Executive Order decreeing "cell-phone free" education in k-12

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

Well, the public voted in Younkin….

But, in all honesty, nothing‘s going to change so I wouldn’t worry about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

So then what's the issue?

The issue is that FCPS wants to simply take the phones and lock them away, not just forbid the kids from using them in class. Right now they can use them at lunch and during free periods or between classes. Honestly, it's been great having him be able to communicate when necessary. It's simply not true that parents can call the school or kids can call home. You can't call the school. The office at our high will not give your kid any kind of message unless it's some kind of dire emergency - they can't even usually find them. And kids don't have access to a phone other than their cell phones - the office doesn't let a kid walk in and make a call. So people who say that have no idea how schools work. Without a cell phone your kid might as well be in prison for the day for all you can contact them and vice versa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

So then what's the issue?

The issue is that FCPS wants to simply take the phones and lock them away, not just forbid the kids from using them in class. Right now they can use them at lunch and during free periods or between classes. Honestly, it's been great having him be able to communicate when necessary. It's simply not true that parents can call the school or kids can call home. You can't call the school. The office at our high will not give your kid any kind of message unless it's some kind of dire emergency - they can't even usually find them. And kids don't have access to a phone other than their cell phones - the office doesn't let a kid walk in and make a call. So people who say that have no idea how schools work. Without a cell phone your kid might as well be in prison for the day for all you can contact them and vice versa.

Oh my, the drama. Staying off your phone for 7 1/2 hours is not a prison. Billions of students didn't have a phone in school from the 1700s to 2005.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

And here's exhibit A as to why nothing is going to change.
Oh and about the bolded: very high chance your son is lying to you (NBD: teens lie to their parents all the time). There are vanishingly few students who aren't on their phone at one time or another during class.

[Anonymous]

I honestly can't believe the drama queens wailing that their kid might have to *gasp* place his/her cell phone in container/shoe tree at the beginning of each class. SPARE US ALL. If there was an emergency, they would simply run up and grab their phones.

Honestly, who would possibly be against this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

So then what's the issue?

The issue is that FCPS wants to simply take the phones and lock them away, not just forbid the kids from using them in class. Right now they can use them at lunch and during free periods or between classes. Honestly, it's been great having him be able to communicate when necessary. It's simply not true that parents can call the school or kids can call home. You can't call the school. The office at our high will not give your kid any kind of message unless it's some kind of dire emergency - they can't even usually find them. And kids don't have access to a phone other than their cell phones - the office doesn't let a kid walk in and make a call. So people who say that have no idea how schools work. Without a cell phone your kid might as well be in prison for the day for all you can contact them and vice versa.

Honestly, some of the most damaging stuff involving cell phones happens during this time. Kids recording other kids without their permission, accessing questionable material and sharing it with other kids. It’s not just the distraction in class and it is very hard to police what happens with phones during times that are unstructured and have less supervision than class time. When school staff do find out about these issues, parents often fight consequences. Cell phones in schools are problematic on so many levels.

[Anonymous]

Now we will have half day Tuesdays so that the teachers and administrators can sort this all out and give proper development training on it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Long time HS teacher here and this is how it’s going to play out with older kids. There will be meetings during the teacher workdays and we will need to have something in the syllabus. Admin will put together some unrealistic protocol, like we need to keep track of infractions ourself, give a certain number of warnings, on the whatever time email/call parents, then on the next time write a referral. Some teachers will stress over this and have complicated spreadsheets, write referrals only to find out no discipline happens.

Nothing will change in my class. I’ve always had a cell away rule. It’s usually not an issue. I will contact parents if they are ever cheating on a test or being disruptive. I will not if I see them send a quick text. No one has time for that and most of the time, the parents are texting their own kids.

This and admin will do nothing but expect teachers to do it all-as usual.

Teachers will have to do their jobs, waah waah waah.

Not my job to deal with your kid's phone. They're free to stay on it and learn nothing while I teach those who are in my class for a good reason.

Your lack of compassion for the other students they are disrupting is gross.

The teachers are saying that they are prioritizing the other students by focusing on the instruction. They are de-prioritizing the unfocused, disrespectful student that won’t put their phone away.

If teachers and their administration would enforce the existing cell phone ban, maybe these kids would learn something, too. Rather than being written off because of the failure of the school to enforce the ban

You are blaming the students, and punishing them by letting them learn nothing, because the school is not doing its job. Youngkin has figured this out. But principals haven't.

What has he figured out exactly? There is already a policy on the books, but no consequences attached. No consequences means the policy is useless. Unenforceable.

YOU - the teacher on the spot - and the principal have total authority to decide on the consequences. Get outta here with your bs evasion that you can’t do anything because the governor didn’t tell you exactly what to do.

No, I as the teacher have been told by admin I cannot take their phone and there’s no written consequences for them misusing the phone in the district policies so there actually is no consequences I can enforce. If I take a kid’s property and the parents come after me for it, the district won’t back me- they’ve said this to us. We can’t take their property. We can’t kick them out of class for it, or issue detention for it, or give them ISR or suspension for it. The governor didn’t include any written consequences in his decree either so we are still left where we always have been.

Why won’t the district let you kick kids out of class or suspend them? Suspension seems easiest—if the kid wants to be on his phone all day, let him. He can come back to school when he’s ready to learn.

Because districts, administrators, and schools get in hot water if there are too many suspensions or discipline referrals.

I remember years ago when we had a staff meeting to discuss all of this. The county-wide data for blacks and/or students with IEPs getting written up was extremely high. African-American students were being disproportionally written up for “issues” that white students also do all the time (like chewing gum, talking in class, misuse of materials, etc.) It was a huge county-wide problem. If there were a thousand cases, a small percentage were white or Asian.

Thus the disciplinary matrix was born.

lol sure they were.

Because all the nice white teacher ladies in FCPS, overwhelmingly liberal Democrats, are actually racists who hate black kids.

Feel free to FOIA the data if you like. It’s true.

Not sure what this has to do with cell phones, but this actually did happen. I was a teacher at the time and our statistics in-school bore it out.

The thing about teachers and the phone is, why do you care? They have the right to not pay attention in class and they also have the right to fail. Or at least to get a D. I teach in a college and it's what I do. Very few kids actually use their phones during class, though. They have them out, and I'll see them start checking them if things get boring, but I try to keep things from getting too boring. But for those who just play the whole time, they just don't get a good grade and that's their punishment.

As we have said repeatedly, it isn’t 1-2 kids . It’s the whole class. It is a daily battle to try to get 15 + kids off their phone. You can’t do any group work or fun activities because half the class doesn’t know what the hell is going on and the other half doesn’t want to have to catch them up. When you try to do anything fun, most of the kids just decide to take their phone out and scroll. My kids did this on a FIELD TRIP. They’re texting eachother in class to meet in the bathroom to fight or do drugs. Their parents call them and they straight up ANSWER the phone in class. This destroys the entire learning environment for everyone and makes good teaching impossible.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long time HS teacher here and this is how it’s going to play out with older kids. There will be meetings during the teacher workdays and we will need to have something in the syllabus. Admin will put together some unrealistic protocol, like we need to keep track of infractions ourself, give a certain number of warnings, on the whatever time email/call parents, then on the next time write a referral. Some teachers will stress over this and have complicated spreadsheets, write referrals only to find out no discipline happens.

Nothing will change in my class. I’ve always had a cell away rule. It’s usually not an issue. I will contact parents if they are ever cheating on a test or being disruptive. I will not if I see them send a quick text. No one has time for that and most of the time, the parents are texting their own kids.

This and admin will do nothing but expect teachers to do it all-as usual.

Teachers will have to do their jobs, waah waah waah.

Not my job to deal with your kid's phone. They're free to stay on it and learn nothing while I teach those who are in my class for a good reason.

Your lack of compassion for the other students they are disrupting is gross.

The teachers are saying that they are prioritizing the other students by focusing on the instruction. They are de-prioritizing the unfocused, disrespectful student that won’t put their phone away.

If teachers and their administration would enforce the existing cell phone ban, maybe these kids would learn something, too. Rather than being written off because of the failure of the school to enforce the ban

You are blaming the students, and punishing them by letting them learn nothing, because the school is not doing its job. Youngkin has figured this out. But principals haven't.

What has he figured out exactly? There is already a policy on the books, but no consequences attached. No consequences means the policy is useless. Unenforceable.

YOU - the teacher on the spot - and the principal have total authority to decide on the consequences. Get outta here with your bs evasion that you can’t do anything because the governor didn’t tell you exactly what to do.

No, I as the teacher have been told by admin I cannot take their phone and there’s no written consequences for them misusing the phone in the district policies so there actually is no consequences I can enforce. If I take a kid’s property and the parents come after me for it, the district won’t back me- they’ve said this to us. We can’t take their property. We can’t kick them out of class for it, or issue detention for it, or give them ISR or suspension for it. The governor didn’t include any written consequences in his decree either so we are still left where we always have been.

Why won’t the district let you kick kids out of class or suspend them? Suspension seems easiest—if the kid wants to be on his phone all day, let him. He can come back to school when he’s ready to learn.

Because districts, administrators, and schools get in hot water if there are too many suspensions or discipline referrals.

I remember years ago when we had a staff meeting to discuss all of this. The county-wide data for blacks and/or students with IEPs getting written up was extremely high. African-American students were being disproportionally written up for “issues” that white students also do all the time (like chewing gum, talking in class, misuse of materials, etc.) It was a huge county-wide problem. If there were a thousand cases, a small percentage were white or Asian.

Thus the disciplinary matrix was born.

lol sure they were.

Because all the nice white teacher ladies in FCPS, overwhelmingly liberal Democrats, are actually racists who hate black kids.

Feel free to FOIA the data if you like. It’s true.

It is true they received more penalties. That does not necessarily mean they were assigned in a racist manner. It is entirely possible some groups simply commit more infractions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long time HS teacher here and this is how it’s going to play out with older kids. There will be meetings during the teacher workdays and we will need to have something in the syllabus. Admin will put together some unrealistic protocol, like we need to keep track of infractions ourself, give a certain number of warnings, on the whatever time email/call parents, then on the next time write a referral. Some teachers will stress over this and have complicated spreadsheets, write referrals only to find out no discipline happens.

Nothing will change in my class. I’ve always had a cell away rule. It’s usually not an issue. I will contact parents if they are ever cheating on a test or being disruptive. I will not if I see them send a quick text. No one has time for that and most of the time, the parents are texting their own kids.

This and admin will do nothing but expect teachers to do it all-as usual.

Teachers will have to do their jobs, waah waah waah.

Not my job to deal with your kid's phone. They're free to stay on it and learn nothing while I teach those who are in my class for a good reason.

Your lack of compassion for the other students they are disrupting is gross.

The teachers are saying that they are prioritizing the other students by focusing on the instruction. They are de-prioritizing the unfocused, disrespectful student that won’t put their phone away.

If teachers and their administration would enforce the existing cell phone ban, maybe these kids would learn something, too. Rather than being written off because of the failure of the school to enforce the ban

You are blaming the students, and punishing them by letting them learn nothing, because the school is not doing its job. Youngkin has figured this out. But principals haven't.

What has he figured out exactly? There is already a policy on the books, but no consequences attached. No consequences means the policy is useless. Unenforceable.

YOU - the teacher on the spot - and the principal have total authority to decide on the consequences. Get outta here with your bs evasion that you can’t do anything because the governor didn’t tell you exactly what to do.

No, I as the teacher have been told by admin I cannot take their phone and there’s no written consequences for them misusing the phone in the district policies so there actually is no consequences I can enforce. If I take a kid’s property and the parents come after me for it, the district won’t back me- they’ve said this to us. We can’t take their property. We can’t kick them out of class for it, or issue detention for it, or give them ISR or suspension for it. The governor didn’t include any written consequences in his decree either so we are still left where we always have been.

Why won’t the district let you kick kids out of class or suspend them? Suspension seems easiest—if the kid wants to be on his phone all day, let him. He can come back to school when he’s ready to learn.

Because districts, administrators, and schools get in hot water if there are too many suspensions or discipline referrals.

I remember years ago when we had a staff meeting to discuss all of this. The county-wide data for blacks and/or students with IEPs getting written up was extremely high. African-American students were being disproportionally written up for “issues” that white students also do all the time (like chewing gum, talking in class, misuse of materials, etc.) It was a huge county-wide problem. If there were a thousand cases, a small percentage were white or Asian.

Thus the disciplinary matrix was born.

lol sure they were.

Because all the nice white teacher ladies in FCPS, overwhelmingly liberal Democrats, are actually racists who hate black kids.

Feel free to FOIA the data if you like. It’s true.

It is true they received more penalties. That does not necessarily mean they were assigned in a racist manner. It is entirely possible some groups simply commit more infractions.

Regardless, the disproportionality in that data means that there are now fewer options for discipline. Districts decided that rather than get to the root cause of racial disparity in punishments, they would just make it impossible to assign anyone to alternative school or receive suspension anymore. Bad data all gone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Long time HS teacher here and this is how it’s going to play out with older kids. There will be meetings during the teacher workdays and we will need to have something in the syllabus. Admin will put together some unrealistic protocol, like we need to keep track of infractions ourself, give a certain number of warnings, on the whatever time email/call parents, then on the next time write a referral. Some teachers will stress over this and have complicated spreadsheets, write referrals only to find out no discipline happens.

Nothing will change in my class. I’ve always had a cell away rule. It’s usually not an issue. I will contact parents if they are ever cheating on a test or being disruptive. I will not if I see them send a quick text. No one has time for that and most of the time, the parents are texting their own kids.

This and admin will do nothing but expect teachers to do it all-as usual.

Teachers will have to do their jobs, waah waah waah.

Not my job to deal with your kid's phone. They're free to stay on it and learn nothing while I teach those who are in my class for a good reason.

Your lack of compassion for the other students they are disrupting is gross.

The teachers are saying that they are prioritizing the other students by focusing on the instruction. They are de-prioritizing the unfocused, disrespectful student that won’t put their phone away.

If teachers and their administration would enforce the existing cell phone ban, maybe these kids would learn something, too. Rather than being written off because of the failure of the school to enforce the ban

You are blaming the students, and punishing them by letting them learn nothing, because the school is not doing its job. Youngkin has figured this out. But principals haven't.

What has he figured out exactly? There is already a policy on the books, but no consequences attached. No consequences means the policy is useless. Unenforceable.

YOU - the teacher on the spot - and the principal have total authority to decide on the consequences. Get outta here with your bs evasion that you can’t do anything because the governor didn’t tell you exactly what to do.

No, I as the teacher have been told by admin I cannot take their phone and there’s no written consequences for them misusing the phone in the district policies so there actually is no consequences I can enforce. If I take a kid’s property and the parents come after me for it, the district won’t back me- they’ve said this to us. We can’t take their property. We can’t kick them out of class for it, or issue detention for it, or give them ISR or suspension for it. The governor didn’t include any written consequences in his decree either so we are still left where we always have been.

Why won’t the district let you kick kids out of class or suspend them? Suspension seems easiest—if the kid wants to be on his phone all day, let him. He can come back to school when he’s ready to learn.

Because districts, administrators, and schools get in hot water if there are too many suspensions or discipline referrals.

I remember years ago when we had a staff meeting to discuss all of this. The county-wide data for blacks and/or students with IEPs getting written up was extremely high. African-American students were being disproportionally written up for “issues” that white students also do all the time (like chewing gum, talking in class, misuse of materials, etc.) It was a huge county-wide problem. If there were a thousand cases, a small percentage were white or Asian.

Thus the disciplinary matrix was born.

lol sure they were.

Because all the nice white teacher ladies in FCPS, overwhelmingly liberal Democrats, are actually racists who hate black kids.

Feel free to FOIA the data if you like. It’s true.

It is true they received more penalties. That does not necessarily mean they were assigned in a racist manner. It is entirely possible some groups simply commit more infractions.

It is pretty well established that poverty causes negative outcomes in student behavior and discipline. It is also well established that poverty in FCPS tracks disproportionately along racial lines. It’s likely that certain demographics were overrepresented in the data. This isn’t a controversial outcome in the data.

But the move away from traditional discipline measures over the last 10 years, in part because of these lopsided student behavior results, also makes enforcement of something like this cellphone policy, or really anything, very difficult.

[Anonymous]

Dumb question and sorry if this was discussed or is in the link but what about watches? Where we moved from far more kids had smart watches than phones. I understand the phone issue and support restrictions but like being able to contact my kid and letting them contact me if needed. Wondering if this his been considered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dumb question and sorry if this was discussed or is in the link but what about watches? Where we moved from far more kids had smart watches than phones. I understand the phone issue and support restrictions but like being able to contact my kid and letting them contact me if needed. Wondering if this his been considered?

I am asking this in sincere honesty: what on earth could you possibly need to contact your kid for that could not wait until after school or, in an absolute emergency, be relayed by you calling the front office? There is no need to be in communication with your kid throughout the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happened to parents getting a say? I love that my son has a cell phone. I know he doesn't take it out in class (that's not allowed, and he follows the rules). I love that he can contact me if something goes wrong or he wants to stay late or needs a ride. There have been shooter incidences where the kids texting parents were the only way they would have known. I don't trust FCPS one bit to take care of my child. I want him to be able to reach me if he needs to. So much for parents' rights.

So then what's the issue?

The issue is that FCPS wants to simply take the phones and lock them away, not just forbid the kids from using them in class. Right now they can use them at lunch and during free periods or between classes. Honestly, it's been great having him be able to communicate when necessary. It's simply not true that parents can call the school or kids can call home. You can't call the school. The office at our high will not give your kid any kind of message unless it's some kind of dire emergency - they can't even usually find them. And kids don't have access to a phone other than their cell phones - the office doesn't let a kid walk in and make a call. So people who say that have no idea how schools work. Without a cell phone your kid might as well be in prison for the day for all you can contact them and vice versa.

Honestly, some of the most damaging stuff involving cell phones happens during this time. Kids recording other kids without their permission, accessing questionable material and sharing it with other kids. It’s not just the distraction in class and it is very hard to police what happens with phones during times that are unstructured and have less supervision than class time. When school staff do find out about these issues, parents often fight consequences. Cell phones in schools are problematic on so many levels.

I agree. Do your kids have laptops they are on during school- you can still email them and even text on many devices (not phones). This concern about changing plans with parents- easily addressed and phones can still be put away especially during those more unstructured times like lunch, free periods and breaks/between classes. This is for the health of our kids- socially, emotionally, mentally. I love that people on both sides are behind this. It says a lot about a change being needed.

[Anonymous]

In Cooper Middle School, cell phones aren't allowed. But this is definitely not enforced. Some classes require cell phones (Take a video! Take a picture of something! Use the calculator for this problem!) and my daughter was sending me photos all year that either she or her friends took in PE class, at recess, or during Quiet Study Time (QST).

I would love to see this ban actually enforced.