Parent advocates who lobbied for Away All Day phone policy feel blindsided, ignored by new MCPS phone policy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid doesn't need a phone at lunch. If it's a true urgent issue, they can go back to their locker and send a message. It puts such a burden on school staff to police phones that are distracting kids from their education. Just make it simple and let the kids go through their school day without additional phone time.

What locker?

I've been seeing in Teacher forums that a lot of kids don't use their lockers because they can't figure out how to use combination locks, not that the lockers are "inconveniently located." Another life skill fail.

Oh wow--so you read it on social media so it must be true of all kids. What an example you're setting to your students.

I don’t know what that person saw, but I’ve had multiple kids with broken locker locks. My daughter had to get reassigned her locker multiple times because the locks didn’t work and she finally gave up and just shares with a friend. She can use a combo locker just fine and uses on for her bike. But McPS equipment is about 60% trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a nightmare for high school teachers to try to police/enforce the cellphone policy while teaching and managing a class of 30+ students each period.
I wish we could have “away all day” but I don’t see it being logistically possible in mcps due to parents needing their kids to have cell phones for “safety reasons.”

My children go to an MCPS high school that is trying this. Each teacher has a system for students to place their phones away - in a container near student, container/pouches near teacher. Kids do get it at passing and lunch. But the distraction has gone way down and it’s easy to enforce.

[Anonymous]

This is the way. You cannot make it student choice. Most cannot handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid needs a phone to facilitate socialization?
Your phone batter must have fried your brain.

[Anonymous]

This is hugely disappointing and no one can blame the past superintendent for this one.
It falls squarely on the shoulders of Cakeboy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid doesn't need a phone at lunch. If it's a true urgent issue, they can go back to their locker and send a message. It puts such a burden on school staff to police phones that are distracting kids from their education. Just make it simple and let the kids go through their school day without additional phone time.

High school kids have jobs, and doctor appointments and family responsibilities. Young adults must be empowered to be…adults.

No, HS kids don’t have jobs and doctor’s appointments and family responsibilities that require them to be on the phone during school hours when they’re supposed to be learning.

Plan better and your kid won’t need to be calling the doctor while at school.

What school are you referring to? My daughter goes to WJ. She has an internship, as do many of her friends. Plus weekend jobs. One of her friends looks after a younger sibling. Not every student leads a privileged responsibility-free life without the need for phones between classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid needs a phone to facilitate socialization?
Your phone batter must have fried your brain.

The kids arrange everything on social media. We don’t always allow a phone and it very much hurts them socially.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do these advocates even have HSers?

I’ve had one graduate HS and now at an Ivy and another in HS currently. They absolutely need their phones. First, they don’t have lockers. Second, there is no room in the cafeteria and food is inedible so they use their phones to order food for pickup at lunch as they walk over to the restaurant to get their sandwich/salas/burrito. Third, they do have doctors appointments that they get themselves too. Fourth, they need the phone to drive (and again, no lockers). Fifth, they need the phones to check studentvue and canvass to stay on top of deadlines (no, it’s not reasonable to expect someone to handle 7 AP classes without electronic calendaring). Sixth, the phone is very useful for things like the note app to keep track of things to do. Seventh, the phone doesn’t create any moral hazard not already present with the school chrome books which have zero parental controls and on which they can also watch dumb or obscene videos.

My kids school piloted the “no phone during class time” rule this past year and it worked fine. Some of the teachers had boxes in the desks for the phones, others just required tj in the bag. It was fine.

What I’d actually like is for some enterprising student to program an app that allows the kids to know which bathrooms are open on any given day. That would be a real time saver, to avoid walking a mile plus around the school searching for someplace to pee.

These people saying no phones at lunch in HE seem like they are coming from some la la land world where there is room for the HS to eat lunch in school, and kids are turning in assignments on paper and actually have time to have conversations with their teachers, kids are having nice little conversations at lunch, etc. There are much bigger problems in McPS than phones at lunchtime for HS kids.

Only rich kids buy $15 lunches daily. The rest of ours pack or buy at school. Kids can check thise websites from their Chromebook’s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid doesn't need a phone at lunch. If it's a true urgent issue, they can go back to their locker and send a message. It puts such a burden on school staff to police phones that are distracting kids from their education. Just make it simple and let the kids go through their school day without additional phone time.

High school kids have jobs, and doctor appointments and family responsibilities. Young adults must be empowered to be…adults.

No, HS kids don’t have jobs and doctor’s appointments and family responsibilities that require them to be on the phone during school hours when they’re supposed to be learning.

Plan better and your kid won’t need to be calling the doctor while at school.

What school are you referring to? My daughter goes to WJ. She has an internship, as do many of her friends. Plus weekend jobs. One of her friends looks after a younger sibling. Not every student leads a privileged responsibility-free life without the need for phones between classes.

Try reading more carefully, like they teach kids to do at Walter Johnson. Does your child’s internship and weekend job require her to use a cellphone during the school day? That seems bizarre. A younger sibling if at McPS will not be texting their older sibling all day because they are subject to Away all Day rules.

You can try to make it sound like kids are doing oodles of productive activities that require cell phone use during school hours, but it’s not the case.

[Anonymous]

Are kids not allowed to use phones if they leave campus at lunch? I imagine some may even go home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eh, I'm the parent of a MS and HS student and this this policy is sane and sensical.

My HS-aged kid having access to their phone at lunch is fine, actually. They can (and do) use it to help with homework, to read sports scores and share with friends, or to facilitate discussion at the meeting of a club.

I think the testimony above assumes the kids are using their phones to SnapChat or something and never look up, but they are actually using them to facilitate socialization, not to shut it down.

Your kid doesn't need a phone at lunch. If it's a true urgent issue, they can go back to their locker and send a message. It puts such a burden on school staff to police phones that are distracting kids from their education. Just make it simple and let the kids go through their school day without additional phone time.

High school kids have jobs, and doctor appointments and family responsibilities. Young adults must be empowered to be…adults.

No, HS kids don’t have jobs and doctor’s appointments and family responsibilities that require them to be on the phone during school hours when they’re supposed to be learning.

Plan better and your kid won’t need to be calling the doctor while at school.

What school are you referring to? My daughter goes to WJ. She has an internship, as do many of her friends. Plus weekend jobs. One of her friends looks after a younger sibling. Not every student leads a privileged responsibility-free life without the need for phones between classes.

Try reading more carefully, like they teach kids to do at Walter Johnson. Does your child’s internship and weekend job require her to use a cellphone during the school day? That seems bizarre. A younger sibling if at McPS will not be texting their older sibling all day because they are subject to Away all Day rules.

You can try to make it sound like kids are doing oodles of productive activities that require cell phone use during school hours, but it’s not the case.

It’s a safety issue if this child is driving or taking a bus to their internship or job. If you don’t want your kid to have a cell phone, fine, don’t give them one. Simple.

[Anonymous]

I gave my kid a phone to bring to school, but I expect them to never use it, and the school is terrible for letting my kid use the phone I gave them during breaks.

[Anonymous]

Turn on parental control if your don't want your kid on their phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I want my kid to have a phone for safety reasons and the rest of you need to parent better.

Who cares what you want? Home school your own kid and let them plant themselves on screens all day if you’re so worried about the safety and are convinced a cell phone will somehow allow your kid to defend themselves.

The rest of us want to follow the advice of experts and keep phones out of classrooms so they can learn.

Many of us have restrictions on the phones. Do you?

Yes. I tell my kid to keep it away all day while at school. You should do that too.

My kid doesn't respect me or follow rules and I expect the school to use all measures up to and including lethal force to enforce my rules so that I can sue them and retire early and buy my feral child a separate home to live in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm OK with it. I do think it's VERY IMPORTANT to keep the phones off and away all day for ES and MS, because that's the most risky time for their dinosaur brains to post things that are not appropriate or bullying in nature.

Our HS did away during instruction all year so far and they actually enforce it and I think it's great. The key is enforcement: teachers need to be held accountable to hold students accountable.

If you're afraid your little dinosaur is going to be a monster on their phone at school, why do you think they won't be a monster on their phone at home?