Cell phone ban in schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax public schools are rolling in a pilot program at several middle and high schools to lock phones up in yonder pouches during the school day. Why is MCPS always the last school district to do anything? Why do we always sit on our ass and say nothing can be done?
Exact same situation with school start times.

MCPS will wake up when we are the last school district left. I don’t understand why we always prefer to follow rather than lead. It is a problem when parents don’t let school administrators and teachers do their jobs and do what is best for kids. I’m all for parents having a voice but we have taken it too far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents like to prioritize convenience over academic learning. The latest science says that early school start times is a bad idea but we don’t care. The science is out now on phone use negatively impacting teenage development and impacting education but why would we care about that. It is more important for me to be able to text my kid at school because we have such a close relationship and I am a great parent

Start times are fine. If your precious kid is not able to get up, have them go to bed earlier. Don't get your kid a phone if you are against it. Many kids have to get up for sports, care for siblings, and much more. Its too bad you don't prioritize convenience over academic learning. If you did, again, your kids would be in bed earlier so school is a priority. If you shifted the day later, activities and sports would be later and kids like mine would go to bed even later, so that's not at all helpful.

Right on the money. Ignore scientific evidence. Start times are fine because I said so. Never change MCPS parents.

It's not as cut an dry as you are painting it.

Even if we concede the point that a later start time is "better' (however you define better) for adolescents, we're talking about giving pushing back the start time to maybe 30-45 minutes. I have yet to see the push-back start time folks convincingly address these points:

1. Many kids will just stay up later, thereby undoing the "benefit" of the late start time

2. We don't have enough buses to transport kids with high school having that delayed start time. Proposals to switch with elementary run up against making elementary kids wake up at the crack of dawn and stand outside at bus stops when it's dark, which is going to have its own contingent of parents who'd be upset. The only solution would be to buy more bus drivers, which cost money and employees, which we're short on. So what's the viable way forward here?

3. Like it or not, many families rely on older siblings to pick up and watch their younger siblings. You can say that shouldn't happen but it does. The only way to solve for this would be to provide free aftercare, which costs money that we don't have.

4. People have concerns about running sports practice and activities later. It's already a squeeze with the current end time of 2:30. Pushing that back later gives kids even less time to study and spend time with family after a full school day and practice.

And again, the delayed start time advocates act as if eveyone is happy with the delayed start times. Many parents have voiced complaints that they don't like it, many for a mixture of the reasons listed above. There is NO PLEASING EVERYONE. Someone is going to be unhappy regardless of the start time.

So the question is: Is the cost and gain from moving the start time back by 30-45 minutes worth the headache, stress and conflict that will come with such a change? I have yet to see evidence that persuades me it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS parents like to prioritize convenience over academic learning. The latest science says that early school start times is a bad idea but we don’t care. The science is out now on phone use negatively impacting teenage development and impacting education but why would we care about that. It is more important for me to be able to text my kid at school because we have such a close relationship and I am a great parent

Start times are fine. If your precious kid is not able to get up, have them go to bed earlier. Don't get your kid a phone if you are against it. Many kids have to get up for sports, care for siblings, and much more. Its too bad you don't prioritize convenience over academic learning. If you did, again, your kids would be in bed earlier so school is a priority. If you shifted the day later, activities and sports would be later and kids like mine would go to bed even later, so that's not at all helpful.

Right on the money. Ignore scientific evidence. Start times are fine because I said so. Never change MCPS parents.

It's not as cut an dry as you are painting it.

Even if we concede the point that a later start time is "better' (however you define better) for adolescents, we're talking about giving pushing back the start time to maybe 30-45 minutes. I have yet to see the push-back start time folks convincingly address these points:

1. Many kids will just stay up later, thereby undoing the "benefit" of the late start time

2. We don't have enough buses to transport kids with high school having that delayed start time. Proposals to switch with elementary run up against making elementary kids wake up at the crack of dawn and stand outside at bus stops when it's dark, which is going to have its own contingent of parents who'd be upset. The only solution would be to buy more bus drivers, which cost money and employees, which we're short on. So what's the viable way forward here?

3. Like it or not, many families rely on older siblings to pick up and watch their younger siblings. You can say that shouldn't happen but it does. The only way to solve for this would be to provide free aftercare, which costs money that we don't have.

4. People have concerns about running sports practice and activities later. It's already a squeeze with the current end time of 2:30. Pushing that back later gives kids even less time to study and spend time with family after a full school day and practice.

And again, the delayed start time advocates act as if eveyone is happy with the delayed start times. Many parents have voiced complaints that they don't like it, many for a mixture of the reasons listed above. There is NO PLEASING EVERYONE. Someone is going to be unhappy regardless of the start time.

So the question is: Is the cost and gain from moving the start time back by 30-45 minutes worth the headache, stress and conflict that will come with such a change? I have yet to see evidence that persuades me it is.

I'm not crazy about it either but your points are valid. I wish it could be later but the benefits are hardly worth the headache.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fairfax public schools are rolling in a pilot program at several middle and high schools to lock phones up in yonder pouches during the school day. Why is MCPS always the last school district to do anything? Why do we always sit on our ass and say nothing can be done?
Exact same situation with school start times.

They settled school start times a few years ago and came up with the best possible compromise.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why? They will just use their chomebooks instead.

Chromebooks don’t have TikTok which is 99% of the battle. They do not abuse Chromebooks nearly as bad as they use their phones. Try stepping foot in a classroom once in awhile before making ignorant comments.

Kids at our school use instagram not TikTok. Yes they are worse on the chromebooks as it’s less obvious.

Yep, if they take away phones from these students, they'll just find something else to occupy their time.

Yea. Let’s never attempt to fix anything. Let the kids decide how everything should work. Sounds perfect!

Would be better than wasting 20% of class time attempting to enforce an unworkable policy. No matter what they do some kids aren't going to pay attention. They can't legislate this.

No, you’re so right. We should instead continue to spend 100% of class time trying to get kids off phones. You may think it’s a problem for everyone, but they absolutely distract the students trying to work. Bans work in other school systems, could easily work here but then we have attitudes like yours. It’s pathetic.

I don't think posters are saying that this shouldn't be tried. They just, after years of bad policies and execution coming from MCPS, are trying to manage their expectations.

Yep, because there's no way to enforce these rules, it will just end up being an even bigger distraction.

+100

[Anonymous]

WaPo article today on Fairfax County Public Schools' move to a cell phone-free policy: https://wapo.st/4dsbmpA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WaPo article today on Fairfax County Public Schools' move to a cell phone-free policy: https://wapo.st/4dsbmpA

How do they enforce this equitably?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WaPo article today on Fairfax County Public Schools' move to a cell phone-free policy: https://wapo.st/4dsbmpA

The article says they only do this at some schools which is the same as MCPS.

[Anonymous]

At my kids MCPS school they had to keep their cellphones in their locker or backpack and were not allowed to take it out during school hours. They said it would be confiscated if they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WaPo article today on Fairfax County Public Schools' move to a cell phone-free policy: https://wapo.st/4dsbmpA

The article says they only do this at some schools which is the same as MCPS.

They are piloting it at a few schools but plan is for it to go district wide.

[Anonymous]

I’m honestly amazed at the pushback by parents in this thread. We are a military family and move around every few years. Every other district had parents either begging for cellphone bans or just welcoming them. No one was pushing back as hard as some people in this thread. I will be glad when we leave again. This county is truly something else (and not in a good way)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WaPo article today on Fairfax County Public Schools' move to a cell phone-free policy: https://wapo.st/4dsbmpA

The article says they only do this at some schools which is the same as MCPS.

They are piloting it at a few schools but plan is for it to go district wide.

MCPS leaves it up to each school to decide what works best for their community. It's like state's rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly amazed at the pushback by parents in this thread. We are a military family and move around every few years. Every other district had parents either begging for cellphone bans or just welcoming them. No one was pushing back as hard as some people in this thread. I will be glad when we leave again. This county is truly something else (and not in a good way)

I can’t disagree with you.

[Anonymous]

I think the common refrain - parents know best - has caused a lot of damage. There are so many clueless and dumb parents and letting them rule the roost is a big mistake.
All the experts say it is time to get cell phones out of schools. Why is MCPS not listening to them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m honestly amazed at the pushback by parents in this thread. We are a military family and move around every few years. Every other district had parents either begging for cellphone bans or just welcoming them. No one was pushing back as hard as some people in this thread. I will be glad when we leave again. This county is truly something else (and not in a good way)

Me too- I thought that most parents would support a ban and have been shocked by the pushback on here. I’m hoping it’s just a few trolls, or teens lurking and not wanting their phones taken away.