To expect phones not to be accessed in changing rooms?

[HeadacheHattie1]

I have a concern regarding this and without being too outing - what are your thoughts?
If you have secondary school aged children, can they easily access them and even use them whilst in the changing rooms?
All 3 local schools near me have completely different policies ranging from one making students deliver phones to the office in the morning and collect st the end of the day
Another has a member of staff in the changing rooms whilst the kids get changed
One has no rules aside from trusting the children not to use them in school but this isn’t manned in anyway

thoughts please

I think schools should move to having children attend school in PE kit on PE days.

Doesn't really work with stinky secondary kids...

They have to keep their phones in their bags at our school so theoretically they could access them but if they are caught with them out they get confiscated which seems to work as a deterrent.

Surely if allowed phones in changing rooms this could become a safeguarding risk though?

I am in favour of the third approach. It is refreshing that the school is prepared to take a stance where they trust the children. So few schools (and people) do nowadays.
It is also up to the parents to explain the etiquette behind phone use, whether it is in changing room or elsewhere in public spaces.

I agree re them attending in PE kits but because the kids have PE at all different times of the day it wouldn’t work

But what happens when this trust is broken and a child does use a phone in an inappropriate way in the changing rooms?

Then this individual child needs to have education about phone use. The whole school should not be turned into a prison for young offenders en masse.
Has there been an incident to date? If no, that's really all you need to know.

Whatever the rule, there will be a minority that break it... handing phones in, none allowed at all, only in bags switched off etc.

So they need to learn respect and everyone to call out those who break respect rules.

Well assuming they are caught & what you’re inferring to is a child taking a photo of another half dressed child without their consent I imagine they would be suitably punished by both school and their parents and potentially the police as this is a crime

In my opinion, you worrying about phones is a symptom of the changing rooms being unsuitable to start with.

In this day and age, there really should be proper individual rooms/cubicles , with floor-to-ceiling lockable doors (which weren't unlockable with a 10p piece, but needed a key to unlock from the outside) and strict enforcement of everyone being in a room (one child to a room) with the door locked.

If that was the case, then children having phones would be a non-issue.

If there's a specific incident you need to contact school about it

Are you talking about a specific incident or is this a general worry for you?

My dc school has individual changing cubicles, it is quite a modern school.

Ours they can go IN in PE kit if PE is first thing in the day, or leave in PE kit if it's last thing in the day - which is kind of an OK half-way house around the stinky teen issue.

Usually a teacher around in the changing rooms while they are getting changed, mine has said it’s such a rush to get changed and out to the next lesson there really isn’t time to muck about with phones etc.
Our secondary school is very strict and a child taking images of others while changing would be dealt with appropriately.

Handing phones over every morning and then having them collected again after school with over 1000 children in the school does not seem possible at all.

This extends to all changing room IMO. Obviously you can’t stop people making and receiving calls in a non school setting ( definitely agree they should be banned and closely supervised).

I recently was getting changed after swimming in an open plan changing room and a woman was making a video call. Absolutely unacceptable. There need to be signs up reminding people if they are stupid enough to not realise this. And consequences for anyone breaking these very sensible rules.

I actually don't think there can be rules for every scenario. If a child was to do something like take images of another child getting changed then I would imagine that would be dealt with very seriously, with police involvement even.

Schools are already like prisons so it's refreshing to actually trust the kids with something!

School 1 - How on earth does a secondary school facilitate every single child handing in a phone in the morning, and worse, collecting it in the evening? It must take hours, be a huge risk in terms of students claiming their expensive item has gone missing, and result in much confusion when the wrong phone is taken by the wrong child? How does this work in any way?

School 2 - an adult positioning themselves in the changing room for the duration of young people getting changed is a massive safeguarding risk and I would be very very concerned if a school was prepared to put both teacher and children in that position.

School 3 - My DC school does not allow phones removed from bags on site or during the school day. Anyone seen with a phone out of their bag has to hand it in and a parent has to collect it from the office. This rule is adhered to and in the several years I've had DC there it has not been an issue. Some students set up a video to capture them jumping out on a friend in the toilets (everyone fully clothed) and were suspended as a result.

Why are you more worried about phones in high school changing rooms than in public places? I'm far more worried about weirdos in our local leisure centre tbh.

Adult gyms take a dim view of phones being used in changing rooms. There are signs in my gym changing room forbidding it.

School 3 - My DC school does not allow phones removed from bags on site or during the school day. Anyone seen with a phone out of their bag has to hand it in and a parent has to collect it from the office.

This is what our school does. Our son has been told that if we get a call from the school to say they have his phone, they will be told they can hang onto it until the end of term.

Same here. Phones are allowed to be in bags but if seen inside the school grounds they’re confiscated. Mine certainly have them turned off all day.

DD was repeatedly filmed by other girls and the footage sent to boys who demanded it in WA groups. It only stopped when I involved the Police. I have been filmed in the local leisure (mixed sex cubicle 'village' - a man stuck his phone under the cubicle) centre again the staff did nothing other than treat me like a liar and I had to involve the police. If I had been alone I think the Police would have ignored it but I had a 2 yo with me.
There is a serious lack of understanding about how these issues effect some girls and women.

Wearing polo shirt and shorts all day in winter is not really practical. Let alone if they get wet or muddy. (yes more items of PE kit exist, but not everyone can afford them/want to buy them for PE once a week).

All schools have phone policies. I would imagine that most schools have policies which exclude the using of your phone when you are meant to be changing for PE. But it's hard to entirely prevent.