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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
sweetestB · 15/02/2013 17:11

Why didn't she go before now if she is off work?

squeaver · 15/02/2013 17:12

5 past 5 on the Friday before half-term? You'll be lucky.

TheNebulousBoojum · 15/02/2013 17:12

Our office shuts at 4.30 too, we are still in the building, often until 6pm, but no one answers the door.
Did you phone ahead OP?

Remotecontrolduck · 15/02/2013 17:15

You have made a fuck up OP by lending him the phone, but we all have unfortunately, you're just finding out harder than most. The fact there is no flexibilty in the system would rile me.

I'm still amazed that Secondaries ban phones at all!

rotavirusrita · 15/02/2013 17:15

It depends what work stuff you mean though....my phone has contact numbers on and emails come through to it.... So not exactly confiential but very important.
but op pls just go down to school rather than posting on here.

Roseformeplease · 15/02/2013 17:18

I am really not sure about this. The school has no right to keep your phone at all, as far as I know, but I am in Scotland not England. Will someone legal help?

garlicbreeze · 15/02/2013 17:19

I say call police, insist you need the phone this weekend, hope they have to recall the head to open up & recover stolen property. That'll show the overbearing twerp!

Do it, OP. Good luck Grin

Roseformeplease · 15/02/2013 17:19

Reading the OP she has been in but was told No.

MammaBrussels · 15/02/2013 17:22

Couldn't you just ask for your SIM & memory cards back?

trashcanjunkie · 15/02/2013 17:22

yabu! your ds should have kept his phone charged. Lending yours to him was a mistake.... That said, two weeks is an awful lot to keep it for!

MardyBraWouldDoEddieRedmayne · 15/02/2013 17:29

OP made a mistake
But the school is overreacting and being unreasonable.

Why do some people have to gloat about it?

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 17:35

All the school has done is what there policy states-
confiscated a pupil's phone for the length of time that they have stated ion their policy.

If it is a work phone and not a phone that you use for work maybe you should be more worried about breaking the data protection act.

Abra1d · 15/02/2013 17:36

Agree, Mardy.

TheNebulousBoojum · 15/02/2013 17:36

Not gloating, it's the idea of confidential information not been taken seriously that bothered me. But thanks to drip feeding we now know that it isn't really a work phone and that the confidential info isn't really that serious, so it's much less of an issue.
School are being difficult, but I wonder how pleasantly the OP asked in the first place, or if she just stormed in and made the office staff get bolshie. Also whether her DS has form for messing around on his phone in school.
o, it shouldn't make a difference, but it often does.

StuntGirl · 15/02/2013 17:39

Work emails accessible on a phone would still be counted as against the data protection policy in most workplaces rules. Your own fault I'm afraid.

Viviennemary · 15/02/2013 17:42

It's theft. They are retaining the phone unlawfully. It is your phone. I'd inform the head, the police and the LA. Or at least threaten to. Or contact your local paper. They won't like that!

Yfronts · 15/02/2013 17:45

IT's theft. They are keeping your phone and not your sons. Ring the police and the LEA.

TheNebulousBoojum · 15/02/2013 17:45

The rules were put in place for numerous reasons, from lesson disruption to cyber bullying. Most secondaries have similar rules about the consequences of misusing phones on school premises, and it was in the boy's possession.
I'd be surprised if the local papers and the police felt it was noteworthy, but of course the OP is at liberty to try.

sweetestB · 15/02/2013 17:48

School is applying its policy
Why should OP get special treatment jus because it is her phone?
She was the one encouraging rule breaking in the first place
Ah maybe her boy is more o precious than everybody else's

Goldmandra · 15/02/2013 17:49

The fact that it is a school policy does not make it lawful or proportionate.

sweetestB · 15/02/2013 17:50

But was the rule OP agreed by enrolling her child at that school

rotavirusrita · 15/02/2013 17:53

The world ( or is it just mumsnet) is full of jobsworths. The school and the OP are all adults. Why couldnt the school after the OP has explained what happened sort it out amicably... Maybe with a different punishment for the child and giving the phone back to the grown up?

usualsuspect · 15/02/2013 17:53

Oh fgs sweetest,give the OP a break.

TheNebulousBoojum · 15/02/2013 17:53
Grin Well, let's see what the outcome is, then you can petition the High Court to have all schools change policy.
Goldmandra · 15/02/2013 17:54

Enrolling your child in a school does not give the staff carte blanche to steal items from them.

The actions of the school must be reasonable. This is not.

My DD's school has a similar policy and I crossed that line out on the behaviour contract. I crossed out nothing else as all their other policies are lawful and proportionate.