Banning phones in school

[Anonymous]

The problem is in the public schools some high schoolers will have an absolute meltdown if asked to give up their phones. I have seen kids kirk out and demand to go home. No parent support on the issue. The parents are equally addicted and see no problem with kid on the phone all day playing games, watching porn, watching bootleg movies, endlessly scrolling TikTok, etc. Admin basically gave up this year and said “don’t get into it”. So now basically every kid thinks they can ignore teacher requests to put phones away.

[Anonymous]

We really need the school boards and politicians to force the no phone policy. School based admin just doesn’t want to deal with it. Teachers don’t have enough support on the issue from students, admin and parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parents are absolutely the problem and to blame. And now schools are being blamed for the poor attention, learning, and lack of meaningful socialization so they want schools to fix the issue by banning phones. Most schools already have a policy for putting phones away, but now they will have to invest in pouches and a lock boxes to manage the fix.

Meanwhile budget cuts.

Schools are blamed because:

1. They a policy on paper but don't enforce
2. Some teachers encourage phone use despite the written policy because they want to be the "cool teacher" or don't want to come up with something else to fill the down time once busywork is done
3. School systems make each individual school come up with their own way of handling the issue without giving additional resources to make enforcement effective

Private schools don't have this problem because they implement phone bans and follow through.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately, parents cannot be expected to make the right call here. They are under too much pressure to cave to their children's wishes. The county, not individual schools, should have a no cell phone policy and they should have clear guidelines and consequences in place. MCPS needs to step up and follow what the science has been communicating for years; student mental health, socialization, and academic honesty have been hijacked by cell phones.

[Anonymous]

I found out this week that for one of my courses every single test question from my unit exams has been put on quizlet. Probably by another teacher thinking it would be a way to study. It’s also basically an entire answer key to Google during the test.

Not sure what to do other than ban personal devices during exams now. You can imagine the fight from students on this.

[Anonymous]

As someone who has two children in middle school, I'm okay with a ban so long as each room still has a landline or its VOIP equivalent. (This is not always a given.)

As a teacher, mostly in elementary school, cellphones are still a problem. I would not mind them being banned, so that we have their full attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found out this week that for one of my courses every single test question from my unit exams has been put on quizlet. Probably by another teacher thinking it would be a way to study. It’s also basically an entire answer key to Google during the test.

Not sure what to do other than ban personal devices during exams now. You can imagine the fight from students on this.

Where are you? No devices is standard practice during testing at our HS in Moco.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has two children in middle school, I'm okay with a ban so long as each room still has a landline or its VOIP equivalent. (This is not always a given.)

As a teacher, mostly in elementary school, cellphones are still a problem. I would not mind them being banned, so that we have their full attention.

Why does each room need a landline? Each room has a link to the office - but I don't want your kid calling you to talk about how they are getting home while my kid is learning algebra! If your kid needs to call you, he can go to the office and ask to use their phone.

[Anonymous]

I'm not certain it is realistic to have students come to the office, especially with the overcrowding at a lot of schools.

[Anonymous]

I don't see an issue with letting a student call home from our landlines at the end of class. (Not during).

[Anonymous]

Parkland MS does a great job managing this. The principal mentioned at the beginning of this year that they'd had a lot of problems with cell phones last year, so they were implementing a new no phones in class policy this year. It's not perfect, but it seems like teachers and admin are doing their best to enforce it.

[Anonymous]

How is Parkland MS enforcing it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine don’t have phones still, but you can’t ban them entirely. Many do need them for after-school activities, communicating where they are, work arrangements, etc

No, they don’t.

And you don’t need to be on dcum, but here you are

Sick burn, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the research is out, phones are awful for our kids. Not to mention they never belonged in classrooms to begin with. Is there any movement by MCPS to ban phones in classrooms? What’s the best way to organize for banning phones? School by school or at the MCPS level?

You some kind of commonest? This is murca!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents are absolutely the problem and to blame. And now schools are being blamed for the poor attention, learning, and lack of meaningful socialization so they want schools to fix the issue by banning phones. Most schools already have a policy for putting phones away, but now they will have to invest in pouches and a lock boxes to manage the fix.

Meanwhile budget cuts.

Schools are blamed because:

1. They a policy on paper but don't enforce
2. Some teachers encourage phone use despite the written policy because they want to be the "cool teacher" or don't want to come up with something else to fill the down time once busywork is done
3. School systems make each individual school come up with their own way of handling the issue without giving additional resources to make enforcement effective

Private schools don't have this problem because they implement phone bans and follow through.

Schools don't have the authority to confiscate private property.