APS Current cell phones reality

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:So we are middle schoolers but what happens in high school? Do teachers take phones from someone watching a video with airbuds or quietly texting? Obviously loud disruptions would be handled but what happens for more subtle “note passing” style of phone use?

We are in LCPS but it currently depends on both the teacher and also the student. A good student with A’s and completed work watching Netflix with airbuds at the end of class is going to be ignored by most teachers.

Disagree. We are ALL in as a staff now that we finally have a policy that supports this. Before we couldn’t enforce and had no county policy to to reference for doing so- now we do. We’ve been waiting years for this. I had every single kid in every class today put theirs in a numbered pouch that matched the number on their desk so I know exactly who didn’t put their phone up if someone tries to claim they didn’t didn’t. Every kid did. The pouch is in a place up by me that they can’t go by or access when they’re walking out to leave for the bathroom. I will give ZERO leeway on this even though I know in week 2-3 the pushback will start and we will have to reset the expectation after breaks.

Everyone is in on this, we had a 90 minute staff meeting about it and how to enforce it consistently. The only teachers who won’t are the dodos with no classroom management who will let a kid say “I don’t have a phone” and get away with it (which one tried today and I said “yes you do now get it up there” and he caved). They will continue fighting the unwinnable phone battle but the ones who are consistent and hold the line will finally have a policy to enforce it and consequence if not. MOST of us are not going to just “let Netflix slide” and then give every other kid an open pass to also flout the rule and have their phone.

clearly you are not in APS, which is what OP asked about

Do you expect different attitude from APS teachers?

I have no idea, I assume that's why the question was asked SPECIFIC to APS.

Some of the APS parents are insisting their kids have their cell phones. Apparently, their kids will fall apart without them.

Well some kids actually will, but it's clear you don't care.

I care about the state of America’s youth. Take the phone away now or you’ll be paying the bill forever.

+1 the kids who are overwhelmed with anxiety at not having their phone accessible every minute are the kids who most need school to be phone-free. Obviously they need support to get through the transition and should be getting mental health care but letting anxiety rule by finding work arounds so some kids can have phones is not a long term solution for improving mental health.

And no kid needs to be watching Netflix at school when they finish work. If there's down time they can read, just like we did before smart phones.

I’m in LCPS and yesterday with all the phones up, the kids spent way WAY more time talking in the activities we had planned than they previously would have when they rushed through to go sit on their phone . At the end of class we had 4 minutes left til I told them we’d be retrieving their phones. They just sat and talked. Even the quiet kids who claimed they had anxiety on their get to know you form. They just chatted like regular kids. It was so much like pre covid first days of school, the best one I’ve had in years and years. The phones being up is good for EVERYONE.

[Anonymous]

I think your advocacy may be displaced. You want a ban on every Tom, Dick, and Harry being able to buy an automatic assault rifle. Kids in Uvalde had phones. It didn’t help them any.

[Anonymous]

I’m an APS HS teacher - not at Wakefield with the pilot program - and I don’t see how this new policy changed things at all. We’ve always said phones should be away for the day. We’ve never been able to back that with consequences. Admin has told me I’m not allowed to take phones. In my class, I will continue to ignore most phone use until I can have admin back me on stricter rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think your advocacy may be displaced. You want a ban on every Tom, Dick, and Harry being able to buy an automatic assault rifle. Kids in Uvalde had phones. It didn’t help them any.

Of course I want that, but since it's not going to happen anytime soon, they can at least have a phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think your advocacy may be displaced. You want a ban on every Tom, Dick, and Harry being able to buy an automatic assault rifle. Kids in Uvalde had phones. It didn’t help them any.

Of course I want that, but since it's not going to happen anytime soon, they can at least have a phone.

No, they cannot. Whether or not there are guns in the classroom, students deserve to get an education, and a phone prevents that. So they cannot have a phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an APS HS teacher - not at Wakefield with the pilot program - and I don’t see how this new policy changed things at all. We’ve always said phones should be away for the day. We’ve never been able to back that with consequences. Admin has told me I’m not allowed to take phones. In my class, I will continue to ignore most phone use until I can have admin back me on stricter rules.

Who told you that? You clearly aren't at YHS because that is not the case here.

[Anonymous]

There is no current "cell-phone reality" because APS hasn't even had their first day at school.

But I will tell you what will happen. Admin/teachers will do their best to make sure kids don't have their phones and then give up because those kids have parents who spoil them and think they are not the problem when the absolutely are.

And APE parents will continue to harp on banning cellphones entirely until the first lockdown when they will complain that nobody had the phones to call mom and dad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no current "cell-phone reality" because APS hasn't even had their first day at school.

But I will tell you what will happen. Admin/teachers will do their best to make sure kids don't have their phones and then give up because those kids have parents who spoil them and think they are not the problem when the absolutely are.

And APE parents will continue to harp on banning cellphones entirely until the first lockdown when they will complain that nobody had the phones to call mom and dad.

The cynicism! Glad we're in LCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no current "cell-phone reality" because APS hasn't even had their first day at school.

But I will tell you what will happen. Admin/teachers will do their best to make sure kids don't have their phones and then give up because those kids have parents who spoil them and think they are not the problem when the absolutely are.

And APE parents will continue to harp on banning cellphones entirely until the first lockdown when they will complain that nobody had the phones to call mom and dad.

The cynicism! Glad we're in LCPS.

It's already happening at FCPS. One private gym shooting in the proximity of several schools and now parents are begging for their kid's phones back in class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no current "cell-phone reality" because APS hasn't even had their first day at school.

But I will tell you what will happen. Admin/teachers will do their best to make sure kids don't have their phones and then give up because those kids have parents who spoil them and think they are not the problem when the absolutely are.

And APE parents will continue to harp on banning cellphones entirely until the first lockdown when they will complain that nobody had the phones to call mom and dad.

The APEs also may change their tune when their kids hit high school and they realize how different it is.

[Anonymous]

APE derangement is so insane. Get over it. APS isn't doing this because APE wants it or Youngkin asked schools to do it. Teachers want it, entire countries, and Blue states are banning them. Away for the day is good for kids. Period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no current "cell-phone reality" because APS hasn't even had their first day at school.

But I will tell you what will happen. Admin/teachers will do their best to make sure kids don't have their phones and then give up because those kids have parents who spoil them and think they are not the problem when the absolutely are.

And APE parents will continue to harp on banning cellphones entirely until the first lockdown when they will complain that nobody had the phones to call mom and dad.

The APEs also may change their tune when their kids hit high school and they realize how different it is.

My oldest is in 8th grade and I support a full bell-to-bell cell phone ban. I am unclear on why I would want that changed when my kid was in high school. If anything when the academic stakes are higher, I think I will feel it is even more important for phones to be banned. And the last thing I want during a school shooting is some kids phone ringing and telling the shooter where everyone is -- the risk of that (while very small) is not zero and thus not worth any potential benefit of being able to text my kid. My kids middle school had a lockdown and my kid did not have a phone at the time and if anything being phoneless made it easier -- we did not have to worry about going back to the school later to get his phone and the teachers made phones available to the kids to call home. It was really NBD that kids did not have their phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APE derangement is so insane. Get over it. APS isn't doing this because APE wants it or Youngkin asked schools to do it. Teachers want it, entire countries, and Blue states are banning them. Away for the day is good for kids. Period.

OK, so APE wants it, but they're wrong and want it for the wrong reasons, and are going to regret it. But also APS is doing it, but definitely not because APE pushed for it, but because of all the teachers and blue states who are doing it, and who are totally doing it for all the correct, good and noble reasons, which APE somehow doesn't share. Do I have that right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:APE derangement is so insane. Get over it. APS isn't doing this because APE wants it or Youngkin asked schools to do it. Teachers want it, entire countries, and Blue states are banning them. Away for the day is good for kids. Period.

Youngkin wants a total ban. APE wants a total ban. Most teachers and parents not APE want a good thought out policy that will disallow phones during instructional time minus those who need it for health management.

Most kids use phones responsibly, outside of the classroom. The ones who won't shouldn't ruin it for the rest of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an APS HS teacher - not at Wakefield with the pilot program - and I don’t see how this new policy changed things at all. We’ve always said phones should be away for the day. We’ve never been able to back that with consequences. Admin has told me I’m not allowed to take phones. In my class, I will continue to ignore most phone use until I can have admin back me on stricter rules.

Who told you that? You clearly aren't at YHS because that is not the case here.

lol you must be new to YHS then