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.

Welcome to 2024 when adults expect teens to have phone and no one cares. Like I said bus drivers don’t and won’t care most of the time. Kids don’t want to talk to strangers quite rightly. I’m not sure if you’ve got teens / pre teens travelling but I wouldn’t want mine asking a stranger for their phone in a vulnerable position. As for asking a police officer or paramedic, yes I regularly see those just strolling down the street in case of an emergency, not.
In the good old days you used a phone box. They were everywhere and you reversed the charges. They don’t exist now.

Smart watch. My 10 year old has one. No phone/social media etc but we can still call/text each other and I can see her location.

don’t understand why more people don’t use these.

I think something like the yondr pouches is a good idea. And I know schools don't have a lot of money but surely this would be something the school could charge for.

I'd be calling the school every time my kid was even ten minutes later than expected to see where he was and kicking up a big stink about it. I'd be encouraging like-minded parents to do the same. I get that it's tricky because phones do cause problems in class and at school generally but searching people's bags for phones is bloody ridiculous. Knives, yes. Phones, no. They could use the time they spend doing that for developing a sensible phone policy instead.

Schools don’t allow smart watches either though! I would imagine even in a bag, they would have the same consequences to mobile phones if found for the OP

Those help for basic contact, but if you have kids using smart phones for bus passes, diabetes management, reminders for drugs it just doesn't work.

They are tools to be used wisely.

No its bitchy and dismissive to say ‘well I managed 15 plus years ago’ could actually be a lot more and not see the other issues.

One of my kids is an adult. One is a kid teen and both very independent thanks.

side note it’s also bitchy and dismissive to assume someone’s parent is inadequate and not going to produce a fully functioning adult. Or assume they can’t possibly have kids that are already fully functioning adults. Because they disagreed with you.

The benefits of students not having use of 'phones in school have been huge. School representatives have said a lot of students don't seem to be too bothered by a ban, it's the parents who have the problems.

I don't know what world you live in but a mobile that can reach me is a hell of a lot more reliable than the kindness of strangers. We have a bus driver up thread who dropped a kid in the wrong village on purpose and no consequences. Im disabled, bus drivers dont even wait for you to sit down before taking off, no care if you'll fall. They don't have time to let passengers sit down but do have time to call the parents of lost tweens and teens?
Police officers for sure, my kids know theyre safe to ask, but it's not like there's one of them on every corner. Random adult in street or bus stop, train platform is highly unlikely to hand their phone over to a kid. Some might call if they have time. One of my Autistic DC has situational mutism, even assuming a stranger would actually help, she couldn't ask.

Smart watches are banned at our school and have to go into the yondr pouches along with the phones at the start of the day.

DS's secondary have basket on the teacher's desk. They put their phones in at the start of lessons and collect at break/change of room. If they don't put it in and get caught with a phone in lessons it's straight to the headmistress. PE teacher also has a basket for valuables in the gym.
DS has forgotten his phone a couple do times when he's been in a rush for the bus and the teacher on question has always sent me a message to say when he can collect it.

Can you put an AirTag in their bag, that way you'll know where they are once school finishes?

Could slide totally back into pre-internet days. I'd support the school with no mobiles if they could guarantee:

1. pay phones
2. timetables for public transport on paper
3. books (in paper)
4. home work on paper
5. no teams, ppts etc that kids have to access
6. homework not set on apps- eg Duolingo, Sparx etc teachers not to use on line resources or have access to these either
7. all Comms from school via paper- no email or texts
8. no 'refer to website for...' anything from the school
9. no parent pay etc- school to 'find a way' to manage this.

Special exceptions can be made for special cases. The vast majority of kids have no special medical reasons for needing a smartphone, and we don't need to put a smartphone into every kid's hands because the very occasional one uses it to manage Type 1 diabetes etc.

At the societal level, this is a reason why society should not continue down this path of incorporating every single bloody function into smartphones with zero alternatives; it should be possible to have a separate Oyster-style card for buses, for example. In the meantime, the pouches (described upthread) can be used for kids who are genuinely unable to use the bus without a smartphone; everyone els can have a dumb phone.

That's because children live in the moment and don't ever think anything can go wrong.
Parents, parent and worry about all the "what ifs" that kids don't worry about.

Even a basic Spacetalk type thing? They can’t do any thing with them especially when it’s on school mode until the end of the day. It’s literally just a watch and step counter until I switch school mode off again

YABU. Agree that the school needs to have a plan in place for emergencies, like the bus, but surely that happens once in a blue moon and the solution is to have a school emergency contact who the driver can contact. Other stuff (like Tesco trips, keeping tabs on the child and just chit chat) isn’t essential and it’s far more important that (a) kids lean to go for longer periods without checking their phone every break/ lunchtime and (b) schools don’t have to spend their valuable time and resources dealing with phone related issues.

I’m always so astonished how so many people act like imposing restrictions on a child’s phone use is tantamount to child abuse. The school is trying to do what’s best for your child- if you don’t think they are then they shouldn’t be at that school. It might be worth trying to speak to them to find out the background. I agree with those who say that in the future we will look back at this period of time and be horrified at young kids and teenagers being exposed to phones with barely any restrictions whilst at the same time being actively pursued by tic tok etc- it will be the equivalent to women smoking in pregnancy.

Did you know that it's actually possible to phone on a non-internet connected phone? And that it's possible to access the internet on a computer/laptop/tablet, which the vast, vast majority of households now have?

There also used to be payphones on every corner and now you can walk miles without seeing one. What a ridiculous argument.

Children should not need to be travelling these distances to school.

Schools shouldn't have to be accommodating requests for phones because parents have chosen to send their child to a school nowhere near home.

They shouldn't be banned from bringing them in, but they should be banned from using them in lessons. Problem is you've probably got schools and teachers who can't enforce discipline, so the only way to stop them is to ban them completely.

What pay phones?? 🤨

My DCs have left school now but there wasn’t a phone ban. I’m sure they were used in toilets etc but my DCs were ‘good’ and never had theirs confiscated.
Another local school only allows brick phones which I think is a good compromise as at least a call/text can be made - but then obv these kids have a smart phone at home etc.
I like the idea of this magnetic pouch thing, never heard of it!
It seems phone use is coming in younger and younger. My two got one towards end of year 6 (not even a smart phone for eldest). They usually got our old iPhones.
I don’t see why a child younger than 11 needs one.

no, it is not a lazy argument
no it isn't like saying we used to let babies sleep in their fronts, or any of the other disingenuous 'examples' you have provided.
I didn't mention seatbelts so you comment about this and the 'good for you ...' sentence is totally a non-sequitur
So try an different rationale

Yes, anything beyond the very basic watch is banned. Even fit bits. Also stops the moaning when they inevitably get damaged/lost/stolen. They can wear them to school, they just must go in the pouch. Surprisingly, the kids haven't actually given much of a shit. When they all haven't got phones, it's not such an issue.