Anonymous wrote:I love how no one can think of a really obvious solution which is to decide on a meeting spot before the ceremony

Before cell phones and the internet, it was impossible to anything. For example, there were no graduation ceremonies, because people said, "How would the parents and children meet each other after the ceremony, given that cell phones haven't been invented yet? Best just to mail them their diplomas and be done with it."

Actually I was trying to remember just the other day how I had done something in the pre-internet days that I would now use the internet for, and I couldn't remember...

Anonymous wrote:I hate that Lenore lady. We are all allowed to parent in our own ways. Yes it is a bit extreme to think your 18 year old will be kidnapped but it is also extreme to let your 6 year old play in traffic. Let us all just agree to stop trying to make object lessons out of each other.

I missed the part where she said it was ok to let a six-year-old play in traffic. Could you link to that, please?

Anonymous wrote:How embarrassed is poor Sarah Jean right now?

Agree. Make a plan for where you'll all meet up at the end, and assume you'll have to stand around waiting for a long time. If you're worried someone is going to kidnap your high school senior how the HELL will you let them go off to college?

I graduated at the patriot center in 1997. I think they had signs with the letters of the alphabet, so you met your family at the sign with the first letter of your last name.

That said, let the kids have their cell phones. Not to avoid abduction (please.) but so they can take pictures! I would have loved to have had a camera in my pocket on that day. I have very few memories of my high school graduation.

OK so now I see there could be a use for an iwatch, helicopter parents. When your a senior in high school I thought u were suppose to be ready for the big bad world.

I hate that Lenore lady. We are all allowed to parent in our own ways. Yes it is a bit extreme to think your 18 year old will be kidnapped but it is also extreme to let your 6 year old play in traffic. Let us all just agree to stop trying to make object lessons out of each other.

1) OMG, how did we not have a huge kidnapping problem before cell phones? Kids were just...alone in the big bad world all.the.time with kidnappers EVERYWHERE

2) Cellphone never stopped a kidnapping, ever. Don't you know that you can grab a kid and get rid of the phone?

I love how no one can think of a really obvious solution which is to decide on a meeting spot before the ceremony

I agree that kids don't need cell phones at DAR, and that the idea of being scared of your 18 year old being abducted in such a public place is bizarre.

But I also think that they're adults, and that most adults carry their cell phones with them. Telling them "no cell phones" seems like treating them like children, and I'm not sure how it's enforceable. Why not just tell them "cell phones need to be off and away".

The kids (high school) don't need phones at DAR Constitution Hall.

How embarrassed is poor Sarah Jean right now?

^^^PITA, I meant

That is hilarious. My senior graduated last year at Constitution Hall and no cell phones were allowed (for the students). It actually did take us forever to meet up with him afterwards, but no one absconded with him. In fact, that didn't even cross my mind. What a major helicopter PIA parent!!

Alexandria: The Cell Phone Debate
More than 350 students sign petition to permit cell phones at graduation.

No surprise that kids want their phones at graduation. It's the last paragraph that caught the attention of Lenore Skenazy and "Free Range Kids"

"Some parents are equally concerned about finding their children at the end of the ceremony. “We’ve never been to George Mason [University], and I want to be able to keep in contact with my child to make sure she’s OK. There are many people attending the ceremony, over 1,000 in fact, and the concern isn’t that we will get lost, the concern is deeper than that. What if she is taken, or even worse? This could be a huge lawsuit in the making for TC,” said Francois and Sandra Jean, parents of graduating senior, Sarah Jean."

Full article here.

http://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2015/jun/10/cell-phone-debate/?templates=mobile