Wanting to reach out to your child during the course of the day to make sure they are okay is understandable. I often wish I could text my children to check on them while they are at school - but it is against the rules. Unfortunately, it is a reflection on the fact that parents don't feel their children are safe at school.
The District 150 Parent Advisory Committee is currently working on a new cell phone policy. If mass texts are going out between students about anything during class - it is a distraction and potentially dangerous. Perhaps there should there be a certain time of day that students can make calls - what do you think?
This recent comment illustrates why the cell phone policy is needing to be reinforced...
Anonymous said...
Anonymous said...
The other day, I overheard PHS students talking about texts they were getting from RHS students about the fights going on at RHS. RHS staff member told me there were seven girls involved in two fights that day. I texted my daughter to ensure she was ok. She said that she was..."
I agree wholeheartedly with the comment from this Anonymous blogger...
Anonymous, I noticed in your comment that you said your daughter texted a student and you a teacher, also texted a student. You and your daughter both violated school policy. This is one of the things that is extremely out of control in the schools. Parents are continually texting or calling students while they are in class, students are contacting parents or other students. We are talking about hundreds of phone use each day. The rules are phones are to be off and out of sight. How can teachers even teach with this going on. This also keeps problems between the students alive and has anyone thought about the drug deals being made on these phones during school hours with the students. Cell phones need to be completely banned from all the schools and suspended if the student doesn't abide by the rule.
17 comments:
What is the District's cell phone policy.
Inconsistent.
Some schools require you to leave them in your locker, some don't. All schools require that they are off while on school property.
My husbands office building has this lovely contraption on the roof that kills cell phone reception the second you walk in the building. Maybe our schools could learn something from military defense companies ;) haha
I do not know about all schools, but I know about one of the schools....you see students and staff on there phones constantly. All day long, no one even pretends there is a cell phone policy. And, I know that every parent claims that their child's cell phone is for emergencies, that is a load of crap. If that were the case there would be no reason for a child to have unlimited texting. The cell phone is a nessisity like food or air. It is the whole social thing. As a matter of fact a lot of students carry two cells, one for texting only. At this one particular school the staff is every-bit as bad as the students. It is like the pants down on the ground thing, you cannot control it. The students are in charge.
I do see this from both points of view. However, I believe that no matter what the rules are, if students are allowed to have cell phones on their persons but turned off, they will use them.
Yes, I agree that cell phones are used to make drug deals and to "arrange" fights, etc. The potential for cheating on tests and all manner of wrongdoing are possibilities with phones.
When I left teaching, reporting that a student had a cell phone resulted in no consequences--the administration didn't follow through.
I do understand why parents would want this convenience in getting a hold of children--to check on their safety, to arrange rides homes, etc.
I'm not going to use the reasoning that we all got along without cell phones before. I know that I wouldn't want to give mine up.
As for teachers violating the rules, I purchased my first cell phone and was given permission by the adm to use it to check on my elderly mother. Also, I used it to call the office if I wanted a student removed (fights, etc.) because I had to walk across the room to press the button and when and if anyone answered my call, students would start shouting into the intercom system. I remember a few times when a student really needed to call home, I did allow the student to use my cell instead of sending the student out of the classroom to go to the office to use a phone.
Most professionals do have phones at their desks, etc. I can remember having to walk or run between classes to a phone way down the hall or downstairs to make important phone calls like making doctor's appts, etc.
I am not so sure that adults need to obey the same rules about cell phones that students have to follow. Certainly office personnel at schools have access to phones at their desks.
Maybe students could keep their phones in their lockers and be permitted to use them between classes and after school, etc.
When it comes right down to it, this is a major problem with good reasons on both sides. I honestly don't know what the solution is.
Students use cellphones and MP3 players that connect to the 'net to cheat CONSTANTLY. I strongly believe there should be zero tolerance for either device. Students can use the phone in the school office to make contact. If I texted my child at school and he responded? I'd take the phone away. This 'safety' stuff is a red herring....students are far safer in their schools than on their school bus, walking through their neighborhoods, and riding/driving in their parents cars.
At my school, students are allowed to have their cellphones during lunch. They are required to turn their phones into the office in the morning, they have them at lunch and the phones are returned at the end of the day. Violations result in 3 day suspensions and parents much come to school to pick up the phone. Of course, this wouldn't work in a 'normal' school, but it works for us.
Parents who are upset by the 'no cellphone' policy need a reality check.
We have 1st graders carrying cell phones at my school in D150. They are supposed to give the phone to the teacher, who will give it back at the end of the day.....yeah, right. even the little ones won't give up their technology. I had an upper grade student threaten to hit me because I took her ipod away from her during ISAT testing...go figure. We don't need no stinkin rules.....that's why they can't read or write...
Very true, the students get really out of control when you want to take away their phone. The cheating that goes on with these is amazing. But nobody cares in district 150. The teachers try to enforce the rules, but there is no one to back them up and the students know that. Now many students carry two phones on them, one they give up and the other they keep. They are very smart. If a parent texts their child or the phone rings, that child's phone should be taken away immediately. I don't know the answers to this problem, but it does need to be addressed. But it is like the dress code policy, the students don't follow it because they know it won't be enforced. One person might enforce it, but the other doesn't. So it is going to continue. As far as adults in the school using them. Teachers who don't have phones in their rooms, do need to keep their cell phones as it is sometimes important to get security or help ASAP.
A-D - Per the "main" post - No, I didn't text my daughter during school hours, nor did she text me during school hours. We support the district's No Phones During School policy - just as we require that all of our kids follow the rules in their schools. The one time our daughter DID text my wife during school hours, my daughter was in quite a bit of HOT water.
The inconsistency comes from the district's complete failure to have high behavior expectations for students. If you can try to bash someone's head into the floor and be right back in school in ten days - or if you can cause a riot in the school cafeteria and be right back in school, what is the use of trying to enforce a cell phone policy that will get no backing.
But yes. Generally, if there are fights in one high school, students in the other two schools know about them via TM. Further, I've seen students after school reading a text about where the action is - running to see it as they read the text.
Our schools are at the point at which they foster this behavior. Very poor job by the new admin thus far at creating the save and peaceful learning environments they profess (via their web site) they'll create. Horrible.
I WISH schools would have a "cone of silence" over the schools that prohibited cell phone calls and unauthorized internet access. So much drama is stirred up via text. We've caught students texting parents from the bathrooms about supposed awful things happening to them (like requiring that phones be turned in) as well as harassing texts between students both in and outside the building. One student posted on his Facebook page (via his iPod) that he was sick of school and was going to go home...he'd done this in the middle of class.
Sharon Crews, I am not talking about staff using phones for legitimate reasons, I mean texting their friends, etc. I have actually walked away from a conversation on many occasions because of this. Usually it is about nothing of importance. I have people tell me sorry, it was a brother in law asking me if this person could babysit next week. It is a real problem in most work places. I know people who have to fire twenty somethings for just that reason.
I am very sure that employees in the public sector violate cell phone usage rules. There is no doubt that teachers in the public sector are exceptions. When I was teaching, text messaging was not yet a factor. I did make brief personal calls--not to visit but to make arrangements, appointments, etc., during my prep period and at lunch.
I know that it is difficult to police teachers, etc, and their phone usage, etc. But I don't believe teachers should use their phone when students are in the room--except to phone the office for whatever reason.
If you think the use of cell phones is a problem among teachers, how often do you think administrators, counselors, other staff not in classrooms, use cell phones or school phones for their personal calls--and for extra long visits in the privacy of their offices? If one group needs to be policed, so should the others.
For years before cell phones, teachers were at a disadvantage when it came to phoning privileges. Even to make phone calls to call parents (which was expected) teachers had to walk to teachers' lounges and stand in line while others were on the phones. At Manual, there were two teachers' lounges, but the phone was a "party" line, so I could wait most of my prep period just to make a call. Using lounge phones and office phones also meant absolutely no privacy. There were always others around to listen to phone calls.
Think about how often you use the phone to make doctors appts, to check to see if your car is ready for pick up if you have it in for service, etc. Teachers had no convenient access while most professionals have access to phones.
I think teachers should be treated as professionals, but in return teachers should be expected to be professional in their use of their cell phones. Now with texting life is much more convenient. A spouses can leave text messages on a teacher's cell and the teacher can return the call at the appropriate times when students are not in the classrooms. Before emergency messages were phone into the main office--and I couldn't begin to tell you the number of times that very important messages were not delivered to teachers in a timely fashion or at all. More importantly, at high schools, the people answering the phones were often students who weren't always good at taking phone messages or getting the right phone numbers for return calls, etc.
A-D might not appreciate my telling this story. But on a very few occasions at PHS, he has called me if he wanted some help with a grammar question that was stumping him and his students. He put me on speaker phone to talk to the kids. Sometimes I have heard them holler, Hi, Miss Crews. I certainly enjoyed having that little contact with his students and don't think that was a misuse of a cell phone.
I meant, "There is no doubt that teachers in the public sector are not exceptions."
Sharon Crews, I was not saying all teachers. And yes, other staff members, support staff and all. And my problem is not that all are wasting time, my point was, when they do this in front of students. Unfortunately students today, want the same privileges as adults. The students in this particular school openly use and abuse their phones. I have been in several classrooms where the teacher is texting and so are the students. This is in a sense, condoning the abuse. Usually these teachers are younger, and the whole addiction to the phones and texting is rampant in the younger generation. I have a district supplied phone and I am accountable for it and its useage. The district took away the texting function because of abuses. The phone itself is a very useful tool. So my indictment is more of young people not teachers. I like to think us old folks have some control.
I accidently posted this in wrong Emerge blog, so here it is:
Springfield High School's policy on cell phones, (according to my daughter who teaches there, is cell phones are to be kept turned off.) If a student is caught using it, they are sent to office, and loses cell phone until end of school day. And they get a 'behavioral referral'. For 2nd infraction, student is sent again to office, parents are called to come get cell phone. And more disciplinary measures.
I can undestand using a cell phone during school day in case of emergency, either way. But I don't see a need for a parent to call student in class just to see how things are going. I also don't think students need to text each other during a class. Before school, lunchtime, fine. But not when they are supposed to focusing on the teacher/class material.
I have teenagers and monitor their facebook pages. You would be amazed at how many of their friends post online DURING the school day, when school is in session. They often even mention what class they are currently in. It's definitely a distraction.
At my kids' school, they are allowed to take their cell phones, but if they get caught with it on, the phone is taken away. The parent must pick it up from the office and the student gets a detention. My daughter made this mistake once (and will lose her phone if it happens again.)
I agree with Rix. Phones and anything with internet access should not be allowed during the day. The tiny, tiny chance that there would be an emergency is greatly outweighed by the incredibly large everyday issues involved with such improper technology use during the schoolday.
What I find most amazing is the number of young people (rich and poor alike) who have cell phones. I know I shudder every time I open my own bill--I can't imagine that their plans are any cheaper than mind--especially if they have phone from which they can access Facebook. At least, I would assume that sites such as Facebook are blocked by school computers.
Yes, I agree with all that cell phones in classrooms should be an absolute "no." District 150 has gone the route of being OK with phones in the classroom as long as they are turned off. Kids can't resist that temptation and the rule requires too much policing and too many arguments about whether or not phone is turned on or not.
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