Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our school does not allow middle schoolers to have smart phones at school. Their dumb phones must be in their locker during the school day.

Is this a private school? I have had kids at three different middle schools and I worked at a fourth. Never heard of a policy like that!

I mean - never heard of a policy requiring non-smart phones.

Anonymous wrote:Our school does not allow middle schoolers to have smart phones at school. Their dumb phones must be in their locker during the school day.

Is this a private school? I have had kids at three different middle schools and I worked at a fourth. Never heard of a policy like that!

Anonymous wrote:My 6th grader has my old iPhone with no service plan, but she's not allowed to take it to school. She uses it only for music and apps, and texting with friends with Apple devices (on wifi).

She has a flip phone for texting/calling us if she needs to adjust bus/walking arrangements. iPhone will not go to school for the foreseeable future.

Same for my 6th and 7th graders.

Anonymous wrote:I would let her take it to school, wouldn't you like to listen to music/ to fro school on the bus. Maybe she has no one to talk with. Maybe she just wants to listen to music. She can't text or look at bad stuff if there is no service. Start small, pick your battles. Soon she'll have unfettered access. Help out by starting small and seeing how she does

All she needs to do to get wifi is to connect to someone else's phone who does have wifi. Lots of kids w/o data plans are using wifi on the bus and parents are in the dark because they don't realize it's happening. My DC doesn't have a phone or iPad or iPod touch, but many of her friends do. Most don't have phones but are VERY active texting using their devices, often at times their parents think they don't have access. Kids have gotten savvy, they ask for phones and "settle" for other devices. They don't really want the phones anyway, no one talks on the phone anymore! With wifi you can text, FaceTime and access the internet. No data plan, no problem, just connect to your friend's device, public wifi or school wifi.

Our school does not allow middle schoolers to have smart phones at school. Their dumb phones must be in their locker during the school day.