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

[Slipperyslopin]

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 ) 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?

garlic -it's Friday night - half term has started -please summarize

Couple of ways phones have been useful - i teach MFL - kids record MFL conversations on phones to practise for assessments.

Sometimes kids run out of time and don't get info copied off board - use phone to take pic and copy into book later.
I know other departments have other uses too

I would tell them you are going to take it to the police.
There may not be an intention "to deprive permanently" but it's still not legal to take someone's stuff for a couple of weeks, even if you are going to give it back!
Tell them it's a work phone, it belongs to your company and they are calling in the lawyers over breach of confidentiality :)

KK

Teachers can search pupils with or without consent. They are entitled to destroy any item found, or data on a phone, if they think it's a good idea. This statute is an automatic defence against any proceedings brought against them.

The head could have smashed up OP's phone, and the law would say OP had no case

good post garlic!

but the confiscation has to be reasonable -- and it has to be the pupil's property. This is neither IMO.

Garlic, in this case the phone is NOT the pupil's property, so does this defence still hold?

garlic that doesn't make teachers above the law - that is the law that binds them! And I dispute your last sentence, as there would be no good grounds fo destruction (unless the OP's son has been doing something dodgy...).

Tell them it's a work phone, it belongs to your company and they are calling in the lawyers over breach of confidentiality

It's not a work phone, and the breach of confidentiality occurred 1) when the OP put work data on a personal phone and 2) when she allowed her son to have possession of it.

Boney EvilTwins has explained that some pupils would face exclusion rather than hand a phone over. Indeed what choice would there be? A teacher is hardly going to wrestle someone for a phone if they refused.

I honestly don't think anyone on here has objected to teachers confiscating phones that have been used / gone off during lessons. Just to the school keeping them for two weeks.

It says any item, not any item specifically belonging to the pupil.

And the teacher only has to believe there were reasonable grounds. Interfering with discipline is a reasonable ground.

FryOneFatManic

"Garlic, in this case the phone is NOT the pupil's property, so does this defence still hold?"
As the pupil has the phone the school can make the reasonable assumption that the phone belongs to him.

This just looks insane to me! Of course pupils need phones, they don't teleport into the family kitchen as soon as school's out.

Why don't schools just collect them on the way in & give them back at the end of the day?

(Mind you, even then the staff could go through them all, deleting data and destroying devices at will.)

I really hope somebody tests this in court.

Actually, I'd imagine the 2 week thing is pretty counter-productive.

If one of my students' phones beeps in a lesson (like Rowlers I find this to be rare - most of our kids know where the off switch is.) then I just hold out my hand. Kid places phone in hand, it goes on desk, they get it back from office at end of day.

There is no disruption to the lesson - I don't even need to stop talking to the rest of the class.

Occasionally someone tries to argue, at which point I remind them that failing to follow an instruction from teaching staff escalates the situation to 'red card' - removal from classroom to Isolation Unit for rest of day, parents contacted etc etc. Generally this is enough to persuade them that the path of least resistance is to just hand it over!

If they knew they wouldn't be seeing their phone for a fortnight, a lot more of them would end up refusing to comply, with the attendant disruption of someone having to 'red card' them off to Iso.

I also don't agree that a 2 week confiscation is reasonable. I need my DD to have her phone because things change on an irregular basis, as both Mum and MIL are ill and I've been caring for them. At least her school is okay about pupils having phones as long as they are switched off in lessons.

garlicbreeze we don't collect them and hand them back because there might be 1,500 kids, all with 'special reasons' for having phones. How the hell would we do that every day?

No child at my school needs a phone during school hours. They all carry them but know the consequences if they are caught with them.

We have had a number of instances of porn on phones which is the only time we would check them.

I have said that when I win the lottery, I will happily sit with a sledgehammer and smash up confiscated phones. THAT might be a deterrent.

IAmLouisWalsh I agree my DD doesn't need her phone during lessons, but I need her to be able to check her phone during breaks as things change pretty fast at present. AS I stated earlier, both MIL and mum are ill and mum in particular has been yoyoing in and out of hospital and I can't predict if I'll be at home or if I need DD to go to someone else's house.

Most kids will have momentary lapses, it's often so easy to forget to switch the phone off or at least put it on silence. At least a policy of handing a phone back at the end of the day will allow DD to check what's happening (but she's been good so far, has never had a problem).

2 week confiscations are stupid. The school needs to realise that banning phones will never work, as King Canute found out about the tide.

Fryone in those circumstances we would make sure that messages got to your daughter as a priority. I regularly get messages to pass on to kids about going 'home' to a different house etc.

Send them an invoice for your losses, and include a letter stating that you will sue them for said losses if not paid within 14 days. Your losses could include purchase price of new phone, your time spent entering new data, any wages from shifts lost as a result of no way of contacting you or similar, any additional costs incurred by your DH in France as a result of being unable to contact you, etc.. Keep receipts.

I was going to say YABU, and that you could just go into the school in the evening to get the phone, until I realised that they you had done that, and they had actually refused to return your own property to you!

"But what if the child won't hand the phone over? "

I would assume that's where the child opting for Iso comes into Boney, although Garlic has really opened my eyes to how much power the school has.

Obviously I'm not against being able to take drugs, weapons and porn off children, but I had always and perhaps naively assumed that in those instances where it was deemed essential to the child's wellbeing or the wellbeing of those around them that the police would have to be called before searches were carried out. I could demand the police if a supermarket demanded to search my person before I left.

Again, I cannot stress enough that I don't think there's reason for a child to have a phone in school. As long as the school has a manned reception and in an emergency a message could be given to the child I do not see the need and can see only negatives in having mobile phones during lesson.

I was more concerned about disproportionate punishment that went outside of the law and hid behind policy. Can now see this is the tip of the iceberg.

He had a phone in school and thats not allowed. Offer to give them your sons phone. But id still call the police.

But, FryOneFatManic, before mobile phones (I'm old, me) the sort of situations you describe still occurred. In these cases of family crises the obvious answer is to phone the school and for them to pass on a message. Similarly, if the pupil needs to contact the school in an emergency, they ask the school for permission to use a school phone.

I do think the school insisting on holding on to a parent's phone for 2 weeks is quite extreme but presumably the rules were clear. If I had been the head in this instance I would have quietly made an exception and hoped that word didn't get round. But I do understand that this exception being made could quite easily open up the floodgates of "it's my Mum's work phone, there's confidential information, she has to have it back".

I think it is really daft to lend your child a phone for school if the rule is "no phones in school".

as King Canute found out about the tide

he knew, that was his point

What are the rules on staff having private phones in the work place?

What has that got to do with children having phones?