Strict no phones rule at secondary school

Tile tracker works with android. But let him take a phone. Everybody else will have onee. At DS school they weren't allowed but of course everyone had one secreted. When the school threatened to search bags the kids paid the schools neighbours to hold them. Which of course is super unsafe, but they will do whatever it takes I guess.

No one is sitting watching the tracking constantly, you just use it if there's a reason to. They track me as often as I track them and I have no issue with that at all.

@nancy2022

1. If they want to go somewhere they shouldn't be, they'll turn it off.
2. If they are abducted, the abductor will throw it away.
3. If they lose it or run out of battery, they will have no strategies for keeping themselves safe or getting home.
4. They will know that they are not trusted, which is not good for anyone.

A phone is a useful thing to have. Tracking is not.

When I was at school we had a pay phone there and lots in town- that's not the case anymore.

And besides, I left school 22 years ago and had a mobile 24 years ago...

He just needs to remember to keep it on silent and it will be fine. I work in a school like this. We have no interest whatsoever in checking bags or confiscating unused phones. What we do need to avoid is teachers being recorded in class, upskirting, child exploitation and all the millions of other negative things that can occur with modern technology.

Let him have his phone. Remind him of the need to keep it on silent in school. And please make sure that you have a good routine for checking / discussing what apps he’s using, who he’s speaking to etc.

I feel so sorry for kids growing up today. Not only do they have to deal with the horrors of social media, they also have to put up with being electronically tracked by their paranoid parents. When I was their age, we had this thing called ‘freedom’, which we took completely for granted of course. Truly, you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.

whatever did we all do before we had phones or gps? remember calling my mom on the pay phone on reception lol

@MariaVT65 ah yes, “the school can just fuck off” and once again the mystery of why schools can’t retain teachers is exposed by the twattish behaviour of the utterly delightful parents 🙄.

I'm talking about tracking, rather than the phones themselves. OP is desperate to track her son if he doesn't have his phone. It's not healthy and there's no evidence that it keeps children safer.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211105-the-parents-who-track-their-children

Sonia Livingstone, a professor in the department of media and communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, believes there is in fact “zero evidence that any of these apps keep children safer”. "I’ve never seen any and I look at all the evidence,” she says.
As an expert in children’s digital rights and safety, who has written several books about parenting in the digital age, Livingstone feels the extensive adoption of tracking apps is an understandable response to constant headlines about the “terrible dangers to our children”. But she argues that in the longer term, tracking apps can have "unintended but also damaging consequences", not least to the parent-child relationship.

Our DCs' school has a similar rule. As long as the phone is switched off and placed in a bag or pocket before they enter the school grounds, it's fine to have it in their possession.
The rule is if it is seen or heard, then it's confiscated. Most school bags and blazers have some kind of zipped internal pocket that will ensure the phone is completely out of sight unless he takes it out himself.

I have kids in two different secondary schools. That rule seems rather over zealous. In both my DC school the rule is they can have phones on them but must not turn them on or take them out during the time they're in school. This seems fair enough. Kids often need to contact parents straight after or on way home. I also track both my dcs phones. They are fine with it and it's really useful if I need to pick them up from a particular place and can locate them without them having to describe their location to me.

He turns it off when he enters the gates and turns it on again when he leaves. If the whole class have their bags searched and its found even when on silent it's not the end of the world is it. Mobile phones cause many issues at secondary, I'm sure most schools started with quite a fair stance ie can be in their bags but not used during lessons but have been forced into this by irresponsible people.

So do I, the freedom we had as teens was priceless.

Surely he is allowed to take a phone in his bag if it is switched off?

I'm a teacher and all of our pupils have their phones. They're only confiscated if they're found. If it's switched off in his bag, nobody will know it's there.

DS(9) has an Apple Watch. He can call me and send me messages from it. I can also track him to and from school. No need for a phone :)

I work in a completely phone free school. You are over thinking it. All the students turn their phones off as they walk through the gate, they then turn them on as they leave school

I’ve intentionally avoided the local very very strict rules school for DD. School she’s going to has a “phones stay off and out of sight” rule which I think is a fair compromise. They’ve banned smartwatches totally though as kids were using them to text while sticking to the “phones out of sight” rule.

As for the horrified “what did kids do in the past”… we had functioning pay phones on most street corners back then, and schools which didn’t view kids as some kind of demonic entity to be broken down at all costs (so they would support kids to ring home off required). We also had a much less shit local bus service meaning that you were less screwed if you missed the bus unlike in some areas now where services have been cut completely or are down to 1 an hour or the like.

What good would being able to track a child do?

@saraclara I'm glad my kids were able to have phones from secondary. I do not track my son, though on occasion it would have been helpful on the few occasions he has rung me not knowing where he is after going out with some mates and wanting to get home (it took him two hours to walk after midnight as he had no idea where he was).
My daughter and I have mutual tracking - it means I know she is on her way home, or if unexpectedly delayed where she is.
There's a difference in being able to find your kid if need be, and stalking them.

For those saying you/your children didn't have mobile phones when you were at secondary school, this may be true, but the world has changed, and not necessarily for the better.

Teenagers are in no more danger walking home from school than they were twenty years ago when mine were at school.

I've seen the statistics, and if I could remember where they were and find them before I go out in few minutes I'd link them.
What has changed is that we've become a more fearful and paranoid society. And this is harming our children's independence and confidence.

@wildfirewonder They are young teenagers I don't care if they think I don't trust them. I want to know where they are.

I was at school during the 90s. I didn't have a phone. I do now. Should I not have one because I didn't then???

Because it engenders a false sense of security and reduces real trust between parent and child.

I would say most schools have this rule. My DD's certainly does. She just keeps her phone in her bag.

At my nephews secondary school they aren't even allowed to do that. They aren't allowed to take their phones even in their bags switched off. They have school buses and one day on the way back from school the bus went under a bridge and got stuck. No child had a phone. The school bus driver phoned the school so that they could contact the parents...the office was closed. The police had to call the head in the end, it was a right carry on.

Anyway, they all got home safely in the end and the school did not change the policy.