Banning brick phones on journeys from school

[Gridloch]

Are they seriously considering banning brick phones so children can’t be contacted before/after school? How is that sledgehammer to crack a nut rational or defensible?

https://www.scotsman.com/education/parents-allow-brick-phones-in-school-or-campus-ban-will-fail-8943319

You seem to have missed my point.
If public pay phones existed (like they used too) the need for children to approach random strangers (which we've previously taught them not too) wouldn't exist.
What if they can't get to a friend's house - because the friend uses the same bus that never turned up.

In most jobs employees are not allowed to use personal mobile phones during working hours.
People keep them switched off in their bag, desk, locker or wherever they store personal items.
I wonder how many on this thread would be happy if they were suddenly told they could no longer bring this personal item with them to work.
Something personal that they don't use at work but may want or need to use when going to or from work.
Would people be happy with that. What about other personal items that you don't use at work but just sit in your bag to use when out of work.
A kindle? A paperback book? A music player?

My son's school is no phones, admitted me that some families chose school (it's London so choice a plenty) add then complain and ignore this. It was a major selling point behind my choice. I have older children who are now in uni and we really didn't realise the harm of phones when they were in secondary, it was a right of passage. Glad it's being taken more seriously now

The depressing thing about the Amsterdam scenario is that you're in an awkward position of being a good human and helping, vs weighing up the risk of being scammed and ending up as a victim of crime.

A lot of people are wary of teenagers anyway so may be reluctant to assist.

I don't want to put my teenagers in a position of having to rely on good will from the public when there is a simple self-sufficient solution that covers most likely problems occurring. Their walking route is safe, but not heavily used by pedestrians and is not great for opportunities to ask for help. A lot of it is industrial, then they end up in countryside.

They know the back-up route for walking, that covers phone-related glitches/ catching the bus, but with incidents like the fallen trees in the storm and the knee injury it was best that they had the smart phone avaliable to aid with locations and support.

There are people who seem to be expecting more independence skill from a teenager than of a significant proportion of adults who'd do that journey with their car and smartphone.

Fortunately I'm happy with my DCs' school policy of phones beyond use in pouches in the school day when they're not needed, and not policing their access to devices for commuting safely when off the school grounds.

@BogRollBOGOF - indeed. She was a young teen - maybe 12/13 but I still had a moment when I was a bit worried when she approached us. I didn't hand her my phone, she gave me her number. And it was all legit. But easily could have been any number of scams and for the first minute it felt like one. My daughter would not persevere in that scenario and with her situational mutism, wouldn't necessarily even be able to explain or 'use her big girl voice' as she often just doesn't have such a thing. I am very much trying to help her navigate the world but it's challenging for sure.

My oldest school do pouches for children upto year 11.

Second child her school are going for a if we see it we take it.

My oldest bus ticket is on his phone. It’s already £20 a week, if you want a paper version it’s £28. The walk if he lost his ticket would be over 2 hours for the safe route.

Second child well girls have been harassed and even hit by randoms outside the boundaries so I wouldn’t send her without a phone.

Someone said that children can always find an adult to use their phone. I’m sorry but in this day and age I anit handing over my phone to a child either what with all the phone thefts. Not that I tend to be out on the streets when children are walking home from school.

I remember as a child upset on my way home a car very slowly following me all the way home I’d rather of been able to ring for help and now have this stranger following me knowing where I lived.

All adults should be instructed to stop using their phones then if this is your justification.

And btw I agree there are serious potential issues. I am fully aware of the need for contingency planning at state level and prepping at citizen level.

But no difference will be made to any of what is to come by stopping 15yos carrying brick phones to school. It's way bigger than that.

You're not in the UK and you have no understanding of British schools or their transport arrangements. So yes, your opinion is irrelevant.

I live in deepest darkest Kent and have a child just starting Year 7. The school's phone policy is one of the main reasons I chose it. I've absolutely no idea why you are being so rude.

You persist in using the term "school district", which no-one in the UK uses - if they were to say anything they would say "LEA", or more likely these days "MAT". Which makes me very much suspect you are not what you say you are.

I used the phone boxes all the time. Never went out without money for a call.

i would never let my child out without a phone now. If I have to, I will buy burners and have it off in the bottom of her bag, but she will have a phone for emergencies.

I can do/ have done all of that because I didn't get a phone until I was 17 (a nokia brick, pay as you go that lived in the glove box of my first car just in case).

I didn't have sat nav until I was 30ish and areas I worked in as a paramedic pre sat nav I still have a remarkedly good memory map of, yet areas I have worked in for much much longer with sat nav I'm still rubbish at navigating around, so phones do cause very real loss of skills and over reliance on technology.

Let kids learn some of these skills, so they at least have them in the background for the day they loose their phone, or the network goes down.

If someone only has kids in primary they've no relevant experience. It's when things are being arranged spontaneously by teens, when they're crossing cities, when the secondary school bullying or harassment rears its head that this becomes a live issue.

Very easy to pontificate from primary school perspective.

🙄

Gosh, you caught me. I'm actually a native New Yorker with a bizarre fetish for trying to pass myself off as a Brit in order to get kicks discussing... um... British school phone policy. With a specific niche in upsetting rural Brits by not understanding that some people live in the country... it's been a fabulous day for me so far!!!

Your post is a personal attack by the way. I haven't reported you because I don't mind, just letting you know.

Yet you survived, where many of your friend abducted and murdered on the way to and from school?

You think a child asking a adult on the same delayed bus as them if they could text their mum for them to tell them what is going on is inappropriate? Well if it is then society is f**ked.

People survived many things back in the day that would now be considered very unsafe, neglectful or in some cases illegal.

It’s not a race to death.

But isn't a huge amount of secondary school bullying and harrasment via mobile phones?

Plenty were beaten up or sexually assaulted. As was pretty standard in the period. Obviously higher risk for some than others, and being alone was a big risk factor.

DD has just started high school. She has a smart phone but we have restricted it to the point of it being very dumb. She can't use it at all during school hours, she can't download apps, she can't access the internet, she can't use the apps she has for more than X minutes etc.

But she does need it because she needs the bus company app to get her there.

Yes, which is why brick phones, without cameras, as this thread is about, are a useful compromise.

So how did you mitigate this? Presumably having a phone does not defend against it, but walking in groups does, all having a phone will do is allow them to call for help after the event, which isn't really a solution.

Technically if the victim starts to live stream video on WhatsApp to a parent or even online then it could put people off.

Yeah and normally once they are not in school apart from if they have taken a photo or video.

Which is why a in school ban won’t stop the bullying. It will just be as soon as they are outside.

Oh for goodness sake. People didn't mitigate it, they just got beaten up regularly, threatened, mugged, chased.

People didn't even report it, it was just normalised.

What is your point - you want that lifestyle for your kids?