Reply to Reason not to 100% take away your kid’s phone as a punishment.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][url]http://amp.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/black-teen-misses-bus-gets-shot-at-after-asking-for-directions-in-rochester-hills?__twitter_impression=true[/url]

Teen missed the bus. His mom had taken away his phone and was at work. Dad was deployed. He decided to walk to school but got a bit lost. He did what everyone on DCUM always argues their kid can do when their phone has been taken as a punishment: he rang a doorbell to ask for help/directions and was shot at. Luckily the overzealous homeowner missed and their Ring doorbelll camera recorded the entire encounter.

I’m all for taking away their phone as punishment, but not outside of the house.  They get it when they leave for school and give it back when they return home. You can even install an app that turns the smartphone into having flip phone capabilities until you enter a master password to allow it to be a smartphone again. [/quote]

This is a terrible and frightening story.  But what did people do before cell phones? How on earth did we all survive?

I was never told to go up to random stranger's houses and knock on their door and I think that is not a wise thing to advise a kid to do.  I would have asked a passerby for directions.  I'm certainly NOT excusing the individual who tried to shoot this kid, I am only saying that going onto a stranger's property like that can be a risky proposition. It's better to ask a passerby or go into a store to ask for directions.[/quote]

If you are lost in a residential neighborhood at that time of the morning, there might not be a passerby.  I'm pretty sure if there was a store that he knew of, he would have gone to the store.  All they had to do was say through the door that they didn't know and move on.  High schools start at about 8 am or earlier, what is the likelihood that a criminal would pick that time of the morning to case a house?  Many people are still home at that time.  I have people (including teens) knock on my door all the time, not for directions, but fundraisers, selling things....I don't open the door if I don't want to.  I speak to them through the door or ignore them.  I've never once shot at anyone.  [/quote]

It was just a weird situation for this kid from the get go.  He had his phone taken away and shortly thereafter he got lost on his way to school, found himself in a strange neighborhood where he knew no one and wound up picking the wrong door to knock on for directions.  Thankfully he wasn't hurt.  But if his phone battery had died or his cellphone had gotten lost or stolen he could have found himself in a similar situation.

A teenager going out to knock on doors in their own neighborhood for a fund raiser in the early evening after most people are home from school/work is different.   8am is a weird time to get a knock on your door.  Not saying that you should shoot a person for knocking on your door at 8am - NOT o.k. - but I can see how that might be a startling thing for a homeowner.[/quote]

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