3 day suspension for having phone out in school

[TooBored1]

Would you think this was reasonable?

For context my DC's school is consulting on going phone free - pupils will have to put their phone into a lockable pouch when they enter school. They will be subject to random bag checks, and if your phone is not in the locked pouch, or if you are caught using it, there will be an automatic 3 day suspension.

Overall, I'm in favour of going phone free, but I think the punishment is too much, especially as it is harsher than that given for fighting/bullying or disrupting lessons.

I also don't think it will prevent cyber bullying, as, as experienced by both my children, this happens in the evening, rather than during the day.

The punishment is ok - your are being unreasonable
The punishment is not ok - you are not being unreasonable

How old do you think I am?! I'm not a pushover. However, my students appreciated that I didn't insist they wet themselves or bleed over their clothes. Allowing compassion creates respect. Those teachers with poorly behaved students? They think shouting and Draconian punishments are the solution. If your students trust and respect you, they work harder in your classes. Mine always achieved their grades or higher because they wanted to do well.

It sounds like the suspension is more to scare the parents tbh. They basically want parents to tell there kids they have to follow the rules otherwise some kids would be made up to be suspended but it’s the parents who will suffer taking time off work. No school is going to want to make kids miss their education but they want parents to support their decision. It’s good your kids will follow the rules but some kids will not and it will be parents who are going to be affected. Technically they don’t need a phone during the day a lot of adults have to put there phones away in jobs so it’s not much different. Kids are entitled and hate missing out but it could teach them that phones don’t need to be looked at all the time. It can only do them good getting a break from sm.

@pollymere Again! How did anyone manage before phones? Oh yes. We planned. Honestly phones are not needed.

I am sorry to hear that. 🥺 Mobile phones were just becoming more affordable when I was in secondary school, so I never had one. But then my school didn't treat kids like shit, or have a ridiculous uniform policy at the time (unlike now) and I don't know what has gone wrong.

DS isn't even a year old yet but the Idea of sending him to a school like some of the ones I've read about on here fills me with dread. (Confiscating phones till the end of the school year, detention for forgetting a glue stick, isolation for having the wrong kind of ruler, getting sent home for the wrong colour hair band, had to be the right shade of blue! Okay, the last one I remember hearing from a guest on The Wright Stuff years ago, but I thought that was ridiculous.) Why do kids need pencil case inspections? I wouldn't have wanted anyone going through my stuff. (Although I remember a manager of mine throwing away some of my stuff I'd left at work, I hadn't left the company, it was one of my days off. I had a little bag with pens, lip balm, hand cream, cough sweets and a mirror. She decided they were going in the bin. Now know I should have complained about it. Technically they shouldn't have been where they were, although they weren't anywhere dangerous, but she was still in the wrong.)

@DazedAndConfused321 there’s always help from staff for anything vital. They do have access to support but cannot see how that’s linked to a phone in a classroom.

Well I work in a high school and managing phones is a nightmare. They have to have their phoned switched off and if caught using it, it’d confiscated and parents have to collect it. And yes online bullying does occur through school hours

Sounds like a great punishment. Everyone knows the rule, if you break it you know the punishment.

That's just not true for every student unfortunately. Phones should be accessible at all times, but encouraged to only be used for emergencies in class.

@DazedAndConfused321 Of course pupils can access adults in an emergency. No, phones should not be accessible at all times. Yes schools should have a policy but punishments should be on a sliding scale and fit the crime.

Why should phones be accessible at all times - they aren’t necessary during the school day. In an emergency parents can be contacted via the school office. Too many children are using phones inappropriately - online bullying as an example or have access to age inappropriate apps (parents not controlling phone use)

@Parker231 It’s very odd how having a phone is the only way a child can be contacted in school. Of course the school office can be contacted! Or dc speak to an adult! When did teachers start to allow phones? My DD left school in 2010. She wasn’t allowed to have her BlackBerry in lessons! Or during prep at school. Schools are their own worst enemies by failing to tackle this much earlier.

Our school does this, I was asked to come in and collect DS's phone once (he said he picked it up to look at the time, I bought him a watch and he didn't do it again) but it seems that the parental collection thing is a punishment aimed at parents? The school is far from home for most students, we're a 12-mile round trip, and the majority of kids use buses, so I'm trying to get my head around why they're punishing parents by getting them to drive in? (I'm autistic, my thought processes may not seem logical to everyone, but I can't see how that sanction punishes the child, unless they want the parent to get more angry at their child as a result)

You seem to be advocating for availability of phones as a safeguarding measurement within schools - there should never be incidents within schools which rely on children having access to a phone for safeguarding purposes. That’s not your say it never happens, but the solution is sorting out school safeguarding, not giving children access to phones for their own protection (given the chronic problems caused by phones).

@Fernandez54 schools cannot police what dc do out of school hours but they have responsibilities for dc beyond the school gates. The idea that bullying stops at 3.30 is a bit odd. Mostly it’s not done via phones at school when they aren’t allowed to have them but it doesn’t stop this type of bullying carried out before or after school. All of it is relevant when looking at bullying and behaviour.

Also of course dc don’t need a phone in school!

Well when they sort the ever growing safeguarding problems, I'll be all for it. But until children are safe in school, safe from the staff and those around them, I suggest they should have a right to access their phones.

@DazedAndConfused321 That’s just ridiculous. If an adult knows about this in a a school, the ADULT has a DUTY to report it. Not a kid using a phone! YOU have a duty if you suspect anything.

With 1,000 pupils in most schools no one is special. Follow rules. You will have to on trains, on the tubes, on buses, at work, walking down the street, disposing of rubbish, learning to drive, social manners re drinking, rules on so many parts of life. Its how we play our part in society. Or we display anti-social behaviour.
Come down firmly on the side of rules if you want your child to be happy in life.

What’s the point of posting when all you want is people to agree with you? Children don’t need phones in school and if they break the rules they know the consequences. Maybe you’d rather the school threatened to roll their eyes and make sad faces?