality - Republicans care about money from the NRA more than our kid’s lives.

Oh please. Did you read the teacher's post upthread? The last thing they want is a dozen teenagers in a classroom boo-hooing to their parents when they should be listening to the instructions of a teacher or first responder in a lockdown event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

I am the PP who mentioned continuous glucose monitoring, and I only mentioned it because the person before me claimed there was no legitimate reason why phone could be included in a 504.

Just so we are clear on sequence.

Accommodations only need to be reasonable. If the school has a ban on cell phones, the kid could have a different device for diabetes monitoring. The way things were done before they were linked to cell phones. No reason to bend the rules of the school for this one specific case that isn’t even necessary to do that way.

A different device? They are designed to use with cell phones. The continuous monitors are tracked in an app. If you have an issue with your child's cell phone use, deal with it and be a parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

The teacher bought the food and gave it to my child who expressed concern and she said they can eat it. In hs, we’ve had other emergencies. We had a 504 at the time. We dropped it as it was useless. You need to monitor your kid. If my kid abuses the phone or for other reasons we take it and lock it away. They have a watch to contact us. Try parenting.

You need to monitor an elementary school kid. By high school, anyone with a life-threatening allergy needs to be able to advocate and fend for themselves. Why should a kid that age be calling you on their cellphone to tell you they need to use an epi pen? By the time you were able to help them, it would be too late.

[Anonymous]

Did thes go into effect today or is it next school year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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.

The teacher bought the food and gave it to my child who expressed concern and she said they can eat it. In hs, we’ve had other emergencies. We had a 504 at the time. We dropped it as it was useless. You need to monitor your kid. If my kid abuses the phone or for other reasons we take it and lock it away. They have a watch to contact us. Try parenting.

You need to monitor an elementary school kid. By high school, anyone with a life-threatening allergy needs to be able to advocate and fend for themselves. Why should a kid that age be calling you on their cellphone to tell you they need to use an epi pen? By the time you were able to help them, it would be too late.

That’s great but not all kids of any age can advocate for themselves and I was to know asap. Don’t trust mcps.