Mobile phone ban in school

At both my DC’s schools they have to keep the phone in a locked pouch when at school - works pretty well

It's horrendous how blase some people can be with giving away the basic access to deal with needs that only affect other people, and tell them that they should be grateful for a few highly inappropriate crumbs that they deign to throw them instead - on the grounds that some more privileged people will just abuse the same privilege.

We already have school girls with period issues who routinely go into school with dread, or even avoid going in at all on those days - because they are denied the basic dignity of being able to go to the toilets and deal with them discreetly... because 'they're kids, and kids only ever ask to go to the toilets to mess around and get out of lessons'.

Schools HAVE to be able to accommodate this, otherwise it’s discriminatory.

However, imagine how this sounds from an affected child’s perspective - an affected child who is already managing a life long chronic condition, day in, day out, and who has been given technology by the NHS to help deal with this.

Schools “should” be able to accommodate them?! It shouldn’t even be a question. Those children need support, not be made to feel like they are an exception which “might” or “should” be able to be accommodated.

This is what has been overlooked in the roll out of the smart phone free schools policy.

Anecdotally, I know parents with this outlook. Their offspring are engaging in wildly risky behaviour on- and offline. The parents are clueless while dear child is accessing and sharing things that would make most mumsnetters clutch their pearls.

@BeSunnyLemonSheep are your dc still at primary?

The school should be able to accommodate a phone for this; it’s also possible to shut down the other apps except what is needed for that during school days. Staff could have the access code if needed.

My own school did this for a child and a teacher on the same.

https://breakthrought1d.org.uk/news/letter-to-gillian-keegan-about-the-use-of-mobile-phones-in-schools/
In short, nothing which delivers the same functionality, no. Removing a smartphone used to run a closed loop insulin system and automatically upload the data, from a school child, would be discriminatory under disability legislation.

The fact I’m having to address comments like “can’t you use another device” shows how this legislation is already forcing parents of T1D children onto the defensive.

We have fought for YEARS to get better tech for children who have to manage this condition so they feel less different to other children, then one rushed though, ill communicated policy threatens to undo so much good work.

Is he on a closed loop pump system? Most T1 children are and that requires a smart phone. If he is not using a smart phone his results won’t be uploaded to Medtronic, his medical team or family (if you’ve set that up) in real time. They will have to be uploaded separately.

Abbott stopped giving out freestyle libre readers as standard quite some time ago on the basis that people could use a smartphone instead enabling greater functionality. Why take that away for school children?

You do not need a smartphone for continuous glucose monitoring- my db does not have a smartphone and was given a small tablet like machine that records his blood glucose levels from the patch on his arm.

True. I strongly support a total ban, but was answering to the mother of a child whom, she argues, would need the phone for medical reasons. Perhaps there could be other devices the child could use?

Absolutely not.
that would be a huge amount of students.

Perhaps children with special needs could have a medical exemption, and be allowed to carry a phone to be used for this purpose? The rest of the children should not be allowed to have one, as they do not need them.

Were you never a child?

Kids will use whatever they can get away with to fill the pouches, from old phones, to being creative make something phone shaped, bits of metal, plastic or cardboard, dud AAA batteries, glass or stones to add weight.

Whatever they can get away with.

It doesn't surprise me the only people winning out the pouches are the companies who make them.

What would make much more sense is to ban social media for under 16s and ensure parental controls remain in place on phones until kids are 16 too

Honestly I just wouldn't be the least bit surprised that's the case. Its just so predictable.

There are medical pouches. But those children will always have had access to their phones etc when other students have not been allowed to have access to their phones during the day

It already happens at our school.
All the diabetic students have full access to their phones, no one else is allowed.
This is life and people need to respect the rules. I have never heard anyone question these students. It is what it is and they accept it.
it’s a good lesson in respecting others needs.
Most students are very understanding.

No I’m saying anyone who needs to phone 999 isn’t exempt from the rule. That’s what I was replying to.

Yes, even when they are forced to let those kids have their phones to help them stay alive, that will mark them out and force them to have to share their private medical history with anybody who sees them and asks.

Plus it won't even 'just' be quiet 'asking' when it's jealous other kids who want to go on SM themselves, it will be making a big scene that "Phones are meant to be banned, but Olivia is allowed to use hers; but I'm not, so that's unfair and favouritism..."

Olivia will be marked out and shamed as the 'lucky' one for having a life-long, life-threatening health condition - not unlike able-bodied people who complain about blue badge-holders being allowed to park 'wherever they like' or getting concessions that they don't get... because they obviously are privileged enough not to need them.

This policy has been rushed in with no thought of how the public messaging will affect children who rely on smartphones for medical reasons. Not only do they now have to deal with eg type 1 diabetes, they now have to deal with feeling seemingly excluded from smart phone free schools unless their school has remembered to include the small print exceptions necessary to enable them to attend.

The level of ignorance displayed in public discourse on this topic does not fill me with confidence that the medical needs of affected children will be met.

Some students with medical conditions do, like the 30,000 children in the UK living with type 1 diabetes. https://breakthrought1d.org.uk/news/letter-to-gillian-keegan-about-the-use-of-mobile-phones-in-schools/

Some people are idiots.

So you’re saying that if a child needs a smart phone for medical reasons, you would exclude them from school?

Indeed, it would be horrendous - and pure disability discrimination... but according to some people, their lifeline is just an 'excuse', because 'phones must be banned with no exceptions or excuses because messing around in class'.

https://breakthrought1d.org.uk/news/letter-to-gillian-keegan-about-the-use-of-mobile-phones-in-schools/ tell that to a type 1 diabetic child whose using a closed loop system to manage their condition.

In reality, it makes the punishment worse for the rule-keepers than the rule-breakers.

My DS is one of the former - along with many of his friends - who now know that they cannot have a phone to let us know at lunch-time (or even after school has finished, as they've extended the 'no phones at all on the premises' rule to include 45 minutes before and after the school day) that a club has been cancelled, or to check if we have ingredients in for cooking the next day, or to raise any other urgent concerns.

My same-aged DN, on the other hand, IS exactly one of the kinds of kids whose poor discipline and unwillingness to abide by rules has caused all of them to be tarred with the same brush and receive a blanket ban. She told me that she and her friends will now just learn how to be coy and go unseen, to avoid the teachers spotting them with their phones out - apparently, it's easy to get away with it... and in the unlikely event that they are caught, well, a few more detentions or bad behaviour points to add to all the rest won't make much difference to them anyway. Either way, the rule is 'not for them' and will be ignored.

By way of analogy, I liken it to the self-service checkouts at Morrisons, where if I'm buying stuff for work and need two different transactions, or even if I've picked up a free local paper near the door, I have to wait for an available assistant to come over, watch a half-minute video and then press the button to say that I'm not a thief. Meanwhile, the actual thieves just fill up their holdalls and calmly leave the store, going nowhere near the checkouts, completely unchallenged.

Type 1 diabetic children (of which there are about 30,000 in the UK) typically have a CGM and / or closed loop system requiring a phone to manage their condition.

“Mobile phones are not just a form of communication for children living with type 1. Their phones are a lifesaving treatment device, recommended by the NHS and regulators to reduce potentially fatal high and low blood glucose spikes. They need their phones in exams, in the playground, in lessons, at lunch and during PE.”

https://breakthrought1d.org.uk/news/letter-to-gillian-keegan-about-the-use-of-mobile-phones-in-schools/