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?

Herehere maisypops

Theres always one (or few) parents that thinks theyre above the policies and rules of the school.

When you attend a school you usually sign a 'contract' to say that you and your child will adhere to the school rules. We have just signed the contract which has pages and pages and pages of bumpf to read through. One of those 'rules' states that if a child is caught using their phone at ANY TIME (including lunch and breaks) it will be confiscated and handed back on Friday after school. If the child is then caught using it again then it will be confiscated and the PARENT must collect it after school the following Friday! I totally agree tbh. What possible reason is there for a child to NEED to use their phone during school hours?

Ds1's high school was OK about having phones as long as they were turned off and not used in school time. One day he forgot to turn his phone off and got a text. It was from me, telling him not to come home but to go to his DGM's house after school as his baby brother had been taken seriously ill and DH & me were at the hospital. School confiscated his phone and refused to return it at the end of the day, saying a parent would have to collect it.
The school bus service at the time was run by a bunch of cowboys with ramshackle buses. They often broke down. Fine if your kid can tell you that he's stuck in the back of beyond until a replacement arrives. Not great when you're stuck in hospital with a sick baby, and your mother is on the phone as DS hasn't turned up and it's getting dark, and no one can contact him. He couldn't remember any of our numbers to ring from a friends phone. We only got the message when his older sister saw a status on facebook from another kid on the bus.
Kids might not NEED their phones at school, but it doesn't mean they should have them confiscated for days on end.
Since this happened the school has changed both it's phone policy and bus service.

I'm not a difficult parent and I am very strict with my DC regarding the importance of school and following rules. If they were caught using their phone at school, they'd be losing it for a lot longer than 5 days.

However, that is my decision as a parent to make as it is my phone. It is not up to some jumped up teacher to decide when the phone will be returned. It is my phone and I will decide when it will be returned. As I say, I wouldn't hesitate to contact the police(DB is a senior police officer and says the police would have to enforce its return as the school is holding it without the owner's consent, which they do not have the right to do as they have no more powers than Joe Bloggs in the street to hold people's property).

JazzyBlues but if you signed a contract when your child joined the school where the phone policy was x y z, youd have no leg to stand on. Police dont have a say in the matter even if you have family that says other wise.

@Amatullah

A contract term stating that a random organisation ie the school could withhold people's property would be illegal and therefore unenforceable anyway, so the police would have to intervene.

We're not at that stage yet but I think it's unfair to compare to us getting home fine without phones when we were young. When we were young it was drilled into us to always carry change then later a phonecard to use a payphone, and there were payphones at school and in town and at railway stations. You would call home if you missed a connection or the bus was cancelled or your lift just didn't turn up and you didn't know what was up. Students with longer journeys would no more go without their phonecard then than they would without a mobile phone now.

I'm not sure I like that some schools' approach to discipline seems to be massively annoy parents (and particularly a random selection of parents who it happens to affect more) in the hope that they pass the favour on to the child concerned. We're doing our best here. Make my kid's life hard by all means. Talk to me and I'll back up your sanction in a way that works for me.

I would give my dc a cheap old phone and tell them to keep it hidden until teacher gives it back. Phones are a safety element. Mine used them outside of school to tell us when to pick them up after school or during activities. Fighting school is seldom a winning situation. My dc said teachers have drawers of phones.

Anarchists sometimes bring an old phone and put it in the box in beginning of class while keeping working phone in pack.

We're not at that stage yet but I think it's unfair to compare to us getting home fine without phones when we were young. When we were young it was drilled into us to always carry change then later a phonecard to use a payphone, and there were payphones at school and in town and at railway stations. You would call home if you missed a connection or the bus was cancelled or your lift just didn't turn up and you didn't know what was up. Students with longer journeys would no more go without their phonecard then than they would without a mobile phone now.

I went to Secondary school in the 1990s and never had a phone card-don’t remember so many others having it too and I travelled from Muswell Hill to Oxford Street in London on the bus and Tube every day. I coped just fine (and there are still phone boxes around and reverse charge call still exists to use it, as well as landline phones to use in school)

However, that is my decision as a parent to make Not according to the law, Jazzy. And it is not your phone if you give it to your DC to use permanently. Just like you pay for all of your DC’s things, it is still their “shirt”, “pencil case”, “bag” etc. So, it’s “jumped up” parents like you that cause the problems with young people thinking they can do what they like because Mum or Dad will step in, when you should be realising that a sanction from a school can be very effective in teaching DCs about consequences and also keep them and others safe.

I can't believe this is still going. I got the phone back yesterday.

I am happy to support the school but I am not happy for them to withhold my property.

That doesn't sound much like supporting thr school and is probably going to cause you further issues with your child further down the line. I imagine they are more likely to get their phone out again, and I can imagine their response will be "well my mum says you can't take my phone". Been there a thousand times.

Schools are a law into themselves. Your kid can get beaten up but you won't see the police charging the other kid with assault.
Op realise this wasn't you, but this is a ridiculous comment. This is down to the police not schools. We'd love it if the police took action on incidents like this but they take ages to pick it up and there is rarely ever any action taken.

Dont be an idiot. You should have a problem with your child misbehaving not the school.
“My property “ 🙄

I can imagine their response will be "well my mum says you can't take my phone".
Been there a thousand times.
Same.
Along with:
My mum says you can't keep me in at break / my mum has told me you can't give a lunch detention
you stopped my child having lunch and have broken their human rights (lunch detention for final 15 mins)
I'm not consenting to an after school detention. You can't make them attend. My mum says I don't have to go to a detention (we don't require consent to issue detentions and will generally work with parents but not when they decide the behaviour policy doesn't apply)
What do you mean I'm in isolation!! I'm telling my mum and she'll complain. Oh my GOD-DUH! This place is a joke. I'm in isolation for just asking a question (child is in isolation for being disruptive and then failing to attend detentions)
Why is my child in isolation.... they were ONLY... you can't keep them in isolation. I'l going to report you. Nowhere in the policy does it say you can do that (umm yes it does because you've refused all other sanctions to this point. Next step is exclusion for persistent defiance)
eeeh you can't threaten my child with exclusion. They haven't even done anything

Oh FFS. You should be cross with your child for breaking the rules. Not the school.
If it's your property I hope your child isn't taking it to school today.

Oh Maisy I taught that student.

Mrs angle - so one bad day for you means the school should change their policy? I would have contacted one of the other parents in that situation. It's not necessary to always have phones

wolfie
Haven't we all. Thankfully they are the minority
Amusingly most students also think their actions and attitide are ridiculous too. I love the 'wtf' looks on other faces when mouthy one starts with oh my god-duh. I haven't even done anything! I only asked a questioooonnnn!

So phone did you give 'your' phone back to DC? Were there any consequences for DC breaking the rules?

Kitty, no payphones round here any more. Maybe London is different.

Said at the start of a GCSE exam.

^You can't take the phone off me my mum said, and if you do l'll kick off and ruin their exams, that's what my mum told me to do.
^
OP it starts with photos of hair and ends up with your child being removed by security from a GCSE.

cat I am sure that a secondary age DC would be able to find a kind adult to make a call on their behalf in an emergency. Not difficult:
Excuse me, would it be possible to call/text my Mum, my phone was confiscated, but the train has been delayed for 45 minutes now and I will have missed my connection and she'll start to worry might need to ask a few people but someone would take pity.

Or if it's a simple safety measure, older phone, pay as you go sim, switched off in their bag unless they need to use it.

Must admit, the phones I've confiscated (doesn't happen that much in our school as students know the rules) are rarely the slightly older model smartphones where students leave them alone during the day. It's always the highly expensive latest (or close to latest) model smartphones.
Then when they are removed, most parents back the school but the ones who kit their 13 year old with the latest phone within the first week of release are unusally the ones protesting at the school for how unreasonable we are. I mean don't you realise you're sitting on a £300 phone there!!! as if somehow we're going to fall down and worship them for giving their child a stupidly expensive device that will have a cracked screen in 6 weeks.

I am happy to support the school but I am not happy for them to withhold my property.

You have not supported the school. You have tried to undermine their policy by trotting in there and demanding the phone back. You clearly don't need it yourself or you wouldn't have given it to your DD. Well done OP, you've shown your daughter that she can break school policy and mummy will sort it out ...

no more powers than Joe Bloggs in the street to hold people's property

That’s not true, loads of people on this thread have linked to the law saying that schools can confiscate stuff.

The school is trying to give a consequence that will deter kids from using their phones in school. The end of the day isn't long enough to make them think twice.

They aren't trying to annoy parents, they're trying to help students manage their mobile phone use and all the associated problems with bullying,etc. Phones and their misuse take up so much of teachers' time that should be spent on teaching.