To be annoyed by total phone ban

[TeleGardenGnome]

My child's school which is a busy city location has a total phone ban. So you aren't allowed to take any type of phone to school at all even if it stays hidden in a bag and is on silent and never used. They do bag searches and use metal detectors to find students breaking the rules.

If your child's phone is found they get a detention and you can only get it back by visiting the school in person.

So yesterday my child's phone was found in a bag search and removed. There were awful transport issues and it took them several hours to get home. In the meanwhile we had no way to contact each other.

I can't get the phone back due to work and my husband being away for work. It just stresses me out that he won't be able to get in touch if there's a problem. Expressing my feelings here as there is no point complaining to the school. They don't listen to parental feedback.

Grammarnut you are not comparing like with like. I managed to get home on 2 or three buses from my rural secondary school without a mobile phone. But I was able to use phone boxes to call my mum at work if I knew I wouldn't be back when she was home. A few times when I didn't do that she would have to come looking for me in the car. Once when my sister got confused about what she was supposed to be doing she got a lift home to someone else's house and my parents thought she had been kidnapped when she wasn't at the pre-arranged place at the right time. All hell broke loose and the police were called and everything.

There is much more traffic around in London now than there was even 20 years ago (when again there would be phone boxes) meaning that transport is less reliably on time than it would have been then. Additionally whether you like it or not, the culture is that children are given less independence and less trust by people in general now than they were then (almost impossible to get a job before 16 now, for example) so it is much harder to be a teenager in the wild without being viewed with suspicion or worry and people don't help you so readily. treating them as if the world hasn't changed is not helping them, it's actually making them more helpless and leading to situations where they can more easily get into trouble.

Good for you but lots of people don’t have a choice!

I live in north London now. I am with the school on this one, though I probably disagree with some of the other rigidity the OP mentions. Assuming it has been clear from the start and not suddenly introduced mid-year.

At the school I worked at, phones were collected in the mornings and taken to the office, then retrieved at the end of the day. If any child didn't put their phone in, there would be a consequence. Makes more sense that way.

Because schools are hopeless at enforcing boundaries and discipline so outright bans becomes the only way to enforce anything. If the phones are not there then it doesn't need to be enforced.

Is there a newsagent near the school? Back in the day a lot of criminal courts didn't allow you to bring phones in so all the lawyers/reporters would leave their phones with the nearest newsagent for a small fee

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/21/the-anxious-generation-by-jonathan-haidt-a-pocket-full-of-poison
This book is interesting, advocates a total bsn in schools

At dc's school phones are put in a lockable pouch on arrival and unlocked as they leave. If phone is seen out during the day it's confiscated and parents have to collect. I think this is fine.

We're quite rural and there are often problems with buses - I would not be happy with a total ban for this reason, and can understand why you're not @TeleGardenGnome.

Do they let dc who have bluetooth blood sugar monitors and such have their phones?

When I was little my brother was badly beaten after school by his bullies. My parents only got to his rescue because his friend ran to the nearest phone box and knew our home number off by heart to call my mum. If that sort of situation happened now, there would be no phone boxes and no one would know any phone numbers off by heart. The world has adapted to everyone having mobile phones, the school is being very unsafe by acting like it’ll be fine because we all did it in the old days. I would raise a complaint on safety grounds and keep taking it further if they ignore you.

I wonder if the policy is related to phone theft?

Young secondary age school children are being targeted in my Borough at present and this idea is being floated in a few schools (total ban on phones until Year 10 is the suggestion I've seen for at least two schools, it's not been implemented though!!)

I think schools are often not allowed to enforce boundaries Witness some comments here calling schools 'prisons' for not allowing mobile phones etc.

Because during the last 20 years things have hugely changed for everyone -secondary school children included. The tools once used 20 years ago are not there now! Because everyone has a smart phone, the country is geared up for that now.
Honestly if your children became adults 20 years ago it may be hard to understand. If you yourself are still leading your life without a smartphone then you will be very very behind and out of touch with many parts of society.

The child broke the rules - which they knew about. Therefore the punishment is entirely reasonable.
And kids don't need phones, they just want them - which is a different thing.

You don't need a smartphone to use public transport

And would no doubt add on half an hour either side of the school day for this to happen.

A ban on mobile phones, any mobile phone, is over reaching.

YANBU.
Change the school. With mad rules like this it cannot be a good one.

As a taxpayer I fully support phone bans, if it means that teachers can spend time teaching, rather than managing bullying, sexting, angry self-entitled parents, etc. If contact is important, provide a payphone in the school.

But, and sorry to sound like a broken record, but what are the 'good' parents doing to change things, apart from complaining to the school? I get it that the minority spoil it for the majority, but teachers are damned if they do or don't.

By this I mean that if parents are willing and able to complain to teachers, then surely they can also put some effort into 'influencing' those parents who don't or won't or can't be bothered to discipline their kids.

Yes, I suppose I am meaning to say, "the good parents who care about this stuff should shame and make life difficult for those parents who don't". If that's bullying as well, so be it, but I am getting fed up of this.

Edit - and by this I mean that I'm not against mobile phones in schools per se, but parents should take some responsibility for the behaviour of their kids, like locking down their phones, monitoring what they do, etc.

Metal detectors are most likely for knives or any other weapons. Can't see why any parents would have an issue with that.

Like the parents who condone hiding phones in bras?

I went to school in the 80s and 90s. Teachers have always spent time managing poor behaviour and self entitled parents. These didn’t occur with mobile phones.

Parents should absolutely be managing their kids behaviour. As most do.

But what is you want those of us to about those that don’t? I have no clue who those kids are or their parents. I know ds’s close friends parents. They don’t get in trouble.

Theres 200 kids in ds year. I don’t drop him off or pick up. How would inventory the child the question, then the parents, then track them down to ‘shame them’?

and if would have done that at primary school pick up or drop off, the school would have told me I shouldn’t be doing that and if there’s a problem it should go through them.

It must be a small school. DD's school had 1500 pupils when she was there. Pupils had just 10 minutes from leaving the classroom to getting on the school bus (rural school, no other viable transport). It just wouldn't have been practical.

Depends on the school, but took 5 minutes for us. Smaller school.

Fair points and thanks for your measured reply.

I think if you are confident in managing your child's behaviour and phone use, including online, and you know who his friends are, also including those online, then of course that's great.

The point I'm making is that - as a collective - parents do have power, even if they feel they don't. They have the power to block disruptive kids from their kid's phones and apps, the power to make sure everyone is 'on side' in managing bad behaviour, the power to influence at least some of the 'bad' parents. I'm not saying that's the perfect solution and, yes, there was still bullying etc. back in the 80s, but nowadays it's far, far worse, often invisible, and I think parents as a collective group need to start standing up to this.

P.S. I'm not apologizing for suggesting we shame them, though, it's a powerful emotion and used wisely can make people change their behaviour!

Thanks for your reply.

But it’s 100x easier if part of your journey doesn’t go to plan. Especially for a child. And actually some children do need a smartphone as the fayre is cheaper when bought via the app