karyatide actually, you prove my points.
You said it was a GCSE thing so I presumed it was a test of some sort. I am not in the UK so I apologise if I misread that.
"the emergency plumber had to keep calling"
Which indicates you had your phone on during class, or else how would you know he 'kept calling'?
"Why the hell would a 16-year-old be living alone if they had parents or siblings?"
One would presume they'd be in foster care then? And hence not on their own? You're still a child at 16. Regardless, are you completely friendless?
"It's not realistic to expect single mothers or carers for profoundly disabled people to have to run to an office that may be in a different building every time an emergency comes up"
Actually, yes, it is. That is what the office is there for.
"easier just to keep a switched-off phone in their bag and simply quickly check it during breaks. "
I agree. But, by your own post, you said you were getting repeated calls. In class. And had to step out. So clearly you had it on in class.
I am very sorry about what happened to you but I really resent your rather patronising attitude that we are all middle class. I grew up poor (my father drank all his pays away) and had to move twice because we lost the house because of his drinking. The area I grew up in was referred to as the slums. The schools were all under-performing academically and it was a real rough, violent area. The school, suffice it to say, was poorly resourced. Yet we didn't know what we went without of, because we didn't know. And educational policies were standard protocol regardless if the school was poor, middle or rich. The protocol did not differ because it all came under the umbrella of the State Government Department of Education. Just because a school has policies, rules and procedures, DOES NOT make it 'middle class'.