Cell Phone Bans in Schools Around Country

[Anonymous]

Add another to list of teachers' duties. Discipline child, regulate child's phone usage, monitor Chromebook, check on their mental health...what else, parents?!!!

[Anonymous]

You forgot: teach. You know the thing students supposedly go to school for?

[Anonymous]

School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the locked pouches….how did schools know whose phone is whose at the end of the day? There is a lot of theft of cell phones at our MS. The kids won’t leave them in their lockers because the lockers get broken into a lot. The bags seem like they would work for small private schools but I just don’t see how they would work for schools with almost a thousand kids.

I feel like this system might work—if teacher sees it out, kid is told put it away. If it doesn’t go away, email goes to parent annd child given lunch detention. After 3 emails to parent, parent must come in to schoo for a meeting with school admin and child. If parent doesn’t, or after 2 such meetings, child is suspended.

But even that would require teachers taking the time to email an admin every day with list of non compliant kids, an admin to email the parents and track it, and the willingness to actually suspend repeat offenders.

Another idea is that they could actually block reception in school. My HS kid is not on his cell at all during school because there is zero reception in his concrete block basement room buildings (which I confirmed during back to school night, when I couldn’t text my spouse to tell them it was running late.). My other Hs kid, at a different HS, has reception all day, though.

Cell phone jamming is against the law, so that's not gonna fly. Phones are a HUGE problem in middle schools. There needs to be a ban. Parents weren't constantly connected to their kids 10 years ago. There is no need for it now. There's a school number. Call the school. Kids can use email on Chromebooks if necessary. Some principals are no help at all in the matter. Parents don't help either-they are usually the ones texting and/or calling their kids in the middle of class. MCPS needs an official policy now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

Mcps needs to: have students keep phones in lockers. BUT parents will say they need in case of emergency. In a school emergency, students will either stay out and can't go to lockers or rush out of building and wont have time to go to locker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg. Just give your MS kid an old fashioned back in style flip phone for emergency use which by the way can be used to chat as well. They can surf when they get home under your supervision. Afraid though most families will not be switching back to those flip phones. Sad.

My MS child doesn't have a phone....

[Anonymous]

In case of what emergency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

troll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

Like Justice Potter said: I'll know it when i see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Until the teacher/school assume liability for the replacement cost of very expensive cell phones, the idea of “collecting” them seems a poor plan. If they want to say no cell phones, then storage issues come up. And some kids need access to summon help in the event of, for example, a life-threatening allergic reaction — because otherwise their life is in the hands of some random third party.

Nope. If a kid is breaking rules using a phone and it gets confiscated, that's on the kid and kid's family.

This....put a good case on your child's phone with a screen protector. Parents can pick up phone after school.

+1. This is what the lock bags should be for, confiscated phones. Parents can come pick them up from the office after school or in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

We've had multiple school evacuations this year... bomb threats, etc....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

We've had multiple school evacuations this year... bomb threats, etc....

I lived through half a dozen school bomb threats as a kid without calling my parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

We've had multiple school evacuations this year... bomb threats, etc....

I lived through half a dozen school bomb threats as a kid without calling my parents.

That's why schools send out notices as students are just about teaching home in the afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Add another to list of teachers' duties. Discipline child, regulate child's phone usage, monitor Chromebook, check on their mental health...what else, parents?!!!

Schools give out and control the chromebooks. Our school prefers we not provide our own. So, how do parents monitor it if we don't have full access?