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

This is good to hear. It might mean that by the time my child goes to secondary school, the cess pit of phone use for kids will have been controlled. In places where this has been implemented, studies have shown kids are happier, with less cyber bullying. The consequences have to be harsh or they would just keep breaking the rules. When you work in many customer service roles you are not allowed your phone on the floor. I was so surprised when I found out they don't have the same rule at school. Parents and authorities have been sleep walking into this situation they are in now, where smart phones have fucked up kids brains.

Schools are a bit different to a sensitive workplace.
What if you punched someone? Or vaped in the toilets?
In most schools that would be less than a three day suspension.

I think physical violence is worse than being seen with a phone (different situation if someone is doing something unpleasant with their phone or if they are in an exam, etc.).

@Hedgehogbrown Do you think bullying only occurs at school? You have lot to learn about IT and phones. Not having a phone for 7 hours leaves many hours free for dc to do what they want! Whether that’s being unkind to others or looking at inappropriate stuff on the web. It’s personality that drives this. Rules at school don’t make it go away.

Firstly, schools are extremely sensitive places. I have no idea why you think they aren’t.

Secondly, yes, children are given more flexibility than adults. Frankly, a lot of people consider that the children who physically attack others should be permanently excluded but I know that most parents, when their little angel did it, argue there should be no punishment at all.

I do think the sanctions should be higher for violent offences than phone use. I also recognise that a child using their fists in a momentary lapse of judgement is different to a pre-planned, pre-meditated intentional breaking of rules.

And, regardless, I didn’t comment anything about what I thought on the severity of the sanction. I simply commented that what many (often, unfortunately, bad) parents think are excessive rules in schools are actually far less strict than “the real world”.

If I was still at school I'd be deliberately getting a 3 day suspension...........

Dc are more mature when they work though and follow office/work norms. Schools tend to be draconian these days. They punish too much for minor offences and of course a phone out isn’t the same as attacking a pupil. However a sustained attack could be a permanent exclusion. There’s a 6 year old on another thread who has been PEx for exactly this.

Sometimes I don’t think heads are prepared to look at what’s reasonable and they know there’s no appeal.

You can believe what you like, it's true of our school.

Oooh, I like that!

I've never said I don't support the ban/wouldn't expect my children to comply but as a parent being consulted, I think it's reasonable to question the intented sanction.

I don't know how things work where you are, but in my city there is NO choice of school. All, bar 1, are run by the same MAT and places so tight that unless you qualify under SEND etc, you will only be offered a place in your closest school.

There is NO option to choose a different school with different rules.

@TooBored1 I think you misunderstood me earlier. I do think the suspension is too long and I suggested how you might complain about it. I also wrote about the consultation, I know there’s no precise policy at the moment but that won’t stop a head excluding a dc. They will just say DC wasn’t following instructions or similar. Heads can more or less do what they want regarding exclusions that governors cannot change. If DS was doing something the teacher didn’t want, then the school can punish for it. Don’t agree with it but you have explained what sort of school if is.

I would run a mile from this type of school. I cannot imagine pencil case checks. I think my DDs would have hated this. Can he go to a school outside this MAT? Sounds like you have little choice but I wouldn’t put dc through this.

I think Op should get a job as a low paid support worker in a large state school. After a few weeks of dealing with students and parents, you will start to have more empathy with decisions made. It’s getting to the point where no one will want to work in schools.

I’m with you OP. By all means send a clear message with an advertised and relatively harsh sanction for phone use. But there has to be some proportionality. 3 day suspension = nuts. That’s how you respond to pupils really harming others…
Yes of course pupils can simply follow the rule. But that doesn’t mean punishments shouldn’t have some semblance of appropriateness in the inevitable cases where they’re broken. Take things way too far and the children risk losing any respect for the school leadership and any attachment to the institution where they spend such a large proportion of their lives.

What????

My ds went to school and left many years ago.

He used his phone to and from school if needed and it was never handed in nor needed to be handed in. School asked for them in bags and on silent except when they had the students using them in lessons.

I was responding to the OP and her situation and what I’d do if I was in that situation.

Im not sure how you interpreted that as I wouldn’t be following rules or saying I didn’t.

I clearly said they needed them either side of the school day. Except many schools do use the phones during the day as part of learning.

A three day suspension is ridiculously disproportionate. I wouldn't agree with that.

This is a good point. They've not plucked the policy out of thin air - it will have been implemented because rules have been disregarded already. My daughter's school has just implemented a policy of no phones after initially trusting the kids not to use them during lessons.

@itsgettingweird I think schools are not getting dc to use phones in lessons now. That short lived practice has mostly stopped and it was very inappropriate in the first place.

Dc don’t need a phone at school and many schools have lockers for them for safe keeping. The truth is they are not actually needed at all for anything during the day. Dc need to be weaned off them, not encouraged by schools to use them in lessons. Can you imagine what dc would actually be doing if schools allowed them in classrooms? Although some dc cheat and an old phone is handed in whilst the new one is kept,

It's not no phones ever. They're not banned from ever using them. Just not in school. They've still got the other 16 hours a day, plus weekends and holidays to keep up with all the apps. Adults have to put their phones down sometimes.

My sons school introduced a behaviour policy that I was largely supportive of. But I did notice that some very 'minor' offence carried a high penalty compared to physical violence. I very politely queried the reasoning behind it.

About a year later it changed.

I do think 3 day suspension is too harsh for not complying with phone rules.

I think there are other options to sanction such as internal exclusions, asking a parent to come collect the phone from the office at the end of the day, or if they decide to suspend it would be half a day.

Its difficult as the school bus companies round here only have online tickets so they need the phone to get in.

There's definitely a lack of understanding of the effect of the disruption on teachers. Now if only they would all implement a parallel policy where they're getting off their phones AND getting more physical exercise at school, I think some things would improve.

Shouldn't even have phones in school, about time it stopped.

@PeppyLilacLion The reason schools have suspensions about phone use is that it’s much easier to come down hard, quickly, when they see a phone than it is to deal with bullying or insidious violence and threats. The phone is obvious to staff. They don’t see bullying and many schools overlook it and do the minimum needed to satisfy action as described in their anti bullying policies. It’s a symptom of the type of person teaching in some schools. A bit shallow, power crazy with a need to take the easy route at work. Obviously not all teachers and schools, but enough for it to be worrying.

Well that will probably be a relief to the kids who want an education and the teachers who get abused trying to maintain order. Brilliant.

This, tbh. If it means the disruptive kids with no interest in learning are at home, all the better for the ones who want to learn

They will set work for the suspension (or shoukd) to cover the full time education. This set work can be oak academy it doesn't have to be the lesson they would have received.

Sadly, only one school in our city outside the MAT which has a religious qualification (we wouldn't qualify) followed by a tight catchment that we are outside.