FCPS Cell Phone Ban - Bell to Bell - the time is now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

Wrong. Don't blame the teachers. FCPS gives laptops to every student -- teachers can communicate through Schoology. The "real pressure" doesn't come from teachers. Parent up.

I am parenting up. My kids don't have phones even though a LOT of their peers do. I stand by what I said. The biggest pressure comes from adults who assume they do!!

You think kids have cell phones because THE TEACHERS expect them to? What kind of delulu land are you living in? If it’s the teacher’s fault then why did 21 of my 25 5th graders have cell phones in their backpacks? They can’t use them at school. I’m certainly not contacting them on it. And almost all have a better iPhone than I do.

For the parents of kids who are trying to hold out for later....SOME teachers, yes. Also other adult leaders in their lives. It's not a far walk from a teacher like you seeing most of the class with phones ...to one day assuming the class has phones available to take pictures for an assignment or to scan a qr code or whatever.
I want to hold out until they need a phone for safety reasons....but when not having one affects their ability to do an assignment or know about changes to extracurriculars....as a parent who wants to hold out, my hands become tied...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS teacher. I appreciate your efforts, OP, but your petition is defective. We already have this policy in the SR&R and a policy without consequences is worthless. Your petition needs to advocate for real consequences that hurt for being caught with a phone out. Maybe not as harsh as being caught with drugs, but real consequences. Otherwise you are wasting your time.

I echo the teacher above who said she doesn't get paid enough to deal with phone disruption. I'm teaching. Your kid prefers Tiktok to learning? Your problem.

+1

We have a toothless “rule” about cell phones. Admin, gatehouse, and SB have NO CONSEQUENCES for not following the rule. Kids aren’t stupid. If they won’t “get in trouble”, then 95% of them will just do whatever they want.

+1 from yet another teacher. Until admin, Gatehouse, and the school board are willing to allow actual consequences for not following rules, this petition is well intentioned but useless.

[Anonymous]

I am a high school teacher and our principal was specifically told by Gatehouse that we cannot take away a student's cell phone, which effectively makes it impossible to enforce a cell phone ban. It is not complicated - the schools should enforce the ban on cell phones and if a student has one out it should be confiscated (with exceptions for medical reasons, etc.). I am certain parents have no idea how bad it is in schools. I tried so hard all year to police cell phones and ear buds, but the second I stopped being vigilant or even turned my back, all the phones and earbuds came right back out. I feel sorry for my students because some of them just truly are addicted and are missing out on so much of life because they are glued to a screen. They NEED the consequences to break the addiction. As adults we have to do better for these kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

You’ve got it wrong. My child was disadvantaged in science class by not having a phone to take pictures - that meant he had to hand draw from memory what he saw vs refer to a screen shot. In his high school language class, the teacher recommended a certain app to help. How does one access an app without a phone? We waited as long as we could but when his own classes started using phones and apps we knew it was time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I support a bell to bell ban. Phones should be in backpacks and away for the full day. I do need to be able to reach my kid after school though.

And agree the main problem is enforcement. Teachers need to know they can send the kid to the office and the admin will confiscate the phone until the parent comes to pick it up. That is what needs to be automatic and everywhere for it to work in practice.

Spouse teaches at a MS and says this is what happens in that MS. It has helped a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I support a bell to bell ban. Phones should be in backpacks and away for the full day. I do need to be able to reach my kid after school though.

And agree the main problem is enforcement. Teachers need to know they can send the kid to the office and the admin will confiscate the phone until the parent comes to pick it up. That is what needs to be automatic and everywhere for it to work in practice.

Spouse teaches at a MS and says this is what happens in that MS. It has helped a lot.

Based on what is in the sr&r thus can happen in MS but cannot happen in HS. It’s dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

Wrong. Don't blame the teachers. FCPS gives laptops to every student -- teachers can communicate through Schoology. The "real pressure" doesn't come from teachers. Parent up.

I am parenting up. My kids don't have phones even though a LOT of their peers do. I stand by what I said. The biggest pressure comes from adults who assume they do!!

You think kids have cell phones because THE TEACHERS expect them to? What kind of delulu land are you living in? If it’s the teacher’s fault then why did 21 of my 25 5th graders have cell phones in their backpacks? They can’t use them at school. I’m certainly not contacting them on it. And almost all have a better iPhone than I do.

My kids didn’t have cellphones in MS, safety drills, and math and science teachers routinely asked students to pull out their phones to do xyz. I had to routinely ask teachers what should my kids do when they requested this. HS it is definitely an unwritten expectation of teachers and admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

I posted before I got to your post, PP. This was our experience as well. I really didn’t expect teachers to do this making mine and the 1-2 other kids without phones left out —- especially since the teachers would also complain about phone use during school hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

DP — you are out of touch with what happens in the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

I posted before I got to your post, PP. This was our experience as well. I really didn’t expect teachers to do this making mine and the 1-2 other kids without phones left out —- especially since the teachers would also complain about phone use during school hours.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

I posted before I got to your post, PP. This was our experience as well. I really didn’t expect teachers to do this making mine and the 1-2 other kids without phones left out —- especially since the teachers would also complain about phone use during school hours.

+1 and in high school it’s even worse. Teachers/coaches expect students to have phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

Wrong. Don't blame the teachers. FCPS gives laptops to every student -- teachers can communicate through Schoology. The "real pressure" doesn't come from teachers. Parent up.

I am parenting up. My kids don't have phones even though a LOT of their peers do. I stand by what I said. The biggest pressure comes from adults who assume they do!!

You think kids have cell phones because THE TEACHERS expect them to? What kind of delulu land are you living in? If it’s the teacher’s fault then why did 21 of my 25 5th graders have cell phones in their backpacks? They can’t use them at school. I’m certainly not contacting them on it. And almost all have a better iPhone than I do.

For the parents of kids who are trying to hold out for later....SOME teachers, yes. Also other adult leaders in their lives. It's not a far walk from a teacher like you seeing most of the class with phones ...to one day assuming the class has phones available to take pictures for an assignment or to scan a qr code or whatever.
I want to hold out until they need a phone for safety reasons....but when not having one affects their ability to do an assignment or know about changes to extracurriculars....as a parent who wants to hold out, my hands become tied...

This is largely a chicken and egg problem. Are there a few teachers here and there who have no issue with phones? Sure. They're the same kind of crappy teachers who give Google Slide fill-out assignments that are two of three years below grade level and have kids "discuss amongst themselves" and call that "engagement" (we had instructional coaches like that this year). But the rest of us don't want them, and if a teacher tells students to use their phones to take a picture, she may just have decided to put to good use a device that she knows she can't control anyway. She would easily find a different way to do it if the phones weren't ubiquitous.

I can't tell you the number of times I've had parents blow up at me when I reported cheating with phones or addiction to phones. "He wasn't cheating--I was texting him." Oh really? Your kid told me there was nothing on the phone because he didn't have reception in the room. "You should have asked her--I'm sure she had a perfectly valid reason to be using her phone. I will complain to the principal." I'm sure she did--that must be why the phone was under the formula sheet, and the minute I moved the formula sheet she swiped to shut off the screen and slid the phone under the desk. "You should give her fewer assignments and less homework and check in on her more frequently" in response to telling them I can't get their child unglued from their phone for more than a minute and they're doing no work.

I didn't sign up for this and I don't care anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are holding off on phones for our kids as long as we can....but we are noticing that the real pressure towards getting phones is less the peer pressure and more that adults (teachers/ club leaders) assuming they have access to one and assigning things/ communicating accordingly.

+1 I have to agree. In MS, we had teachers allowing students to use their phones to take pictures of stuff in their biology class for their lab. That left my child out. Phones were also allowed on field trips. Again my child was left out. We finally relented and got a phone for them in the fall of 8th.

hysterical. You couldn’t handle your own parenting choices so caved and blame the teachers. Makes a ton of sense.

DP — you are out of touch with what happens in the classroom.

In fact, I’m not. I’m a teacher who has to fight every day with kids to put their phones away only to be blamed by parents who want to believe it’s MY fault their kid “needs” a phone.

[Anonymous]

The problem is principals. They need to back teachers up be taking the phones and making parents come get them.