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Original poster

To think it is ridiculous that the school have confiscated MY phone????

380 replies

Slipperyslopin · 15/02/2013 16:27

DS (14) was going out last night with a friend to see a movie after school. He didn't know when it ended and then we couldn't find it on the website so I told him to take his phone so he could call me afterwards and I could collect him. He told me his phone wasn't charged, so I gave him my one. He is very trustworthy and careful and I knew he wouldn't lose it, besides I'm not on call at the moment so I wouldn't need it during the day, and I'd rather he had a way to contact me if needed. During school the phone turned on in his pocket (Iphones Angry ) and an alert went off for an update or something. His teacher heard it and confiscated the phone as they are not allowed in school, even if off. DS then had to call me from the office to say he would use his friends phone instead. All fine, fair enough I thought. However I then found out that the school policy is to keep the phone for a fortnight. I have unpredictable shift patterns and I actually do need that phone back, it has important work contacts on and is the number I am generally contacted on by whole family as we don't have a landline atm. So I went in and explained the situation and they REFUSED to return it! They've said they're keeping it for the full 2 weeks. I told them, it's a work phone, it has confidential stuff on it, it has all my work contacts and is an emergency number for DH on his passport, and as he is in France at the moment I needed that phone back. They just kept repeating that it is policy and they can't return it, I even had the head teacher tell me this! Surely it's against the law! I need that phone and they WILL NOT return it to me! What should I do? Can I get some form of legal action done here? This feels a hell of a lot like theft to me. I'm so beyond angry at them, any advice?

OP posts:
EvilTwins · 15/02/2013 21:03

In my school, mobile phones have been used to:
Video fights and post straight onto Facebook and YouTube
Take photos which are then use to bully other students
Call parents DURING lessons because kids think they are being dealt with unfairly

I could go on...

Obviously these are fairly rare , but they still go on. I have no idea why parents feel it it important, let alone a "right" for secondary age kids to have a phone at school. When I starts teaching in 1997, it was very rare for students to have a mobile, and they all coped.

As for the "but I need him/her to be able to check their phone at break.." argument, rubbish. My children are 6 and therefore have no phones. However, on the few occasions I've needed to make last minute changes in arrangements, I have called their school and the message has got through.

Feenie · 15/02/2013 21:05

I've had a child play his 18 year old sister's sex video to other Y5s. Hmm

And cyber bullying galore, of course.

EvilTwins · 15/02/2013 21:05

As for staff, I have a mobile phone, but it stays in my bag in my office. I wouldn't dream of having it in my classroom.

FryOneFatManic · 15/02/2013 21:06

But a school can't get a message to a pupil once they have left the premises. This has happened recently, I had to try and contact DD once she had already begun to walk home, which is why I want her to have a phone on her. She's 12.5, so if older it wouldn't be a problem if she got home and was there alone for a little while. But at present, while I have a backup place for her to go if I'm not there, things don't always happen in time for a message to be passed on in school.

Okay, it's one of these things and she's good at sticking to the rules about the phones, so far so good. (And yes, I know King Canute was trying to prove a point, it was a random thought that popped into my head at the time.)

I think a reasonable compromise at this time is if the school accepts swapping the phones, so they have the OP's son's phone confiscated and give the OP's phone back.

chickensarmpit · 15/02/2013 21:06

Everything. My sons teacher has his phone permanently stuck to his ear during lesson. Then again he does have a pregnant wife but what's good for the goose...

EvilTwins · 15/02/2013 21:08

I'm quite shocked by that, chickens, and would assume it's not normal. Highly unprofessional in my view.

IAmLouisWalsh · 15/02/2013 21:11

fryone in your DDs case I would advise her to hand in her phone and collect it at the end of the day. In individual cases that can be managed.

chickens if that is the case then you need to speak to the school. My phone has gone off once in class, to much hilarity. I locked my bag in the cupboard and gave the keys to the teacher next door, telling him to only give them back at lunchtime. The class approved.

IAmLouisWalsh · 15/02/2013 21:12

Although I would take exception to the idea that children should be able to do everything that teachers can do. I wear make up to school, children don't. There are rules.

mrsbunnylove · 15/02/2013 21:12

i have up to three mobile phones, belonging to me, on my desk at any one time. i have elderly parents in poor health so i need to be ready for an urgent call but anyone who called me other than in an emergency would find i couldn't talk to them. pupils have theirs in their pockets or bags, unless they're naughty and have them under the desk for continuous texting.

pupils can use their phones for research or to photograph their best work to show their mums, or if there are lots of notes on the board some pupils like to photograph those...

chickensarmpit · 15/02/2013 21:14

My son takes his phone to school. During his first week in high school, his nan and I both received calls of reception informing us that they didn't know if my child had gotten onto the school bus. He had told them that that he couldn't find his buss pass, so they rang around my relatives to see if it was ok to lend him money. Then they sent him off on his merry way. The bus had already left! His was sobbing when we found him. Now he has a phone and that won't happen ever again. He's 11 .

chickensarmpit · 15/02/2013 21:16

I only know about the teachers phone because he has a yoda ring tune. My son thinks its amazing

FryOneFatManic · 15/02/2013 21:24

Lucky for us, DD's school is reasonable. Phones okay as long as off during lessons, and DD sticks to that. So far it is fine.

Hulababy · 15/02/2013 21:30

I work in a school. We have to have our phones in a locked cabinet, outside of the actual classrooms. They must be turned off or on silent. We may use them in the staff room in break times, or in classrooms before/after school if there are no children around. My locker is in the shared storeroom adjoining my classroom.

A school in our LEA in the Autumn was given a notice to improve after a member of staff was observed receiving a call on a personal mobile phone. The school failed its inspection and given the notice to improve as a result of this single child protection/safeguarding issue.

However re the confiscation of children's phones - I don't agree with it. The school should make provisions for children to have a phone in school in some form - either a system to hand in/out at start and end of day, children to keep in a locked locker, etc.

nitsparty · 15/02/2013 21:32

this can't be legal! If you park your car in the wrong place in their car park could they keep your car for two weeks? go to the police, then find out who writes the education news on the local paper.

Hulababy · 15/02/2013 21:32

DD will have a mobile phone for starting secondary school. She will be traveling on public transport, possibly by herself. I want her to be able to contact me if she needs to, and vice versa.

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 21:35

Cortana

"Obviously I'm not against being able to take drugs, weapons and porn off children"

EvilTwins sums most of it up with

"In my school, mobile phones have been used to:
Video fights and post straight onto Facebook and YouTube
Take photos which are then use to bully other students
Call parents DURING lessons because kids think they are being dealt with unfairly"

add sexting and you have all bar drugs.

Cortana · 15/02/2013 21:41

I agree Boney, I agree that teachers should be able to confiscate phones. I do not agree that keeping them for two weeks as opposed to having them handed back to parents at the end of the day solves any of the problems Eviltwins listed.

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 21:43

nitsparty

Depending on where you park they could tow it and impound it, requiring futher fees to release it, or extreme cases have it destroyed.

Hulababy

Hopefully it will be a basic phone with limited functions.

TBH, I wish that they made a phone that just made phonecalls, no text, no photos, no mp3/radio function.

changeforthebetter · 15/02/2013 21:58

Rowlers? There was. A lovely session on my training about using Qcodes in MFL - meanwhile, back on planet inner-city/challenging intake-land mostly I'd like to get kids to engage with their learning rather than their energy drink and to protect the quieter ones from bullying by text, FB or whatever medium. I take phones off kids if they are on in the lesson (school policy anyway) and bollocks to the "it just switches itself on, miss" argument. Get it sorted out.

stuffthenonsense · 15/02/2013 22:02

My daughters go to a school which has a no phones policy, however, for any school trips THEY want PUPILS mobile numbers to be able to contact them (secondary obviously). Bunch of hypocrites, how can anybody be expected to respect those rules that the school itself intentionally breaks?

Hulababy · 15/02/2013 22:04

BoneyBackJefferson - actually it won't be. It will be a smartphone for various reasons. Dh and myself have discussed the matter a great deal and made this decision for a whole raft of reasons. It will be monitored and we will continue to teach DD about responsible and safe use of mobile technology.

EvilTwins · 15/02/2013 22:07

Oh FFS. Not having a phone in a classroom is vastly different to being asked to take it on a trip. I doubt a child would get lost in a classroom thus necessitating a teacher calling their mobile to discover their whereabouts.

It astounds me that so many MNers are up in arms about this. How in earth did we all manage as teens in the days before mobiles?

Hulababy · 15/02/2013 22:10

EvilTwins - I did not need to travel on public transport for longer distances at the age of 11. My friends lived within short distances from my own home so we traveled less when out and about.

Remotecontrolduck · 15/02/2013 22:11

Well things change don't they. Just because phones weren't around then, doesn't mean they shouldn't play a part in life now.

It's a phone, they are useful, not the devil in plastic casing. Control freakery to be taking it away for two weeks. Collection at the end of the day if it is being used or by parents for repeat offenders.

RaspberryLemonPavlova · 15/02/2013 22:21

My secondary school DC have phones (although not expensive ones). They are allowed to have them in school but switched off/on silent during lessons.

DCs school is a rural one 10 miles away from home, (and much furhter for many other DC). If they stay late for an activity no-one answers the switchboard phone after 4.00 pm so it is impossible to get a message to them if there is a problem. I actually think this is wrong and there should be a manned phone in school until all activites have finished.

At my school staff phones have to be locked away during lessons for safeguarding purposes.