Cell phones in school

Completely banning them is absolutely ridiculous. I understand banning them from classrooms, because it is disrespectful to the teacher and the other students who i would hope are there to learn. Yet, banning them from school in general is just stupid because what if your car breaks down, you miss your bus, you cant get a ride, you need to inform you ride of staying after, etc.??? My son attends [Removed] elementary school in Levittown, NY, and the Principal of the school a first rate biotch [Name Removed] has stubbornly refused to budge on this issue. Sure, kids could use the school phones, but i know at my school there is only one phone that we are allowed to use ((unless a teacher lets us use theres)), so other rules would have to change if students were prohited from cell phones. It seems like just alot of trouble thats not worth it.

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Yes it seems a bit harsh and out of line for her to ban all cell phones in school, however while it is possible to simply ban them from the classroom, how often have u heard of an elementary student, especially one at an age that they are allowed to have a cell phone, using it in situations that are inappropriate? Many students allow themselves to use their phones, mainly to text or play games, during classes when they should be paying attention to the lesson at hand. I don't necessarily agree with an outright ban because I think there might be some other ways of keeping the students from using the phones in class, however I do understand where the principal is coming from.

From both sides...

I'm a teacher and I KNOW the lengths kids go to break the rules, but let's ignoe that and look at the issue in terms of simple security - what can cellphones be used for?

~tracking an individual via GPS
~calling the local dealer to tell them which door you're gonna open
~contacting someone on the outside for purposes of coordinating terrorist acts
~setting off devices designed to be triggered by calling a cellphone

yeah, yeah... you can argue each of those points ad infinitum... but by damned, if my kid was the victim in any of those situations I would be the first one asking, "Why didn't YOU think of this before the bad guy did?" The population here were up in arms when security cameras were installed in our rural schools 'cause "something like that would nnever happen here!"... Tell it to the dead Amish in Pennsylvania... We have to be proactive and try to stay a step ahead of the freaking crazies in this world. It is a sad fact.

I'm a big fan of cellphones, personally... and have stated in anotehr thread that I would put an appropriate phone (like a firefly) in the hands of my elementary aged kid. I can understand why someone whose job it is to protect not only your kid, but kids who probably aren't parented as well as yours, would toe the hard line in hopes of keeping them safe.

Of course... the posting of your child's school and principal's name makes me wonder as to your wisdom... if you show your here face again I hope that you will be ashamed that you bring attention to a locality in a public access forum (just asking for some freaking crazy to prove their point at your expense instead of somewhere else), and ashamed again that you are immature enough, yourself, to risk slander charges over an issue about which you are obviously not very well informed.

Solution: Kids can check cellphones at the door of the school in the old coat-check system... of course, that will require about $20,000 per building for every school in your tax district to hire a person to man it

Originally Posted by jeaniesing

Solution: Kids can check cellphones at the door of the school in the old coat-check system... of course, that will require about $20,000 per building for every school in your tax district to hire a person to man it

As a student, I have to say that this idea is fairly unrealistic. While checking a phone may be nice every once and a while (maybe? not for me but for the sake of argumentation I'll say it could be) most kids would either 1. Leave it in their car or 2. Leave it at home (If they were not to bring it to school)
However, no matter what the rules are, many kids will still bring their phones to school.

My school has a policy that you can talk on them in the hall, but if you are seen with one during class, it is sent to the office where a parent has to come pick it up. This is a fair policy, I believe.
I am ashamed to say that I know how most kids cheat on tests at school, and rarely (very rarely) is it cell phones. They present many problems cheating, such as lag, being difficult to type on, and not having reliable service. Of the cheating that goes on, over 90% is with a pencil, paper, and eyes. Less then 10% (and probably 5%) involve cell phones.
The bigger problem is students texting during class on not paying attention. Cheating is just an easy media device that everyone has jumped on to push the no-phone agenda
(All the above is IMO of course)

Originally Posted by Nwahs

As a student, I have to say that this idea is fairly unrealistic.

Of course it is... that was my point when I posted the dollars and cents of it...

The OP began talking about an elementary school kid, no car to leave one in. She was also talking about a heavy population area that has large scale experience terrorism on a local level.

concernedmom also switches from naming names of an elementary principal to "at my school," and "unless a teacher lets us use theres " (theirs presumably) so we can asssume that one or the other of her characters is a ruse.


it is a good topic though! ....

Cellphones in school really arent that big of a deal. Schools need to be focusing on violence, drugs, and getting kids through high school before they worry about cellphone banning.

Originally Posted by Dudun

Cellphones in school really arent that big of a deal. Schools need to be focusing on violence, drugs, and getting kids through high school before they worry about cellphone banning.

WOW, you are a perfect example of why we need to focus more on educating our children. All of the items you listed have a direct link to the rising problem of cell phones in schools.

As Jeanie already said in her first post:

Violence - kids could use cell phones inside the school to coordinate terrorist acts. Or a gang-banger wannabe could call fellow gang members to tell them what doors will be open so they can get in and commit criminal acts against rival gangs.

Drugs - a wannabe could also open doors for drug dealers to enter and ply their trade.

Getting kids through high school - possibly the worst of all, kids spend way too much time during class text messaging friends... who are also in school. Most of these messages are inane teenage prattling and drama, but can also be used for cheating and other rule breaking behaviors.

From my own personal experience, I caught my high school age daughter doing quite a bit of text messaging during school hours. Her grades were slipping because she was not working as hard on her classwork. She kept telling us that she was leaving her phone in her locker and that it was not with her during class. I blocked her messaging for a while and she seems to have learned the lesson. Grades are back up and text messaging during school hours is down significantly!

Originally Posted by paulcman

WOW, you are a perfect example of why we need to focus more on educating our children. All of the items you listed have a direct link to the rising problem of cell phones in schools.

As Jeanie already said in her first post:

Violence - kids could use cell phones inside the school to coordinate terrorist acts. Or a gang-banger wannabe could call fellow gang members to tell them what doors will be open so they can get in and commit criminal acts against rival gangs.

Drugs - a wannabe could also open doors for drug dealers to enter and ply their trade.

Getting kids through high school - possibly the worst of all, kids spend way too much time during class text messaging friends... who are also in school. Most of these messages are inane teenage prattling and drama, but can also be used for cheating and other rule breaking behaviors.

From my own personal experience, I caught my high school age daughter doing quite a bit of text messaging during school hours. Her grades were slipping because she was not working as hard on her classwork. She kept telling us that she was leaving her phone in her locker and that it was not with her during class. I blocked her messaging for a while and she seems to have learned the lesson. Grades are back up and text messaging during school hours is down significantly!

I hate to argue with ya...cause your picture scares me. Ok, so I just want to point out that DURING SCHOOL HOURS, less then 1 in 250 texts are cheating...no one really does that.

Like you said, it is usually drama, gossip, and stuff of that sort. Slipping grades are something that is often caused by kids texting though, I have to admit.

Like I said, I feel that the best policy is if the teachers see it, they take it, and make a parent pick it up. But then again, I am a student and my view is probably a little biased. It does seem unrealistic to all out ban phones from being in a school though...

I feel the same way, I livein Illinois. I've told my daughetr to carry hers with her at all times just to have the ringer turned off. Well just last week her teacher saw it in her pocket and told her to go out and put it in her locker. Well that was on a friday and my daughter thought she had misplaced it, come Monday we find out it had been stolen from her locker. She the person had it for the whole weekend, I'm scared to see my bill!!!

A teacher sees it in her pocket and makes her put it in her locker? That seems a bit extreme...especially if shes not even touching it or anything.

Originally Posted by Nwahs

A teacher sees it in her pocket and makes her put it in her locker? That seems a bit extreme...especially if shes not even touching it or anything.

School policy is school policy... if that were my school policy, "in lockers only," I would enforce it

Many schools are investing in signal blocking devices - My school district among them... no problkems at our end... there is next to no signal anyway, but the other buildings see it as avoiding a problem