To be unhappy my child's phone was confiscated?

[Phoneproblems]

I have no issues with the phone itself being confiscated but apparently it is only to be returned on Friday - surely this cannot be right?

Hallelujah, I would love to send my children to schools that have a complete ban on phones.

While parents operate like @Chattymummyhere no wonder there are increasing numbers of pupils who think they're above any rules or policies.

It's a safe guarding issue. What if someone is in the background and it goes on line and it's seen by the wrong person? They can then see the logo on the top and find the child.
Also, it's a rule. Having no phone for a week will make her not want to break the rule again.

Use to be the same rule when I was in secondary school. Back then I was pissed it happen. But now I except it as a rule. Think I'll be more annoyed at my child for having it out than it being confiscated.

Yes, March into the school and demand your property back, that’ll really make you look like a supportive parent!!

I work in a school and frankly we just can’t do right for doing wrong. Blamed for not being tough enough or for being too tough. You just can’t win. Parents need to back the schools up and stop flipping arguing about little Johnny needing his phone back because he has a long journey home.

Seriously, ask yourself how we all managed before phones?

Chattymummyhere you are a disgrace to parenting!!!

You can demand it back but tgey can also ban the phone from the premises because your child can't abide by the rules.

I don't agree with the school, however I wouldn't undermine their authority. Your daughter knew the rules and broke them. Support the punishment.

I have had this with mine. I am afraid I am fully unsympathetic, and tell them that they get what they deserve. They can survive perfectly well without phones.

YANBU

I'd be going in first thing tomorrow and offering them two options- 1.give me it or 2. I'd be calling the police to report a theft, identifying the member of staff as the culprit and generally kicking up a right fuss demanding to speak to senior management etc.

I fully agree with schools confiscating phones and I'd be confiscating my DC's for much longer if they were caught misusing it at school. But it is simply not the school's property, so they can't just decide to hold on to in for x number of days. That is the parent's decision to make as the owner of the phone.

I think that’s harsh, especially as it was being used at lunchtime. I’m a teacher and would only confiscate if being used in class and our policy is to return the same day.

I'd be calling the police to report a theft

You mean wasting police time with utter nonsense. It isn’t the parents phone no matter how you try to spin it. Ridiculous.

@SoupDragon

It is the parent's phone if they bought it or pay for the contract. It was also taken without her consent and if they refuse to give it back, that is a theft and should be reported as such.

It's the equivalent of me walking in to my neighbour's house and taking their stereo because it's making too much noise, then refusing to give it back.

at some of these responses. Who'd be a school teacher?

Okay. So my 17 yo's six-year-old Nokia brick is mine because I paid £7.99 for it. I also top up his PAYG account about once every six months because he CBA to use his phone. The others have much fancier phones which they bought themselves with Christmas/birthday/job money. So they belong to them, though I pay their £7 per month contracts (they are obsessed with their phones). I couldn't care less either way. If the school wants to confiscate them because the DC are being a pain with them, they are more than welcome to. I couldn't give a toss who bought them. In fact, I am more than happy for teachers to hit them where it hurts, if it gets results. They don't need phones!

Jazzy in such a scenario, you might want to look into the definition of theft before giving the police a good laugh; I think you'll find it involves an intention to permanently deprive an owner of something - which a time limited confiscation clearly isn't

It is the parent's phone if they bought it or pay for the contract

It isn’t. It was given to the child. It is the child’s phone. I paid for everything my child has, thatdoesnt nake any of it mine.

It’s not taking without consent if the parent has signed up to a school where the behaviour policy clearly states that confiscation of phones is used as a sanction.

If the parent is aware of that, then they’ve got no complaint.

It's the equivalent of me walking in to my neighbour's house and taking their stereo because it's making too much noise, then refusing to give it back.

Only on Planet Jazzy is this at all similar.

It’s a safeguarding thing. Imagine one of the children is living in a safe house following DV and then those photos get into the wider community via social media etc and then the perpetrator can see the school uniform... Smartphones with cameras cannot be allowed in school under any circumstances and all staff have to abide by this too. On school trips they take the school mobile which is always basic for calls and no camera. So the photos may have been innocent, but you cannot have images of children at school circulating round on the internet.

I'd be going in first thing tomorrow and offering them two options- 1.give me it or 2. I'd be calling the police to report a theft, identifying the member of staff as the culprit and generally kicking up a right fuss demanding to speak to senior management etc.
And then if that was most schools I'd worked in you'd not get as far as kicking up a fuss and reporting to senior management rtc. You'd probably be told to make an appointment to meet with the relevant person and if you still insisted on being confrontational, we'd get the most senior member of staff available who would tell you in no uncertain terms that kicking off, demanding meetings on the spot will not happen. You'd then get a meeting in which you would be told the same thing as your child which is 'here are the rules. Follow them or find another school place'.

Your child is too young and irresponsible to own a phone it seems

@MaisyPops

Schools cannot withhold pupils property under threat of exclusion. That is quite simply illegal- that's all there is to it. The first part is theft and the second part would be an unlawful exclusion, as there is a proper process which must be followed.

Schools cannot withhold pupils property under threat of exclusion.
Nothing there is illegal at all.
The school wouldn't be threateneing to exclude.
The school would be saying 'we are following our behaviour policy and if you don't like it as a parent you are free to find another school'.

As a parent, you are free to decide that you no longer subscribe to the provisoon offered by a school. You are not ok to decide you don't feel like rules and sanctions apply to all 1000 children except yours.

And so the behaviour policy would be applied. Perfectly fair. Perfectly reasonable.

For the record to non-teachers on the thread, if you ever stumble across teachers on here discussing the vocal minority, this is the sort of nonsense we mean.

Same at my DCs school however parents have to collect from the head on Friday. It's the rules