The problem in the classroom....cell phones.

[mainstreetonce]

In the incident that is getting so much discussion,is the problem that the girl had a phone?

I know there are two sides to the story of letting students have access to phones.

I am wondering if posters ,especially with recent school experience have opinions about if the students should keep phones while in class instruction.

[giftedgirl77]

1. They aren't supposed to have them in class...

Most schools require them to be kept in there lockers. However, teachers aren't allowed to search kid's and administrator has to do that then if they're caught with them the 1st offense is 1 day ISS, next is OSS, third is expulsion. My oldest got a waiver from the school to keep his on him bc of my health issues.

I think expelling a kid for a cell phone is stupid. I also think that due to what this particular child had gone through she should've been handled with extreme care.

[Human101948]

2. The response was ridiculously brutal...

but the cell phone addiction is out of control.

[HassleCat]

3. Absolutely not

If they have a phone, they will be on it. They can't help themselves. The phone must be off and stowed in the backpack. If not, the student should be excused from class and sent to a special room set aside for everybody who fees like texting instead of learning. Of course, putting them all in the same room together would make texting unnecessary, but they would probably do it anyway.

[mainstreetonce]

4. I would think it is obvious

that the phones should be stored in lockers or backpacks.

I read some discussion that because of incidents like Columbine access for safety reasons should not be denied.

[katsy]

5. My 14 yo daughter is on 24/7 when possible

I re-route the experience by asking questions she must Google to find answers for. It gets her reading and being exposed to sites like sciencedaily, nasa, ted talks etc.

Fighting tech isn't productive. Expanding their experience to it is.

My kids last school fought tech. That was stupid. Their new school embraces it and the online tools. They issue laptops to kids, they do their homework and submit online. It's great. But the phones are ban in class.

There must be a better way. Let the kids use their phones as calculators? Or to record lessons? Take notes? Idk but maybe if someone could give the kids a different reason, educational repurposing of the phones... It would benefit all

That being said... In no white mans world would my daughter have been assaulted for her breaking of school phone rules and disrespectful actions. Been there. Done that. More times than I can list. Funny how my daughters white privilege insulates her from criminal assault by leo thugs.

In no way does this tragic event fall into a tech problem or victims attitude... No grey mushy scenario. A crime was committed against a child. Period.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. I'm pretty sure the problem was a cop beating the shit

out of a child. But that's just my opinion.

[tishaLA]

7. Were it not for cell phones in the classroom, we'd have no record of the brutal attack

Yeah, they should be put away. But some rules need to be bent sometimes, especially, one would think, for a girl who'd just recently lost her mother.

[mainstreetonce]

8. I'm really not clear

On if this school had a rule about phones.
It appears that other students had them,which was a good thing.

[Igel]

9. Kids have them where and when they're not supposed to.

Enforcement's a bear.

It's easy to grab snapshots of tests and assignments. Suddenly it's not a test or assignment, it's a "let me copy this down, whatever it means."

It's a mobile entertainment system. Too many times I've had some girl or guy sit there, acting like there's some attention being paid, only to call on the kid and have the student ignore me. Turns out the student can't hear me because of music. More amusingly is when the student gets so into that the head starts bobbing.

It's a means of blackmail. You say the wrong thing, and it's zero tolerance. Except that there's no appeals process. Suddenly you're on facebook, a 20-second snip out of 4 minutes, and the only thing that parents know is what's in that 20 seconds. Since what they see is all their is, as far as they're concerned, the teacher's fried. Try that with a student and they'd insist on understanding context, mitigating circumstances, history, stress, etc., etc. It's not fair. Never has been. But this makes it even more unfair. (Try this: At work you're videotaped, or might be, at any time. Then any small portion is taken as being representative of your work for the remaining 40 hours per week, all year.)

Or check out some of the research. Having a cell phone out during a test lowers your test score. It's a distraction even turned off and face down on the desk. When it's working it's more of a distraction. Attention spans are decreasing, and people are becoming less able to deal with problems or even just be alone. Yet most of us, when working, spend many hours in what at best is a kind of pro forma communication mode. You sit, you do your job, and what information you need to get or provide is pretty much the core of any communication. It's not personal. It's, "Sue, did you get that invoice?" or "Kamil, did you track down that part number?"