Can a teacher search a bag ?

Officially, we confiscate, & the office send out a form letter for parents to come in & collect the phone.

In practice, if a student is fiddling with a phone I take it & put it on my desk. They get it back, end of lesson, if they work impeccably. (I reserve the right to read their text messages out to the class & take the piss out of their wallpaper).

A silent phone at the bottom of someone's bag Does Not Exist, in teacher terms - we have other things to worry about! There's definitely more to this story than your ds knows/is telling.

Our school has an outright ban on mobiles but I would estimate that probably around 90% of them have them! If I see a phone I will always give a friendly warning "You do realise, don't you, that if I see that I will have to send it to your Head of Year?" And they usually put it straight back in their bag. (I did once have a year 7 pupil, in class, say, "Just hang on a minute.") So I then had to put it in an envelope, put pupil's name/form on it and take it to HOY.

As far as searching a bag, I wouldn't - I would ask Dept Head/HOY to do so and it would always be in front of the pupil. I agree with PP that there was something more going on.

The reason for banning mobiles/MP3s etc is that if they are banned, the school is not liable if it gets stolen/lost/damaged. Hence we don't allow jewellery either!

"How did we cope last century without mobiles and getting to and from school on our own?"

We managed but my dcs go to schhol by train and it makes life so much easier if there is a problem with the train, knowing exactly where they are and sorting out pick ups if there are no trains at all.

"My DC's school's policy is for them all to hand their phones it at reception in the morning and collect after school ."

Our school has the same policy. It means if a phone is lost or stolen, the school isn't responsible.

I think you can challenge a bag being searched in view of pupils- privacy, tampons etc. A teacher should inform a senior teacher, the pupil removed and a search carried out infront of pupil and other staff member.

In saying that all teachers have an off day. I'm sure there is more to the story than we know.

How did we cope last century without mobiles and getting to and from school on our own?

A lot of schools ban them and I know of two locally who have teachers stand at the gates to ensure pupils don't take them out of their bags after they have been through the gates!
A friend's DD is in the 6th form and had hers confiscated after doing just this and the Dep head who took it off her gave her lines! Friend was fine about the phone being confiscated but was very annoyed about lines being given to a very hard working and conscienous student when she needed to use that time studying!

That is good advice Roisin. I am a senior teacher, so do search bags - but would only do it with the pupil's permission and in front of somebody else. If the pupil refused, I'd take it to the head.

At our school we were advised not to search bags. But if we suspected students of having contraband (weapons, drugs, mobiles..) and they refused to hand it over, then senior staff would come and remove the child. They would then search the bag in the presence of another member of staff, or if appropriate would call the police.

My son's bag has been searched by teachers a number of times, thanks to all the annoying brats who like to see if they can push him into meltdown.
They lie to the teacher...X has got a knife, matches, dangerous chemicals, my mobile, a porno mag in his bag, I SAW it, honest guv.
So, apologetically, the teacher has to get the bag searched for dangerous materials.
And finds nothing.
He used to get very defensive and walk out afterwards, Now he leans against the wall and glares at the accusers. He's calm about it now, he knows the teachers believe him.

My bet was that she was using it and got caught out. Teen boys are usually less observant than a teacher so your DS might not have spotted her. Or she's done it in other classes and the message was passed on, so he thought she was messing around with it.

My DC's school's policy is for them all to hand their phones it at reception in the morning and collect after school .
lol as they say ,can't imagine that this happens ,but that's the stated policy .

bloomin heck there is no way I would want to be taking 30 mobiles off kids in the morning and returning them at 3.15.

At DS's school phones are banned outright.
They hand them over to the form teacher at registration who then locks them in a cupboard for the day and collect them at the end of the day.

sounds like she was using the phone surreptitiously and put it away when challenged. i can't think anyone in his or her right mind would go looking for a phone when they had no reason to think that one wasn't there.

how does the school reconcile that policy with the safety issues which parents certainly have raised that if they are traveling to and from school possibly alone, they'd rather their child had a phone on their person as a safety net?

There's more to it. Either your DS doesn;t know, or he isn't telling, but there is.

Does anyone know of a school which bans mobile phones on site outright? I have only heard of having them switched off from walking inside the school gates till leaving. If a student needs to contact parents during the school day, he or she has to use a school land line.

Switched on mobiles are confiscated.

Obviously the rule is not enforced enough then. If the kids don't take any notice, why don't the parents?

As Foxy says - there is more to this story.

So the teacher suspected there was a phone and looked and found it?

Like I said, it seems odd. She was sent out for talking? There has to be more to this...

Well, at my school a phone is confiscated if we have sight of it. Or sound So a phone switched off and in a bag is not a problem. A phone out, or ringing in a bag - that I would confiscate. They would get it back at the end of the day the first time, and after that a parent would need to come in and collect it.

Are they banned outright at your DS's school?