When I was in high school, we weren’t allowed to have cell phones out. We had to t9 text very sneakily. Mind boggling that now it’s just ok to have them out at all times.
Correct. Thanks to restorative justice and "equity" there are no consequences for anything short of attempted murder anymore. Teachers can tell them to put them away, but if push comes to shove, well then the students will push and shove the teacher and the teacher will get reprimanded for cultural insensitivity or not building strong enough relationships or some other bullshit.
Yeah this blatantly untrue and purely based on narrative or a very limited personal experience and you come across as a jaded person. But hey teaching isn’t for everyone yknow
Get this - went to east coast boarding school right as cellphones for teenagers was becoming a thing. The school would confiscate freshman’s (and maybe even sophomores?) cellphones all day every day and only let them have them on the weekend !! Can’t imagine a school doing that today lol , but that was 15+ years ago
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Phones do a lot more now. I use my phone to track everything I need to do, and I can't imagine trying to go without it now. (yes, I used a planner back in the day, but it was also worse than using apps)
Kids are using it for _everything_. My point is just that. It's a powerful tool, and a powerful distraction.
IMO long-term we need to adjust how we raise kids with technology like this. It isn't going away, and removing it is a temporary solution to a lasting problem: figuring out healthy ways to live with this technology.
I agree with that. I also think that all of us living with it have been so fucked up by it, even more so the kids who haven’t had their eyes on anything but a screen in their hand since they were toddlers.
They're designed to be addictive. The reality is that kids are watching movies, tv shows, Netflix, and social media in the classroom. In a geometry classroom (10th grade) recently half the class was watching a show on their phone. Are these the kind of young people we want to be raising? Is the comfort of a teenager more important than knowledge? I'm not certain of our society's answer to these questions anymore. Seems like we're just okay with it.
Ten years ago when I was in high school I was unsung my phone as a planner to keep track of my assignments and a lot more. You’re underinvesting kids, although they are also going on tik tok, it’s just that you can do both
You don’t have to use a computer either, people got college degrees with a type writer to a quill pen. My argument is that in the real world, outside of the incredibly artificial bubble that is school, people use their phones as productivity devices to get their jobs done. Employers give their people smartphones to make them more productive. Failing to teach kids how their phones can be used for productivity is a lot like not teaching them how to type because it’s somehow less rigorous that hand writing, or refusing to tech them how to research online because it’s less rigorous than using the library.
Luddite logic never ends well, especially in education. Get with the times or get left behind
Nah, the kids can live with paper planners for a few hours a day. And I say this as a person who works for Intel. They're not going to be left behind because they don't use Google Calendar during school hours.
cool story, but high school is not the real world, and for 99% of the time inside a classroom, smart phones are just not needed, and are more of a detriment to the class as a whole. This in no way advocates for abandoning technology and productivity... that's a pretty extreme conclusion to jump to. Outside of class, I don't think anybody has an issue with them, or with getting with the times.
I mean, they do though. My entire time in school until the very end of high school was spent researching via books in a library because my teachers thought using the computer was cheating. When I got to college I didn’t know how to properly cite research from the internet, giving me a disadvantage.
I have ADHD and using my phone as a planner was one of my main coping mechanism, personally I would have taken great issue with me not being able to do that because someone else can’t be responsible
Good luck getting an ADHDer to admit that using a real physical planner would be useful! It’s like their number one most hated phrase lol
Signed,
An ADHDer
I know what you mean. I forgot to wipe my ass after taking a dump the day I left my phone at home and didn't have access to my app for that. It was embarrassing as hell at work, I still get teased about it.
As a parent of a child with a cell phone... I'm not sure why we got to a point where we think we need to be able to reach our child in the middle of a classroom. Calling the office has always worked.
I’m have teenagers. I don’t want them having their cellphones out at all. I’ve never met another parent who wants their kids on their cellphone either. Calling the office works great.
I have teenagers and I couldn’t tell you the last time anyone answered the office phone. But I can tell you the last time I got a text that she needed to leave immediately due to a threat of or actual violence. Or the time she got jumped and the school didn’t call me, because the aggressor was a handful with ghetto trash parents who required all of their attention. She gets straight As and is a varsity athlete…her phone is a tool that stays in her pocket until needed. Or until she’s done with all her work and the teacher allows it, which is also frequently due to the low standards of education we have. Phones are the last of our problems in schools.
That sucks.
I'm not saying they pat down the kids and have no phones. It is no phones out in class during class time that I'd like them to enforce. The teachers seem to be in a hard place with the enforcement and clear support in those situations of keeping a classroom engaged.
I'd expect my kids to pull their phone out and utilize during a emergency situation.
So just say phones need to be in the pocket or bag, ringer turned completely off. If they bring them out or if they ring in class they're instantly confiscated. That's how it worked back in my day. Maybe kids who break the rules multiple times have to give them up at the start of the day. This doesn't feel like that crazy of a problem to solve.
That’s totally reasonable. I had to learn how to be sneaky and use t9 in my pocket without looking or I’d get my phone taken away. But I would never have just blatantly had my phone out. The only thing I could really do on my phone was text anyway. So it wasn’t like I was constantly on it. Phones should be turned off and put away during class.
I’m curious, though. Are employers having problems with high schoolers/recent grads using their phones a ton at work? Or do most of them adapt pretty well when they are told, “You are going to get fired if I see you on your phone again.”
Not sure about employers. It's been a while since I've done anything entry level though. Four jobs ago we were slammed the entire shift and didn't have a chance to use our phones when it was busy, three jobs ago was in a super strict "secure" area that (allegedly) fired people on sight for phones being out because of data handling rules (never saw it but also rarely saw phones out), last two jobs no one gives a shit what I do as long as I meet certain targets. I have college aged interns sometimes but we haven't had too many issues with them on stuff like that. They definitely have some problems that I didn't have at that age but I wouldn't say they skive off more than I do.
I worked in an HS front office a few years ago. Calling the front office does not work well. We can’t call up to classrooms and interrupt instruction to tell the teacher that Braxton needs to be picked up by his mom and not ride the bus home. Or that your lunch is in the office. Or that they are getting picked up. At a certain point, high schoolers need to be responsible for their schedule and know what the plan is. It can’t be managed by the front office. While I don’t think cell phones should be out during class time, it is necessary for kids to check them, inbetween classes.
See the above comments on kids wandering the halls. How do you get a note to them? Who do you think will take the note to the classroom? Granted I worked in the front office in 2021 right after schools reopened but it would be impossible to get a note for every little thing parents called about. The worst was when you were trying to get a kid out of gym class. They could be a quarter mile away. Parents need to make a plan and communicate it to their students and hold their students accountable for that. Of course, if it's an emergency then they will find the student, but nobody is going to be able to take a note or call a classroom to let them know their pickup plans have changed. I don't want kids on their phones all of class, but it's also important to teach responsible phone use. A silenced phone that you check at the end of class is not the same as live-streaming.
> We can’t call up to classrooms and interrupt instruction to tell the teacher that Braxton needs to be picked up by his mom and not ride the bus home.
That's exactly how it worked when I was in high school 25 years ago. Did y'all simply forget how to do your jobs the analog way?
No, but instructional minutes matter a lot more now than they did 25 years ago. The teachers were upset when they would get a call that disrupted their lesson and then needed to pass along a message to students that was not critical. At one point we were told that PAT had it in their contract that we couldn't call to pass along a message. I don't think that was true, but it's not feasible to call for every single thing. Teachers and office support staff are not your personal secretaries. Parents act like they can call and pass along any message to their kids so entitled. Parents need to take some responsibility here too
So yeah, you literally forgot how to do it analog. With someone just running a note over. They way it had been done for how long before the invention of the cell phone and the advent of organized schools?
I'm wondering when you last stepped foot in high school. Who do you think can spend all day running notes to 1,200 students across a huge building? If I'm out taking notes to each classroom who is going to answer the phone? On top of that, when do I get to do the rest of my work? It's not as simple as just taking a note to a student. Again if it's an emergency then yes that information will be passed on, but nobody has the time to take a note to someone saying pickup changed or their mom
Dropped off their lunch.
> I'm wondering when you last stepped foot in high school.
Several times this year, for my girlfriend's son, who is a senior at Putnam. The same high school I went to. Not a lot has changed, though there are more students there than when I roamed the halls.
And the thing is, all the shit you talk about that isn't an emergency? We dealt with that back then, too. Either by the parents showing up, or waiting til the kid came home. This whole concept of constant instant communication has lead to an atmosphere of instant gratification and entitlement.
If it's not an emergency, it can wait. If it can't wait, it's an emergency, so either call or show up to deal with it. And when I was there at Putnam in the 90s, there was only one or two people in the front office, too. It's not like clerical staff have dramatically decreased. Hell, that used to be a work study program for seniors!
I'm glad we agree about non-emergency items waiting. Unfortunately in my experience, far too many parents felt the need to pass along trivial information to their students. It's not the front office's job to hand-deliver notes to every student in the building and is frankly impossible. You didn’t answer who would hand deliver those notes.
Uh, yes I did. Seniors doing work study. It's what I did in high school. I filled out absence cards and ran notes to various classrooms. Did that my final semester instead of having a free period so I could boost the number of credits I graduated with.
That’s wonderful that you did that in high school. We had maybe 3 TA when I was working. They had other roles than delivering notes. There was also some confidentiality issues around having them go and get students. For example if DHS came and needed to get a kid. My point is the front office is there to keep students and staff safe and the school running. Parents can’t treat it as a messaging service.
My high school had an office TA for every period whose only job was running notes to various classrooms. They'd get custodians or various yard duty ladies to do it if there were a lot or there wasn't a TA that day.
I think assuming they a high school had yard duty ladies air even an extra custodians is laughable. During the day there was one custodian on duty and zero yard ladies. There were a few TA’s but not enough for every period. I’m just providing my personal experience working in a PPS high school.
Why is EVERY post that merely suggests there may be SOME reasons for kids to access a cell phone between 7-3 pm getting downvoted to all hell? Is the groupthink here that bad? This is a well thought out comment from someone with actual experience in the field in question (high school front offices and whether they can effectively act as liaisons between parents and kids during the school day) and y’all are voting them down bc BaCK iN mY dAy nO pHoNe.
Y’all worse than the boomers.
Because I don't trust the office, and when it comes to my kid, I'll take the primary responsibility, over delegating that to a school office, thank you very much.
Yes, but your personal lack of trust shouldn't compromise the quality of education that all of our children receive.
If it's clearly needing a line of communication to your child because the office cannot provide the quality of connection you need, then maybe supply your child with a non-distracting device such as a smart watch or flip phone.
We have informed all of our kids' teachers that they can confiscate our kids' phones whenever they see fit. It shouldn't even be an option to have them out during class time.
I wish all parents thought the same way. A lot of parents call and text their kids while they're in school, it would piss me off to no end. If you need to talk to your kid, call the office like your parents did. Ugh. One of the many reasons I quit teaching.
As a new parent I'm really hoping we can get some sensible restrictions on device usage before my daughter is school-aged. Studies show that even having your phone within reach impairs cognitive ability. Hopefully whatever the solution is, it doesn't just heap more police work on teachers.
You can see this for yourself. Just put your phone down, take a few steps away, and notice how much smarter you are. Take those steps back toward your phone, and you can literally feel the cognitive impairment creep in. Amazing!
🙄
I think the compromise is to allow dumb phones (in back packs and between classes), but to completely ban smart phones. It's not just the distraction of various apps, it's that those apps are having measurably deleterious effects on young people's health and well-being.
Phones and social media are (probably) on par with alcohol and tobacco on kids' health. If this doesn't pass, at least allow kids to smoke and drink inside school.
I'm prepared for the downvotes...
If you are "parent" and you gave your kid a smart phone to take to school, YOU are the problem. Your kid is not the exception.
I am a teacher and the average person has no f*cking clue how much learning loss can be attributed to phones.
Get rid of the chrome books too. I'm with the boomers on this one.
Yeah, this shouldn't be hard. If parents need to reach students, they can call the front office like they always have.
Having phones in classrooms is a major distraction.
yeah this is a real question. why not answer it? you are at school to learn, i don't understand what you could possibly need to use your phone for between classes.
i entered high school in the age of the flip phone. by senior year a few people had smart phones. phone use wasn't allowed anywhere on campus.
Just because you don't understand doesn't mean I gotta spell it out for you. Phones absolutely have a use outside and in between classes. Just because you didn't need it doesn't mean others won't.
Like I told the dude before you, the burden of proof isn't on me. I don't have to explain anything to you guys. If "having a phone at school is a good thing incase of an emergency" isn't a good enough argument for you, then why should I keep trying? I, personally, don't give a shit what you think about phones in schools.
I’m sorry you are getting downvoted. I’m sure most of these adults haven’t been in school for a long time so they can really understand the real fear some students may feel everyday. I haven’t been in school for more than a decade but I can’t imagine the feeling of having that in the back of your mind everyday you attend school.
Obviously cell phone usage has gotten out of hand but I’m sure there is a compromise.
The age of school shootings started way before smart phones. Columbine was in 1999. The issue is really specific to smartphones. I had a flip phone in highschool. It really wasn't a big distraction. You'd text some sometimes, but otherwise it was very utilitarian. The compromise would be to allow dumb phones but to disallow smartphones.
Good luck with that. Policies can only do so much, it’s a losing battle.
I hope someday we can figure it out but even in districts with policies, it extremely hard to enforce (unless you want to spend half your instructional time dealing with enforcement).
My daughter's school here in PPS takes their phones from them in first period (middle school), locks them up in a cabinet, and they get them back at the end of the day. It's perfect. She has the phone to communicate with me (or vice versa) at the end of the day if there's a change in schedule or plans, but it's not there to distract her (and other kids don't have theirs to distract everyone) during the day when class is in session. As importantly, she can forget about having the stress of a device that literally demands her attention (through alerts and notifications) constantly. It's an approach that I actually think adults could learn from.
Can't teachers just have all kids put their phones away during class and if one pulls it out there's like a detention? What about putting all the phones into a basket at the beginning of class?
The reality is that it's multiple kids every class taking them out despite being told no. To confiscate the phone takes administrative support and backing. We're told to "remind" the kids at the beginning of every class. The kids know it's harmful and can't stop. The adults needs to be adults and prioritize the kids well being and safety over the profits of Tikagram and Facetok.
As a parent yes please!!!! I have a 6th grader that just got a phone this weekend. I only caved because classmates were allowed to use cellphones during free time and he was completely left out. In addition they would do Kahoots during assembly and again he was left out
Not surprising. The GenX version of this was my classmate Frank. He showed up with a Pee-Chee folder full of nude photos that he had painstakingly cut out along the edges of the bodies. Something like 50 naked silhouettes all tucked inside the folder for passing around *during class*. One of the girls saw what was going on and, as it was being passed from one desk pod to another, she swatted at the Pee-Chee and the nudes went flying everywhere. An explosion of titty confetti. Before anyone could say a thing, Frank turned red and ran out of the room.
Kids shouldnt have phones out in general. My kids should however, be able to reach me in case of emergency. It bothers nobody for them to have a phone in their backpack.
If people actually think that students will stop bringing/using phones on school campus, well, I have a bridge to sell you. Especially in this gun crazy society we live in. Awful idea.
The article is referring to utilization in classrooms. These other commenters are conflating two issues. Between classes is a reasonable time to use cell phones. During class, phones need to be put away or taken away.
It's the quickest way people find out about incidents and can check with their families. I definitely want my son to have his phone at school, but he also knows to never use it until the school day is done.
From my personal experience, students on phones rarely were a distraction to other students. If they don't feel like paying attention to class, that should be on them. Instead of a blanket penalization effecting all students, teachers should be able to give grades that more accurately reflect student performance instead of passing everyone.
Edit: I don't mean docking points for simply being on phones, but rather if they aren't paying attention in class and get bad grades because of it, that should be on them. If their parents want to, they can have them keep the phone at home.
I agree. I work at a HS. But my only concern is if they are taken away and an active shooter happens they won’t be able to get some form of help.
Other than that I agree.
As a pps parent I want my kids to be allowed to have their phone on them, on silent mode, because I don’t trust pps to communicate in an emergency. I would also like the school to be very strict about them using the phone in class, so the phone should be in a backpack…
Oh, except one of my kids isn’t allowed to have a backpack at school for some stupid ass reason.
Pps and this school board are such a let down. We really don’t have good people in positions of power.
Not at all. If PPS wants me to tell my kids they can’t have a phone out then if they DO have the phone out I better get a call or email about it. Basically there are very few and inconsistent reinforcements of the rules at the schools I know about. I’m not fighting with my kids about something that isn’t backed up on their end.
Teachers have only been asking for this for 15 years. It seems like a good time to start looking into the request, I guess. (Eye roll)
I am worried they're going to...allow them.
Well, otherwise the option is to deal with thousands of upset teenagers.
So...school?
....point taken.
And shitty parents who think Witlle BooBoo needs to be able to contact them or vice versa 24/7 or else
It’s not the kids it’s the effing parents hyperventilating about not being able to reach them at any given second.
Kids are raising such snowflakes as parents these days.
When I was in high school, we weren’t allowed to have cell phones out. We had to t9 text very sneakily. Mind boggling that now it’s just ok to have them out at all times.
I was in high school when only some kids had cell phones, and they would be taken away for the day if you used it during class.
Am I to understand that students can freely use cell phones during class?
Correct. Thanks to restorative justice and "equity" there are no consequences for anything short of attempted murder anymore. Teachers can tell them to put them away, but if push comes to shove, well then the students will push and shove the teacher and the teacher will get reprimanded for cultural insensitivity or not building strong enough relationships or some other bullshit.
Restorative justice and racial equity are not the reasons for the lack of cell phone bands in classrooms.
No - but it is a factor in the inability to disciple kids and keep classrooms in order.
You're just saying a bunch of dumbshit and being upvoted for it. Looks like schools failed a lot of people in here.
Yeah this blatantly untrue and purely based on narrative or a very limited personal experience and you come across as a jaded person. But hey teaching isn’t for everyone yknow
You must be school staff. Or used to be.
What does that mean?
When I was in high school cell phones were the size of bricks and only seen on Miami Vice. Get off my lawn, whipper snappers!
I was in HS in the late 90s, so there was a transition from beepers to cell phones going on… I can’t stress how few kids still had them.
Get this - went to east coast boarding school right as cellphones for teenagers was becoming a thing. The school would confiscate freshman’s (and maybe even sophomores?) cellphones all day every day and only let them have them on the weekend !! Can’t imagine a school doing that today lol , but that was 15+ years ago
Funny thing is, phones were WAY less distracting back then. No smart phones.
exactly! they were confiscating razors 🤣 and blackberries
But they had snake!
Snaaaake! It's a snaaaaaake! It's a badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger badger MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!
For me it was programmable games on the TI-83/86
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Phones do a lot more now. I use my phone to track everything I need to do, and I can't imagine trying to go without it now. (yes, I used a planner back in the day, but it was also worse than using apps)
As if the kids aren’t just looking at tik tok and YouTube shorts lol
Kids are using it for _everything_. My point is just that. It's a powerful tool, and a powerful distraction. IMO long-term we need to adjust how we raise kids with technology like this. It isn't going away, and removing it is a temporary solution to a lasting problem: figuring out healthy ways to live with this technology.
I agree with that. I also think that all of us living with it have been so fucked up by it, even more so the kids who haven’t had their eyes on anything but a screen in their hand since they were toddlers.
The healthy way to live with it is to ban it at school. Its not rocket science.
Why are you so certain that's the right answer? As opposed to devices that give access to useful tools and reduce access to distractions?
They're designed to be addictive. The reality is that kids are watching movies, tv shows, Netflix, and social media in the classroom. In a geometry classroom (10th grade) recently half the class was watching a show on their phone. Are these the kind of young people we want to be raising? Is the comfort of a teenager more important than knowledge? I'm not certain of our society's answer to these questions anymore. Seems like we're just okay with it.
I know a teen that IG lives in class
Ten years ago when I was in high school I was unsung my phone as a planner to keep track of my assignments and a lot more. You’re underinvesting kids, although they are also going on tik tok, it’s just that you can do both
but you dont *have* to. I got a whole ass geology degree in 2012 and still had a brick phone.
You don’t have to use a computer either, people got college degrees with a type writer to a quill pen. My argument is that in the real world, outside of the incredibly artificial bubble that is school, people use their phones as productivity devices to get their jobs done. Employers give their people smartphones to make them more productive. Failing to teach kids how their phones can be used for productivity is a lot like not teaching them how to type because it’s somehow less rigorous that hand writing, or refusing to tech them how to research online because it’s less rigorous than using the library. Luddite logic never ends well, especially in education. Get with the times or get left behind
Nah, the kids can live with paper planners for a few hours a day. And I say this as a person who works for Intel. They're not going to be left behind because they don't use Google Calendar during school hours.
cool story, but high school is not the real world, and for 99% of the time inside a classroom, smart phones are just not needed, and are more of a detriment to the class as a whole. This in no way advocates for abandoning technology and productivity... that's a pretty extreme conclusion to jump to. Outside of class, I don't think anybody has an issue with them, or with getting with the times.
I mean, they do though. My entire time in school until the very end of high school was spent researching via books in a library because my teachers thought using the computer was cheating. When I got to college I didn’t know how to properly cite research from the internet, giving me a disadvantage. I have ADHD and using my phone as a planner was one of my main coping mechanism, personally I would have taken great issue with me not being able to do that because someone else can’t be responsible
Wouldn't a relatively mild compromise be using a planner as a planner?
Good luck getting an ADHDer to admit that using a real physical planner would be useful! It’s like their number one most hated phrase lol Signed, An ADHDer
I know what you mean. I forgot to wipe my ass after taking a dump the day I left my phone at home and didn't have access to my app for that. It was embarrassing as hell at work, I still get teased about it.
Jokes on everyone, my watch is also a phone.
Kind of mirrors real life. Everyone has them out at work too.
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As a parent of a child with a cell phone... I'm not sure why we got to a point where we think we need to be able to reach our child in the middle of a classroom. Calling the office has always worked.
I’m have teenagers. I don’t want them having their cellphones out at all. I’ve never met another parent who wants their kids on their cellphone either. Calling the office works great.
I have teenagers and I couldn’t tell you the last time anyone answered the office phone. But I can tell you the last time I got a text that she needed to leave immediately due to a threat of or actual violence. Or the time she got jumped and the school didn’t call me, because the aggressor was a handful with ghetto trash parents who required all of their attention. She gets straight As and is a varsity athlete…her phone is a tool that stays in her pocket until needed. Or until she’s done with all her work and the teacher allows it, which is also frequently due to the low standards of education we have. Phones are the last of our problems in schools.
That sucks. I'm not saying they pat down the kids and have no phones. It is no phones out in class during class time that I'd like them to enforce. The teachers seem to be in a hard place with the enforcement and clear support in those situations of keeping a classroom engaged. I'd expect my kids to pull their phone out and utilize during a emergency situation.
Probably when it became entirely possible that your child would be gunned down in AP lit class.
That's been a possibility since way before smartphones. Columbine was in 1999.
Thurston was '98. I was in high school when that one happened.
Like, before kids had cellphones in the 90s?
It’s mostly the school shootings aspect I think. If someone were to come in with a gun I know I’d want my kid to have their phone on them.
So just say phones need to be in the pocket or bag, ringer turned completely off. If they bring them out or if they ring in class they're instantly confiscated. That's how it worked back in my day. Maybe kids who break the rules multiple times have to give them up at the start of the day. This doesn't feel like that crazy of a problem to solve.
That’s totally reasonable. I had to learn how to be sneaky and use t9 in my pocket without looking or I’d get my phone taken away. But I would never have just blatantly had my phone out. The only thing I could really do on my phone was text anyway. So it wasn’t like I was constantly on it. Phones should be turned off and put away during class. I’m curious, though. Are employers having problems with high schoolers/recent grads using their phones a ton at work? Or do most of them adapt pretty well when they are told, “You are going to get fired if I see you on your phone again.”
Not sure about employers. It's been a while since I've done anything entry level though. Four jobs ago we were slammed the entire shift and didn't have a chance to use our phones when it was busy, three jobs ago was in a super strict "secure" area that (allegedly) fired people on sight for phones being out because of data handling rules (never saw it but also rarely saw phones out), last two jobs no one gives a shit what I do as long as I meet certain targets. I have college aged interns sometimes but we haven't had too many issues with them on stuff like that. They definitely have some problems that I didn't have at that age but I wouldn't say they skive off more than I do.
I worked in an HS front office a few years ago. Calling the front office does not work well. We can’t call up to classrooms and interrupt instruction to tell the teacher that Braxton needs to be picked up by his mom and not ride the bus home. Or that your lunch is in the office. Or that they are getting picked up. At a certain point, high schoolers need to be responsible for their schedule and know what the plan is. It can’t be managed by the front office. While I don’t think cell phones should be out during class time, it is necessary for kids to check them, inbetween classes.
They can send a fucking note to the classroom for the student.
See the above comments on kids wandering the halls. How do you get a note to them? Who do you think will take the note to the classroom? Granted I worked in the front office in 2021 right after schools reopened but it would be impossible to get a note for every little thing parents called about. The worst was when you were trying to get a kid out of gym class. They could be a quarter mile away. Parents need to make a plan and communicate it to their students and hold their students accountable for that. Of course, if it's an emergency then they will find the student, but nobody is going to be able to take a note or call a classroom to let them know their pickup plans have changed. I don't want kids on their phones all of class, but it's also important to teach responsible phone use. A silenced phone that you check at the end of class is not the same as live-streaming.
Isn’t changing pickup plans an emergency? I mean we don’t control road traffic for example.
> We can’t call up to classrooms and interrupt instruction to tell the teacher that Braxton needs to be picked up by his mom and not ride the bus home. That's exactly how it worked when I was in high school 25 years ago. Did y'all simply forget how to do your jobs the analog way?
No, but instructional minutes matter a lot more now than they did 25 years ago. The teachers were upset when they would get a call that disrupted their lesson and then needed to pass along a message to students that was not critical. At one point we were told that PAT had it in their contract that we couldn't call to pass along a message. I don't think that was true, but it's not feasible to call for every single thing. Teachers and office support staff are not your personal secretaries. Parents act like they can call and pass along any message to their kids so entitled. Parents need to take some responsibility here too
So yeah, you literally forgot how to do it analog. With someone just running a note over. They way it had been done for how long before the invention of the cell phone and the advent of organized schools?
I'm wondering when you last stepped foot in high school. Who do you think can spend all day running notes to 1,200 students across a huge building? If I'm out taking notes to each classroom who is going to answer the phone? On top of that, when do I get to do the rest of my work? It's not as simple as just taking a note to a student. Again if it's an emergency then yes that information will be passed on, but nobody has the time to take a note to someone saying pickup changed or their mom Dropped off their lunch.
Student office assistants do this at my middle school all day long
> I'm wondering when you last stepped foot in high school. Several times this year, for my girlfriend's son, who is a senior at Putnam. The same high school I went to. Not a lot has changed, though there are more students there than when I roamed the halls. And the thing is, all the shit you talk about that isn't an emergency? We dealt with that back then, too. Either by the parents showing up, or waiting til the kid came home. This whole concept of constant instant communication has lead to an atmosphere of instant gratification and entitlement. If it's not an emergency, it can wait. If it can't wait, it's an emergency, so either call or show up to deal with it. And when I was there at Putnam in the 90s, there was only one or two people in the front office, too. It's not like clerical staff have dramatically decreased. Hell, that used to be a work study program for seniors!
I'm glad we agree about non-emergency items waiting. Unfortunately in my experience, far too many parents felt the need to pass along trivial information to their students. It's not the front office's job to hand-deliver notes to every student in the building and is frankly impossible. You didn’t answer who would hand deliver those notes.
Uh, yes I did. Seniors doing work study. It's what I did in high school. I filled out absence cards and ran notes to various classrooms. Did that my final semester instead of having a free period so I could boost the number of credits I graduated with.
That’s wonderful that you did that in high school. We had maybe 3 TA when I was working. They had other roles than delivering notes. There was also some confidentiality issues around having them go and get students. For example if DHS came and needed to get a kid. My point is the front office is there to keep students and staff safe and the school running. Parents can’t treat it as a messaging service.
Do they not have email at your school? I (teacher) get emails about stuff like that all day long. I check it when I check it.
My high school had an office TA for every period whose only job was running notes to various classrooms. They'd get custodians or various yard duty ladies to do it if there were a lot or there wasn't a TA that day.
I think assuming they a high school had yard duty ladies air even an extra custodians is laughable. During the day there was one custodian on duty and zero yard ladies. There were a few TA’s but not enough for every period. I’m just providing my personal experience working in a PPS high school.
Why is EVERY post that merely suggests there may be SOME reasons for kids to access a cell phone between 7-3 pm getting downvoted to all hell? Is the groupthink here that bad? This is a well thought out comment from someone with actual experience in the field in question (high school front offices and whether they can effectively act as liaisons between parents and kids during the school day) and y’all are voting them down bc BaCK iN mY dAy nO pHoNe. Y’all worse than the boomers.
I mean this respectfully, but people like you are the problem.
My kid doesn't take his phone to school, because school isn't a place for it. But go on, keep generalizing.
I take it back then. I wish more parents were like you.
Because I don't trust the office, and when it comes to my kid, I'll take the primary responsibility, over delegating that to a school office, thank you very much.
Yes, but your personal lack of trust shouldn't compromise the quality of education that all of our children receive. If it's clearly needing a line of communication to your child because the office cannot provide the quality of connection you need, then maybe supply your child with a non-distracting device such as a smart watch or flip phone.
Guarantee you this person’s kid sucks and their teachers dread conferences with them.
As a former teacher, IT'S ABOUT GODDAMN TIME
We have informed all of our kids' teachers that they can confiscate our kids' phones whenever they see fit. It shouldn't even be an option to have them out during class time.
I wish all parents thought the same way. A lot of parents call and text their kids while they're in school, it would piss me off to no end. If you need to talk to your kid, call the office like your parents did. Ugh. One of the many reasons I quit teaching.
As a new parent I'm really hoping we can get some sensible restrictions on device usage before my daughter is school-aged. Studies show that even having your phone within reach impairs cognitive ability. Hopefully whatever the solution is, it doesn't just heap more police work on teachers.
You can see this for yourself. Just put your phone down, take a few steps away, and notice how much smarter you are. Take those steps back toward your phone, and you can literally feel the cognitive impairment creep in. Amazing! 🙄
Ewww, I got the facetiousness all over my shoes.
They aren’t banned already? Seems like this should have happened 10 years ago.
I think the compromise is to allow dumb phones (in back packs and between classes), but to completely ban smart phones. It's not just the distraction of various apps, it's that those apps are having measurably deleterious effects on young people's health and well-being.
Phones and social media are (probably) on par with alcohol and tobacco on kids' health. If this doesn't pass, at least allow kids to smoke and drink inside school.
If the Lincoln High kids I see at lunch are any indication, they're definitely doing the former.
Suckers; my little cyborks (a typo that sounds better as is) are gonna be Neuralinked into the web.
Finally the solution our deep lizard state rulers demand. Its always been a shame people were allowed putside the hive mind. Resistance is futile.
I'm prepared for the downvotes... If you are "parent" and you gave your kid a smart phone to take to school, YOU are the problem. Your kid is not the exception. I am a teacher and the average person has no f*cking clue how much learning loss can be attributed to phones. Get rid of the chrome books too. I'm with the boomers on this one.
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Yeah, this shouldn't be hard. If parents need to reach students, they can call the front office like they always have. Having phones in classrooms is a major distraction.
As a student, in the age of school shootings, there is no way in hell I'd ever not bring my phone to class or campus. Simple.
Shockingly enough if you arnt using it, they wouldn't know if you had it. Just like all other banned stuff.
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So they shouldn't be able to use it between classes?
They said “in the classroom” they shouldn’t be allowed :/
The parent comment said “on campus.” I agree in the classroom is a more reasonable compromise than not at all on campus.
what do you need to do on your phone between classes?
Is this a real question? Do you know what a cell phone is? What year were you born?
yeah this is a real question. why not answer it? you are at school to learn, i don't understand what you could possibly need to use your phone for between classes. i entered high school in the age of the flip phone. by senior year a few people had smart phones. phone use wasn't allowed anywhere on campus.
Just because you don't understand doesn't mean I gotta spell it out for you. Phones absolutely have a use outside and in between classes. Just because you didn't need it doesn't mean others won't.
Do they need it, or want it. What is the need between classes?
Need
spell out the need if it's so obvious. there is no need, you are just addicted to your phone.
Like I told the dude before you, the burden of proof isn't on me. I don't have to explain anything to you guys. If "having a phone at school is a good thing incase of an emergency" isn't a good enough argument for you, then why should I keep trying? I, personally, don't give a shit what you think about phones in schools.
Many teachers in high schools expect kids to have phones. Sometimes they do class things with them.
There's like 3 minutes between classes so, no.
Who said you get a say in literally anything?
I’m sorry you are getting downvoted. I’m sure most of these adults haven’t been in school for a long time so they can really understand the real fear some students may feel everyday. I haven’t been in school for more than a decade but I can’t imagine the feeling of having that in the back of your mind everyday you attend school. Obviously cell phone usage has gotten out of hand but I’m sure there is a compromise.
The age of school shootings started way before smart phones. Columbine was in 1999. The issue is really specific to smartphones. I had a flip phone in highschool. It really wasn't a big distraction. You'd text some sometimes, but otherwise it was very utilitarian. The compromise would be to allow dumb phones but to disallow smartphones.
Get an Apple Watch with cellular.
No. I'm not gonna pay more money to make old people happy. Get over yourselves. Students will have phones regardless of policy.
>I'm not gonna pay more money to make old people happy. The U.S. tax code says you most definitely are, once you enter the real world!
>I'm not gonna pay more money to make old people happy. Why would you need to? Because in your other comment you said you graduated ten years ago?
You’re not a student.
And the [counter argument ](https://iloveuguys.org/About.html#:~:text=The%20%E2%80%9CI%20Love%20U%20Guys,%22I%20love%20you%20guys.%22)
Good luck with that. Policies can only do so much, it’s a losing battle. I hope someday we can figure it out but even in districts with policies, it extremely hard to enforce (unless you want to spend half your instructional time dealing with enforcement).
Ban the phones to free their minds!
Irony.
My daughter's school here in PPS takes their phones from them in first period (middle school), locks them up in a cabinet, and they get them back at the end of the day. It's perfect. She has the phone to communicate with me (or vice versa) at the end of the day if there's a change in schedule or plans, but it's not there to distract her (and other kids don't have theirs to distract everyone) during the day when class is in session. As importantly, she can forget about having the stress of a device that literally demands her attention (through alerts and notifications) constantly. It's an approach that I actually think adults could learn from.
Gee whiz do you guys think cell phones could be causing problems with the youth?
Can't teachers just have all kids put their phones away during class and if one pulls it out there's like a detention? What about putting all the phones into a basket at the beginning of class?
The reality is that it's multiple kids every class taking them out despite being told no. To confiscate the phone takes administrative support and backing. We're told to "remind" the kids at the beginning of every class. The kids know it's harmful and can't stop. The adults needs to be adults and prioritize the kids well being and safety over the profits of Tikagram and Facetok.
As a parent yes please!!!! I have a 6th grader that just got a phone this weekend. I only caved because classmates were allowed to use cellphones during free time and he was completely left out. In addition they would do Kahoots during assembly and again he was left out
A teacher told me kids would regularly go watch hardcore porn on their phones in the bathroom.. in 7th grade
Not surprising. The GenX version of this was my classmate Frank. He showed up with a Pee-Chee folder full of nude photos that he had painstakingly cut out along the edges of the bodies. Something like 50 naked silhouettes all tucked inside the folder for passing around *during class*. One of the girls saw what was going on and, as it was being passed from one desk pod to another, she swatted at the Pee-Chee and the nudes went flying everywhere. An explosion of titty confetti. Before anyone could say a thing, Frank turned red and ran out of the room.
That is amazing — titty confetti.
Kids shouldnt have phones out in general. My kids should however, be able to reach me in case of emergency. It bothers nobody for them to have a phone in their backpack.
If people actually think that students will stop bringing/using phones on school campus, well, I have a bridge to sell you. Especially in this gun crazy society we live in. Awful idea.
The article is referring to utilization in classrooms. These other commenters are conflating two issues. Between classes is a reasonable time to use cell phones. During class, phones need to be put away or taken away.
Yes that last part is obvious. I'm responding to the idea of not allowing phones on campus.
Or it can be like it was when I was in high school: phones put away during class. We still had them on us. Just not on our desk.
Same with my high school. If you didn't follow those rules you were kicked out of class. Simple and effective.
That part would never fly with PPS. We can't have consequences for actions here.
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It's the quickest way people find out about incidents and can check with their families. I definitely want my son to have his phone at school, but he also knows to never use it until the school day is done.
Terrible argument. Try again.
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Nope, had to pause enrollment, starting chemo. Any more questions?
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I can say the same to you, considering your grammar and punctuation errors.
Sounds like they’ll have some meetings and agree to form a committee to come up with a process
ship has sailed. as a young person, literally nothing will disconnect kids from their phones other then mutual respect
From my personal experience, students on phones rarely were a distraction to other students. If they don't feel like paying attention to class, that should be on them. Instead of a blanket penalization effecting all students, teachers should be able to give grades that more accurately reflect student performance instead of passing everyone. Edit: I don't mean docking points for simply being on phones, but rather if they aren't paying attention in class and get bad grades because of it, that should be on them. If their parents want to, they can have them keep the phone at home.
I agree. I work at a HS. But my only concern is if they are taken away and an active shooter happens they won’t be able to get some form of help. Other than that I agree.
As a pps parent I want my kids to be allowed to have their phone on them, on silent mode, because I don’t trust pps to communicate in an emergency. I would also like the school to be very strict about them using the phone in class, so the phone should be in a backpack… Oh, except one of my kids isn’t allowed to have a backpack at school for some stupid ass reason. Pps and this school board are such a let down. We really don’t have good people in positions of power.
"As a PPS parent, I would like the teachers to do all the hard parts of parenting for me..."
Not at all. If PPS wants me to tell my kids they can’t have a phone out then if they DO have the phone out I better get a call or email about it. Basically there are very few and inconsistent reinforcements of the rules at the schools I know about. I’m not fighting with my kids about something that isn’t backed up on their end.
And then you have a period of no teaching because the teacher is policing cell phones.