Page 12 | To be annoyed by total phone ban

TeleGardenGnome · 2024-05-09T06:25:18+00:00

My child's school which is a busy city location has a total phone ban. So you aren't allowed to take any type of phone to school at all even if it stays hidden in a bag and is on silent and never used. They do bag searches and use metal detectors to find students breaking the rules. If your child's phone is found they get a detention and you can only get it back by visiting the school in person. So yesterday my child's phone was found in a bag search and removed. There were awful transport issues and it took them several hours to get home. In the meanwhile we had no way to contact each other. I can't get the phone back due to work and my husband being away for work. It just stresses me out that he won't be able to get in touch if there's a problem. Expressing my feelings here as there is no point complaining to the school. They don't listen to parental feedback.

ThanksItHasPockets · 09/05/2024 17:40

Tlolljs · 09/05/2024 16:52

My dgs is a type one diabetic. He needs his phone to check his blood and to sync with his libre. What about kids in that scenario?

I’ve seen precisely this scenario written into multiple school policies on phones and tech as a specific example where an exception will be made as a reasonable adjustment for a medical need.

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:30

JasperTheDoll · 09/05/2024 17:23

But how do you get on the bus with a flip phone?

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Debit card? That's what my DC use.

Allfur · 09/05/2024 17:29

namemane · 09/05/2024 17:27

Fair point.

When calculators became affordable there were those who were against their use in schools because pupils wont know how to long divide, multiply, not be able to use slide rules.
So we taught how to use them and how to estimate to check if the answer is plausible.

Sadly children get killed on bikes. We don’t blanket ban bikes we teach children how to ride safely and encourage our councils develop a more bike friendly road environment.

Older adolescents will come across cars and alcohol. Neither healthy especially when combined. We don’t blanket ban either, we teach and encourage a sensible life saving attitude towards both.

If you are lucky enough to live in Lancashire your 16+ children may encounter ‘Wasted Lives’ A course to discourage drink driving in new drivers and to help sober adolescents not to get into a car with a drunk driver. I helped deliver these to my school. An emotionally hard going day - all male bravado out of the window after 10 minutes.

Whilst I can understand knee jerk reaction to ban all phones in schools the genie is out of the bottle. We need to know how to work with the genie. To be its master, not its slave.

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Good luck with that!

Allfur · 09/05/2024 17:28

JasperTheDoll · 09/05/2024 17:23

But how do you get on the bus with a flip phone?

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Card?

namemane · 09/05/2024 17:27

Allfur · 09/05/2024 16:03

Not sure calculators have ever helped cause suicide

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Fair point.

When calculators became affordable there were those who were against their use in schools because pupils wont know how to long divide, multiply, not be able to use slide rules.
So we taught how to use them and how to estimate to check if the answer is plausible.

Sadly children get killed on bikes. We don’t blanket ban bikes we teach children how to ride safely and encourage our councils develop a more bike friendly road environment.

Older adolescents will come across cars and alcohol. Neither healthy especially when combined. We don’t blanket ban either, we teach and encourage a sensible life saving attitude towards both.

If you are lucky enough to live in Lancashire your 16+ children may encounter ‘Wasted Lives’ A course to discourage drink driving in new drivers and to help sober adolescents not to get into a car with a drunk driver. I helped deliver these to my school. An emotionally hard going day - all male bravado out of the window after 10 minutes.

Whilst I can understand knee jerk reaction to ban all phones in schools the genie is out of the bottle. We need to know how to work with the genie. To be its master, not its slave.

ChangeAgain2 · 09/05/2024 17:26

My nephew has a watch that was a tracker and a phone. I'm just wondering if you could circumvent the rule or just not draw attention to the watch.

JasperTheDoll · 09/05/2024 17:23

CFeatherstone · 09/05/2024 16:59

All these issues and angst would be solved SO easily if parents just all agreed to get simple flip phones without internet access. Then you can call home or send texts if you need to but no drama with the school, no mental health problems, no access to harmful content, no screen addiction…..

But how do you get on the bus with a flip phone?

DragonFly98 · 09/05/2024 17:22

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:14

This 100% but people will always make excuses as to why they can't.

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Yep needing life360 due to my child's disability and vulnerability - just an excuse.

DragonFly98 · 09/05/2024 17:21

VestibuleVirgin · 09/05/2024 07:44

Some of us lived in a pre-mobile phone world. We survived

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That's nice, what device did you use pre mobile phone era that enabled your parents to to keep you safe on the way to and from school due to your disability. Always good to have a variety of options?

thing47 · 09/05/2024 17:20

Tlolljs · 09/05/2024 16:57

Yes I know it’s a different scenario but what would be the plan if he attended that school? Or if his current school put something like this in place? He can’t be the only one.

32,000 according to Labour figures (though of course not all will use this tech. Yet).

I always pose this question on these phone threads @Tlolljs and all anyone says by way of an answer is 'oh well that's obviously different'. But without ever acknowledging that these DCs need their phones on and with them at all times so anybody claiming that their schools has 'no exceptions' is wrong.

Original poster

TeleGardenGnome · 09/05/2024 17:20

followmyflow · 09/05/2024 16:41

havent read the thread but surely the sensible thing to do would be to put phone in locker so it cant be found in the bag during the day and then just take it out at the end of school?

They don't have lockers

OP posts:

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:18

ALovelyCupOfNameChange · 09/05/2024 17:16

The school need to be onboard and not use homework and timetabling apps

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I absolutely agree with this. It's a massive problem.

ALovelyCupOfNameChange · 09/05/2024 17:16

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:14

This 100% but people will always make excuses as to why they can't.

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The school need to be onboard and not use homework and timetabling apps

Allfur · 09/05/2024 17:16

ThatLibraryDebate · 09/05/2024 16:45

Do all schools have lockers for the kids these days?

I would agree with you but I guess if it were a locker the kids could access during the school day they'd just be able to get it back out again at the first break and keep it in a pocket to be distracted by in lessons. Whereas if there was a bank of phone lockers in reception or their home classrooms or whatever it would be easier to have a blanket "Nobody goes in these lockers until 3pm" rule.

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Not all schools have lockers

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:14

CFeatherstone · 09/05/2024 16:59

All these issues and angst would be solved SO easily if parents just all agreed to get simple flip phones without internet access. Then you can call home or send texts if you need to but no drama with the school, no mental health problems, no access to harmful content, no screen addiction…..

This 100% but people will always make excuses as to why they can't.

Allfur · 09/05/2024 17:14

Verbena17 · 09/05/2024 16:39

It’s crazy stupid. You cannot uninvent the wheel!
There are some children near here where the school bus picks them up and drops them off after school at the end of a 1 mile road they have to walk to get to and from home. Phones are very useful and a safety item for children.

Obviously not to be used in school hours but for travel, essential I’d say.

Maybe you can't uninvent to wheel but you can change societal habits. There was a time when smoking was ubiquitous, private car ownership is dropping in cities, similarly, phone use for children can lessen over the years

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:13

And this excellent YouTube video:

It's an enormous cop out saying "oh well the world has changed, we can't do anything about it".

#EIE23: Jonathan Haidt: Smartphones vs. Smart Kids

Bestselling author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt shares research findings from his upcoming book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVq4ARIlNVg

Pleezoo · 09/05/2024 17:13

For those asking for evidence on smartphone use being harmful:

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31193561/

https://www.cmaj.ca/content/192/6/E136.short

https://ncpcr.gov.in/uploads/165650458362bc410794e02_effect1.PDF

Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022

The landscape of social media is ever-changing, especially among teens who often are on the leading edge of this space. A new survey of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 finds that TikTok has established itself as one of the top online platforms for U.S...

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022

CaptainOhMyCaptain · 09/05/2024 17:04

The London Oratory, right? They don’t care what parents think, tbh. Not my cup of tea.

CharlotteBog · 09/05/2024 17:00

Isn't the problem with schools collecting handsets that they then become responsible for them (or something along those lines...some sort of liability).

Some chancer may come along and accuse the school of breaking their phone screen..."It wasn't broken when I handed it in, Miss".
So schools have to get the child to sign it in, then it has to be signed out.
That would take a while with hundreds of children.

CFeatherstone · 09/05/2024 16:59

All these issues and angst would be solved SO easily if parents just all agreed to get simple flip phones without internet access. Then you can call home or send texts if you need to but no drama with the school, no mental health problems, no access to harmful content, no screen addiction…..

AloeVerity · 09/05/2024 16:57

Not a lawyer but I always question the legality of these ‘confiscation’ policies. It’d be called stealing and/or blackmail in another world.

Tlolljs · 09/05/2024 16:57

Yes I know it’s a different scenario but what would be the plan if he attended that school? Or if his current school put something like this in place? He can’t be the only one.

thefamous5 · 09/05/2024 16:57

My eldest at high school (who I've actually just registered and home educating from next week onwards) catches the bus. There's no shops or pay phones anywhere near his school. If there was a problem with missing a bus etc he wouldn't be able to tell me.

I was in pre mobile era. We had a pay phone right outside school.

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 09/05/2024 16:57

VestibuleVirgin · 09/05/2024 07:47

What cloud-cuckoo utopia were you living in? There has always been a dearth of phoneboxes, and talking to strangers was not encouraged, even 'back then'.
And ask to use a phone in a shop? Well if that happened then, why can't it happen now?

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"talking to strangers was not encouraged"

we were always encouraged to find a policeman 🤭