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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:
CaptainVonTrapp · 15/02/2013 18:38

I love an aibu with a swift and just outcome!

Feenie · 15/02/2013 18:39

So, if I took your purse, then explained I was going to give you it back in two weeks you wouldn't call the police on me? After all, it's not theft as I have intention of returning the item.

Yes. But then I would probably call the police if you tried to enforce my wearing of a school uniform aswell. Hmm

IT'S NOT QUITE THE SAME, IS IT!

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 18:41

selfconfessed
niether are ours but they are first in the firing line for the parents that turn up.

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 15/02/2013 18:41

Oh, sorry, missed the fact that you have it back!!

CaptainVonTrapp · 15/02/2013 18:41

Absolutely Cortana! Anything beyond the end of the school day seems dispoportionate to me.

Just how long would they have to 'confiscate' it for people to consider it theft?! A year? two?

Enfyshedd · 15/02/2013 18:42

Feenie - So by your logic, police, firefighters, etc shouldn't have to wear a uniform either Hmm

CaptainVonTrapp · 15/02/2013 18:43

You're right Feenie,forcing you to wear a uniform really isn't the same. Might want to work on a better analogy...

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 15/02/2013 18:44

Seriously, some of you should try dealing with phones that go off in lessons to understand why schools are driven to bring in sanctions that have any sort of chance to try to stop the disruption it causes.

And some of you should meet the parents who would literally pretend the phone was their just to get it back for their precious children.

Feenie · 15/02/2013 18:46

I'm not a policewoman or a firefighter - so having trouble with your logic there.

Children have rules enforced, and items confiscated if they break said rules. I was questioning a poster who likened a consequence of breaking a rule in school with the consequence of breaking the law as an adult.

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 18:50

capt

that would be the first time that the parent tries to reclaim it after the stipulated timeframe and is refused.

IAmLouisWalsh · 15/02/2013 18:51

If the sanction is made clear in school rules, then why object? We state any phones in school will be confiscated and must be collected by a parent. Strangely enough, it is the same ten or twenty parents who come to school every week, collect the phone and give it straight back. The ones who ring me and ask if we can keep it for a week, or who collect it and then don't give it to the child for the weekend tend not to have children who repeat offend.

We ban them because kids take photos and post them on FB in lessons, update statuses, send threatening texts, contact parents with trivial issues and generally piss about when they should be learning. And most importantly, because having a phone during exams or controlled assessments can lead to instant failure for contravening rules set by the exam board - and ultimately could lose us our right to hold public examinations.

Any child who needs to contact home can use the school phone at break or dinner - and, in extreme cases, during lesson time. 95% of the kids have them in their bags, switched off, out of sight and get caught once in a blue moon. 5% see it as 'their right'. It's a phone, not a fucking oxygen mask!

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 18:53

CaptainVonTrapp

"I love an aibu with a swift and just outcome!"

Actually by the tone of some posters the school have now stolen the OP's son's phone.

KobayashiMaru · 15/02/2013 18:54

Threads about UK schools never cease to amaze me. How utterly ridiculous. Is the head on some kind of bizarre power trip?

Cortana · 15/02/2013 18:56

"Children have rules enforced, and items confiscated if they break said rules. I was questioning a poster who likened a consequence of breaking a rule in school with the consequence of breaking the law as an adult."

NO IT'S NOT THE SAME! I LIKE CAPPS TOO!

If the rule enforced by the school breaks the law the school's policy does not trump the law, it's the other way round. Asking someone to wear a uniform does not break the law, whether that's a workplace rule or one by the school. Both a workplace and a school can send you home if you do not adhere to their uniform policy. So no, it's not the same.

Feenie · 15/02/2013 18:56

Whatever Hmm

Alligatorpie · 15/02/2013 18:58

I am surprised they let you change it. Just spoke to dh, who confiscates his students phones regularly. He said he doesn't care who owns the phone, everyone knows the policy ( confiscate for 24 hours) and pleading from a parent doesn't work.

I agree 2 weeks is excessive, but you did know the policy.

Cortana · 15/02/2013 18:59

Best response EVER!

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 15/02/2013 19:01

Peace and love Thanks

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 15/02/2013 19:01

Sorry...cortana Blush

Didn't mean to liken you to a crappy car

CaptainVonTrapp · 15/02/2013 19:02

Not just the schools though kobaya parents amaze me too. that people actually accept that if the school has a policy onsomething, no matter how ridiculous, it should be followed without question! Esp funny is the suggestion that if u dont like school policies u should choose a diff school! Ha ha! As if!

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 15/02/2013 19:05

Yes, you are right.

We should just have a free for all where students and parents (and teachers) choose which rules they agree with and will follow...

Sounds like an excellent way to run a school

Cortana · 15/02/2013 19:05

Peace and Love Ship, no offense taken. I'm more Prius than Cortina fwiw.

I am chilled Smile, my capps was a tongue in cheek response to a previous poster's use of them.

Agreed Captain.

FarBetterNow · 15/02/2013 19:07

I think it must have been a long, hard week for some people.

BoneyBackJefferson · 15/02/2013 19:10

So Captain kobaya et al

How would you deal with mobile phones in schools?

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