Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

I thought they did have cameras in all the classrooms already. My kid's friend had something stolen out of her bag when she went to the bathroom. They were able to catch the kid that did it immediately because she was caught on camera in the classroom going through the bag and taking something out.

I'm just really struggling to see an option that doesn't put more burden on teachers to enforce it.

I do think that one easy change is to make 100% clear that teachers/school are not responsible for any damage/loss to phones that are removed from a child because the child has them out during class. I really don't see why they should be, and I think it's 100% ridiculous that schools are apparently telling this to teachers.

Requiring them to be in lockers seems to me not a functional solution....my HS kids don't have lockers (the schools don't have enough so they are only by special request). And my MS kid's locker has been broken all year. And my understanding is that stuff gets stolen out of the lockers a lot -- my MS kid's friend had her shoes stolen out of the gym locker during gym class. The kids just shimmy the lockers open.

I think something like, if the teacher sees it once, it goes in a basket teacher keeps on desk until end of class -- if it's a repeat problem, teacher hands it over to admin and they can deal with the principal to get it back. But of course the school needs to be willing to discipline any kid who refuses to put their phone in the basket. I don't think you need an expensive lock bag -- you just need to the willingness to impose some discipline on the kids who give the teachers crap about the rule. Right now the teachers don't enforce it because they know admin doesn't have their back on this.

I understand what you're saying, but the phones are direct tools used in serious safety and security incidents. Like coordinating fights or facilitating the bullying that leads to fights. They are not as innocuous as you're painting them out to be. They are a direct contributor to the safety problems.

Anonymous wrote:Chinese are out to ruin our American teens with that TT?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

At this point, I think MS teachers especially would welcome this. You'd get to see your demon spawn as they actually are.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

I thought they did have cameras in all the classrooms already. My kid's friend had something stolen out of her bag when she went to the bathroom. They were able to catch the kid that did it immediately because she was caught on camera in the classroom going through the bag and taking something out.

I'm just really struggling to see an option that doesn't put more burden on teachers to enforce it.

I do think that one easy change is to make 100% clear that teachers/school are not responsible for any damage/loss to phones that are removed from a child because the child has them out during class. I really don't see why they should be, and I think it's 100% ridiculous that schools are apparently telling this to teachers.

Requiring them to be in lockers seems to me not a functional solution....my HS kids don't have lockers (the schools don't have enough so they are only by special request). And my MS kid's locker has been broken all year. And my understanding is that stuff gets stolen out of the lockers a lot -- my MS kid's friend had her shoes stolen out of the gym locker during gym class. The kids just shimmy the lockers open.

I think something like, if the teacher sees it once, it goes in a basket teacher keeps on desk until end of class -- if it's a repeat problem, teacher hands it over to admin and they can deal with the principal to get it back. But of course the school needs to be willing to discipline any kid who refuses to put their phone in the basket. I don't think you need an expensive lock bag -- you just need to the willingness to impose some discipline on the kids who give the teachers crap about the rule. Right now the teachers don't enforce it because they know admin doesn't have their back on this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

I thought they did have cameras in all the classrooms already. My kid's friend had something stolen out of her bag when she went to the bathroom. They were able to catch the kid that did it immediately because she was caught on camera in the classroom going through the bag and taking something out.

I'm just really struggling to see an option that doesn't put more burden on teachers to enforce it.

I do think that one easy change is to make 100% clear that teachers/school are not responsible for any damage/loss to phones that are removed from a child because the child has them out during class. I really don't see why they should be, and I think it's 100% ridiculous that schools are apparently telling this to teachers.

Requiring them to be in lockers seems to me not a functional solution....my HS kids don't have lockers (the schools don't have enough so they are only by special request). And my MS kid's locker has been broken all year. And my understanding is that stuff gets stolen out of the lockers a lot -- my MS kid's friend had her shoes stolen out of the gym locker during gym class. The kids just shimmy the lockers open.

I think something like, if the teacher sees it once, it goes in a basket teacher keeps on desk until end of class -- if it's a repeat problem, teacher hands it over to admin and they can deal with the principal to get it back. But of course the school needs to be willing to discipline any kid who refuses to put their phone in the basket. I don't think you need an expensive lock bag -- you just need to the willingness to impose some discipline on the kids who give the teachers crap about the rule. Right now the teachers don't enforce it because they know admin doesn't have their back on this.

Anonymous wrote:Could we stop focusing on stupid cell phones??

Everyone knows they are bad for kids, they are bad for adults, they are bad for society. Talk to your kids and limit their access to social media.

Want to know what's worse than something that's a little "bad" for us? School shootings.

Republicans are too selfish to allow background checks or restrictions on assault weapons so mass shootings continue. Let's fix that and then move on to cell phones. And if you vote for ANY Republican, you are part of the problem. Not one elected Republican is doing the right thing on guns.

Our kids NEED phones in school. MCPS does a terrible job communicating especially in a crisis. Want to know your kid is in danger? Well you need your kid to tell you that.

Ask any parent who got a text saying, "They are saying there is a shooter in the halls. I'm hiding. I love you" and they will tell you they want their kid to have a cell phone. I have experienced it and it's life changing. MCPS did not tell us when the situation was under control. Students and teachers only learned they were safe when parents heard from the media. Yes - MCPS updates the media before telling the kids hiding in closets crying.

Many kids are victims of bullying and need to contact a parent if in a crisis.

Please stop assuming schools will keep your kids safe. Many do what they can but it's not enough. Think about the mother in Uvalde who had to go in and rescue her own kids when police refused to help the kids in that school.

I hate cell phones but there are ways to manage them (the pockets in class are a good compromise. It's accessible only in an emergency)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School psychologist here. At the middle school I work at, the teachers do not touch students phones because they are liable if any damage to the phone. So they just tell the kid to put the phone away. The student either ignores them or puts it away for 2 minutes and then takes it back out and keeps doing what they were doing before. Teacher goes back to teaching the rest of the class (most of whom are on their phones too or looking at some website on the device that they are not supposed to.)

Also if I had a dollar for each fight/ bullying incident that I’ve seen being recorded by kids, I’d be rich.

After seeing all this go on for years I decided to put my kid in private school with strict cell phone rules. The students are required to leave their phones in their lockers all day. I also didn’t give my kid a phone until 8th grade.

MCPS should put up camera's so parents can see what's going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the locked pouches….how did schools know whose phone is whose at the end of the day? There is a lot of theft of cell phones at our MS. The kids won’t leave them in their lockers because the lockers get broken into a lot. The bags seem like they would work for small private schools but I just don’t see how they would work for schools with almost a thousand kids.

I feel like this system might work—if teacher sees it out, kid is told put it away. If it doesn’t go away, email goes to parent annd child given lunch detention. After 3 emails to parent, parent must come in to schoo for a meeting with school admin and child. If parent doesn’t, or after 2 such meetings, child is suspended.

But even that would require teachers taking the time to email an admin every day with list of non compliant kids, an admin to email the parents and track it, and the willingness to actually suspend repeat offenders.

Another idea is that they could actually block reception in school. My HS kid is not on his cell at all during school because there is zero reception in his concrete block basement room buildings (which I confirmed during back to school night, when I couldn’t text my spouse to tell them it was running late.). My other Hs kid, at a different HS, has reception all day, though.

Cell phone jamming is against the law, so that's not gonna fly. Phones are a HUGE problem in middle schools. There needs to be a ban. Parents weren't constantly connected to their kids 10 years ago. There is no need for it now. There's a school number. Call the school. Kids can use email on Chromebooks if necessary. Some principals are no help at all in the matter. Parents don't help either-they are usually the ones texting and/or calling their kids in the middle of class. MCPS needs an official policy now.

Kids cannot email parents through chromebooks - MCPS only allows their gmail.com on there and it doesn't send email to anyone outside of MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the locked pouches….how did schools know whose phone is whose at the end of the day? There is a lot of theft of cell phones at our MS. The kids won’t leave them in their lockers because the lockers get broken into a lot. The bags seem like they would work for small private schools but I just don’t see how they would work for schools with almost a thousand kids.

I feel like this system might work—if teacher sees it out, kid is told put it away. If it doesn’t go away, email goes to parent annd child given lunch detention. After 3 emails to parent, parent must come in to schoo for a meeting with school admin and child. If parent doesn’t, or after 2 such meetings, child is suspended.

But even that would require teachers taking the time to email an admin every day with list of non compliant kids, an admin to email the parents and track it, and the willingness to actually suspend repeat offenders.

Another idea is that they could actually block reception in school. My HS kid is not on his cell at all during school because there is zero reception in his concrete block basement room buildings (which I confirmed during back to school night, when I couldn’t text my spouse to tell them it was running late.). My other Hs kid, at a different HS, has reception all day, though.

Cell phone jamming is against the law, so that's not gonna fly. Phones are a HUGE problem in middle schools. There needs to be a ban. Parents weren't constantly connected to their kids 10 years ago. There is no need for it now. There's a school number. Call the school. Kids can use email on Chromebooks if necessary. Some principals are no help at all in the matter. Parents don't help either-they are usually the ones texting and/or calling their kids in the middle of class. MCPS needs an official policy now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In case of what emergency?

We've had multiple school evacuations this year... bomb threats, etc....

I lived through half a dozen school bomb threats as a kid without calling my parents.