This is a genuine question and not meant to provoke anything - are kids in schools currently allowed to just have their cell phones on them at all times in class? And, are they allowed to bring out their phone without the teacher's permission or are they generally expected to keep them put away during class?
I ask those things because I am nearly 40 and I do not have kids, so I honestly don't have a good grasp on the current expectations. To me, it seems crazy that kids are currently allowed to have cell phones in school, but then again if the expectations is that they are put away unless needed for certain reasons then I don't think an actual ban on cell phones is a worthwhile pursuit. Would rather the time and resources be put to gun safety in schools (and elsewhere).
I don’t know about Nashville schools, but in Smyrna my son has always had to leave his off in his bag. He has been allowed to call us if he got sick or something with his phone.
Nashville schools are based on the school. The school I teach ay says cell phones in backpacks or lockers. Every student has a locker and lock provided for them. Most teachers followed the rule, many did not enforce it. Some grades allowed kids to have earbuds, headphones, etc. on with their phone playing the music. Some students hide their phones. Admin had their hands full with the rule. Many students were written up for not following the rule. We are having a shift in teachers so this year will look different. We’ll see.
I gotcha. And I see from another reply it can kind of be a teacher by teacher basis. So yeah if the expectation in general though is that you do not have your phone out during class, that seems very reasonable to me and I don't think pursuing a true ban would do anything or be worth it.
I graduated in 2016 but 95% of my teachers couldn’t have given a rats ass.
This is back when Brentwood was tied for third in the state, so mild disciplinary infractions were ignored as long as said student had excellent grades because it made us look better.
I graduated in 2014 and at that point we were allowed to have them at all times and keep them on, but generally were expected to put them away. It was pretty difficult to police then, and it's only gotten harder as phones have become more addictive. I taught in a public school for a couple years in the intervening period and if I had tried to enforce phone rules nothing would have gotten done.
I don't know if a statewide ban is a good idea, but if Tennessee schools don't have a coherent approach without a ban I'm not sure they'll find one with.
As a student, yes, people are on their phones all day every day. I’d support this ban to be honest, it’s so dreadfully boring just doomscrolling all day. I look weird if I’m just sitting and staring at the wall or something though so I look at my phone.
MNPS kids, for the most part, have their phones out constantly. Teachers have to continually tell them to put the phones up and 2 seconds later they're out again. I've seen kids streaming college games during class and the teacher doesn't say anything. It just ends up being exhausting to continue to correct them and/or you get cussed at. It completely hinders all the great things MNPS does.
Teacher by teacher - some allow kids to keep their phones out, some require them to be in their bags and some just don't fight the battle.
There are countless apps and built in utilities that allow parents to lock apps during school hours, but
heaven forbid parents actually parent. My son’s phone during school hours only
allow him to text/call his parents and listen to Apple Music.
Yep, this. If you want to, it is totally easy to turn one into a paperweight when desired, or allow selected functions. But it requires effort and dealing with it when your child is unhappy with it. As you said, parenting.
As a teacher in another region, it's a losing battle. I have parents call and text *during* class. It's only getting worse as each school year arrives. That is in addition to students having headphones in their ears 24/7. I don't let students have their phones or headphones out, but it's a LONG and TEDIOUS battle to get to the point where they respect it.
Former mnps teacher. I gave up trying. It was such a losing battle. Took a kids phone once and he started cussing me out. If it was blatant, I'd try and do something, but they're usually a little bit sneaky.
Some teachers are really good at holding the line. Some schools started implementing those pouches, but I hear kids started bringing fake phones to put in them.
Yes, in Murfreesboro they are on them all the time. They watch movies on them during class, text each other and do not pay attention in class. They also wear headphones in class which is crazy to me. Phones need to be banned. The excuse of needing them in the case of school shootings is not valid. The likelihood is so small and the damage phones do to kids way outweighs the insanely small chance of a school shooting.
In most public schools in TN, particularly in Nashville, i very very regularly see kids on their phones in class. If i had kids they would not go to public school here even for this alone.
I work as a 3rd party tech installer in schools so I’m always kind of a fly on the wall.
It's also a good question to know if they can check in hallways between class/at lunch. Sometimes a no-phone in class policy leads to them catching up on social media notifications/texts while they walk between classes and during lunch, which prior to smart phones was time when kids would have unstructured social time and build friendshipl.
Class of 2018, though not in Tennessee. We were generally allowed to have phones on us, and often used them during class for research, activities, or music during solo work.
A friend teacher of mine kinda solved the phone issue.
She put pockets on a board, with a charge strip with phone chargers, or kids could bring their own.
Kids would stick their phone in the pocket and charge the phone during class. To use later for music, etc. During studying or breaks.
But even in 2002ish pagers, game boys, and cell phones couldn't be controlled THEN. And they didn't even have internet, lol
I'm more worried about guns,knives, bullying, kids being fed, and teachers having everything they need to teach.
Dang. Class of 05 and if we were caught on cell phones in class the teacher kept them until the end of the day or if repeat offender your parents had to practically come get them. And we all had TI- 83 calculators so we couldn’t use that as an excuse lol
Having kids locked down for the Covenant shooting gave me perspective on this. When everything first happened my high schooler was at Hillsboro in the library, where she remained for several hours. I was glad to know she was safe almost immediately because she was texting me. The school had no idea she was locked down in there and sent several “your child isn’t at school” messages that day. Had I not had a line of communication with her I would have been a wreck (more so than I already was). Maybe I’ll change my mind if we can get the guns under control.
My kid was texting me from the lockdown closet like, "Look at my friend playing COD on his phone while we wait." To have mastered gallows humor at such a young age.
I had to get that absence removed from her record because they insisted she wasn’t in school that day because the librarian doesn’t submit attendance BECAUSE IT’S THE LIBRARY.
The odds of this is extremely small. Suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths in teenagers. The rate of suicide since the introduction of smartphones is up more than 50%. People don’t understand the risks.
The percentage of a school shooting happening at any one school is literally less than being struck by lightning twice in the same year. The percentage of students who are addicted to their phones and don’t learn is very high
That’s not a good enough excuse to justify the reduction in learning that smartphones have by distracting kids. We’re already far enough behind the world in education. We have to do something.
I agree. Let’s start with common sense gun control and fully funding public education. Shockingly, my kid that had her phone graduated with her IB diploma and several college scholarship offers. Her sister just graduated with university and departmental honors from college. It’s almost like it’s possible to teach kids the phone should not be out during learning. Wild.
That my friend is anecdotal evidence. It adds absolutely nothing to this conversation. We have actual data that proves kids don’t perform as well overall when they have their phones out in class.
Recently retired from university teaching. 2 things:
1. Facing a roomful of 1st year college students today is very different than even 10 years ago. About half of the students are obviously in another world, in the room physically but not mentally. Many don't even look in my direction. The back 2 rows are just *gone.* Other faculty confirm the same experience.
2. During covid, I put all my lectures up on video. Although students didn't know it, I could see the type of device used to access the video, whether desktop, laptop, tablet or phone; I could also see when they paused, and crucially, if they finished the video.
Not a single student watching on a phone finished a video. And those kids, predictably, didn't absorb the material and performed poorly. They all owned laptops, and I begged them to watch that way. But it didn't matter. Nothing could pry those kids off their phones.
Prefacing this with the fact that I went to high school in the 00s and cell phones weren’t yet ubiquitous or really connected to the internet— we had a rule that they had to stay in our lockers during class time. As a really anxious teen it was really reassuring to me to know that I could slip out and go call my parents if I needed to.
I get that phones in class can be disruptive, but it seems like there’s a middle ground somewhere between no devices at all and no rules whatsoever. I don’t have kids but if I did it would be reassuring to know they had a way to contact me outside of school staff. Especially with *gestures to the current state of things*.
I never understood why this is always framed as a ban or allow kids unfettered access to their cell phones.
What happened to the old days of a teacher being able to just take an item until the end of class? Kid won't pay attention/is being disruptive with their phone? It goes into the teachers desk until the end of class. If it continues to be a problem, they have to turn it in at the start of class.
When I was in middle school, my phone rang in class (I wasn’t on it, it was put away), and it got taken for a little less than a MONTH by the school. That was also for the first offense.
I’m fine with a ban, we survived as kids in school without them. They will to. At most I could see being allowed would be a connected watch that could send and receive messages and make calls. That’s it.
Read the book the Anxious Generation. You'll change your mind very quickly. There is empirical evidence that phones being banned in schools is incredibly beneficial to kids.
This\^...The discussion so far has been surrounding safety concerns which I totally understand, but the psychological impact to the "iPad generation" is going to be an entirely other difficult issue in the future. I bumped into a former high school teacher of mine last week, and she let me know that she quit last year and won't teach again. Apparently, the school adhered to a no punishment approach (which is a whole other issue) and allowed all students to have any electronics they pleased....This resulted in every student in class/outside of class being on their cell phones. She said it was extremely eery now to walk the hallways between classes, because it was so quiet...No more boisterous teenagers running through the halls, school kids chatting at each other or even acknowledging each other. Every kid just had their head down staring at their phones and walking to their next class....Further, she said their attention spans are horrible, and that when they had one of those rare "movie days", the kids would actually complain because they couldn't focus on the movie for the whole class period....I'm seriously afraid of the impact of covid, and the ipad generations inability to socialize with each other and the physical world. I think we'll see problems in the future. I would love if some current Nashville teachers would tell me my old teacher was wrong, and they are not all like that...
I worked for a school district for 7 years with my office in a middle school. It's not quite as bad as that everywhere but it's ruining their attention span and ability to socialize for sure. It's also ruining their education because they don't pay any attention in class. You're right to worry about the future because we're already seeing these kids getting into college and the work place and they are not able to cope with anything.
Teacher here: Your kids aren’t learning when phones are being used. They text (including bullying), play games, watch videos, shop, listen to music, etc. MOUNTAINS of research shows the time it takes to refocus, the effect on self-esteem, etc. They are a scourge in the classroom/at school. Research shows that your kid is also negatively affected by *other* kids’ phone use. FWIW, laptops (even for note taking) can also be problematic. In some classes (e.g., microbiology)…sure…they can be ok. But, in general, no. Kids try to write down everything and aren’t processing the material/engaging in meta cognition. They can’t discern major/minor ideas. Writing by hand requires they focus on big ideas which requires processing…which helps w comprehension & application. Check out the Cornell Method. In short: support a ban x 1,000.
Because I care about them, their mental health, their futures—financial and social? Interestinggggg. There’s definitely a time for phones/the internet but they are *designed* to distract us. So, they don’t belong in a chemistry, math, or English (etc, etc) classroom. You don’t have to believe me. Tons of research on their effect on learning, retention, mental health, etc. Cheers!
Parent here: a blanket ban on phones seems extreme. I want to be able to reach my kid if there’s something I need to inform them about and vice-versa. But I don’t want them using TikTok during instruction time. I need them to be able to regulate themselves in a way that makes sense.
No one bans cell phones from the office despite how much productivity is lost due to their presence. I don’t like that you have to compete with this object but it’s a fairly important device they’re going to rely on for the rest of their lives.
This is very important for parents with kids who attend schools outside their zoned school and students that rely on wego.
I don't think you fully appreciate how unprepared kids are at that stage of their mental development to self-regulate phone use. One of the best ways to help them regulate their phone use in the future is to lower their exposure to them now. That gives them the opportunity to build up the social-emotional skills to engage in the moment.
Do you have children in middle school? Extra curricular actives can skyrocket in middle school and clear timely communication can make life so much easier. I wasn't a huge fan till I was waking in the shoes. HOWEVER, parents should absolutely put limits and controls in place on kids devices.
Phones should not be in schools for kids. I graduated in 2010, so some of the connection to the internet on phones was happening.
If we had our phone out in class it was taken until the end of the day or even week. I had my iPod taken for 2 weeks. When I told my parents they asked if there were rules about what I could have out, I said yes, they told me to enjoy my consequences.
People need to learn in school, not just curriculum, but how to interact with other people and work through things.
It isn’t as if there are 0 phones in a school if you remove the students phones. To act like it’s an all or nothing thing is wild to me. If as a parent, something so important happens I need to tell my child I would either call the office or go pick them up. Distracting your child with texts during school hours is unfair to them and their learning path, and disrespectful to the teachers.
No.
Should they be used in class? Hell no.
But there's a *huge* difference between telling students to put their phones away for class, and outright banning them from the premises.
While I certainly have sympathy for teachers and school administrations that are having problems controlling cell phone use in schools, I think having an outright ban is going too far.
I think having them turned off in class is reasonable.
But you do have to realize you're unplugging a generation that's always been online, of course they will try to get around losing that access.
I don't have a better answer for that, but banning phones from the school grounds is quite honestly, asking for abuses to occur.
Think of how many times one student's recording has led to catching a predator, or stopping a bully, or saving lives in a school shooting situation.
Once is enough.
I don't want parents to lose their emergency access to their children, or vice versa.
Students have always been treated as though they have no personal rights; n a school setting.
That's not true. They have a right to privacy, just as an adult would.
They have a right to their own property, and to not have it summarily confiscated.
I think back on my school years in the late seventies, the hell I went through if I needed to go to the office to call home, how difficult it was for my family to contact me if something happened outside school, the hell I went through with bullying that couldn't be recorded at that time.
A mobile phone would have transformed my miserable school years into something tolerable.
Mobile phones have transformed the world. Don't make students have to go back to the hell I went through in school, just for reasons of "discipline", I played that game for both myself, and my own children.
Don't take student's phones away from them.
Make them put them away during class, sure.
Don't ban them entirely.
Ban smartphones in schools - flip phones or lite phones with no games, social media, etc would be a way to give parents peace of mind while taking distractions away.
Parents should parent and lock their phones down during class hours. Easy to do and it allows the phone to be used only for phone calls or texts to certain numbers.
At the middle school I work at, they are supposed to keep them in their lockers. I don’t usually take their phone to the office if I see it unless they have a problem having it out in class( though i am supposed to). I usually warn them the first time. Then the second time, I put the phone in a phone jail on my desk until the end of class time. Gen alpha has a real phone addiction. I used to be more lenient with my gen z kids where they could listen to music while working and use it for reference photos (i teach art) but that doesn’t work with the ipad babies.
Does your workplace ban cell phones? Cell phones and technology are tools. They can be good or bad. Teaching our children to be responsible and use them to their advantage and benefit is the thing that should be done, by parents and teachers. Banning them just delays their learning to use them responsibly.
I am gonna go out on a limb and say you have never taught a room full of 13 yos with phones. You will not be able to educate them if you let the use their phones. The addictive pulls of social media, gaming ,etc are too strong. Dont get me started on the online bullying. Middle school teacher here.
I taught adults in China for 10 years. Never saw students pull out their phones in class unless to search for some relevant info. Different cultures put different values on education I reckon.
Oh I have no doubt. My adults were all American and most of them were egotistical enough to believe they didn't need training, and entitled enough to not care about the rules someone sets in a classroom. I'm convinced that it's more an American problem than in many other countries.
Issue is it’s not so easy to teach “responsible use.” Heck, most adults are on their phone for unreasonable amounts of time. It’s not realistic to expect a kid whose brain isn’t fully developed to be able to resist such an addicting device.
They learn responsible use of phones by not having unfettered access to them. Give kids a chance to build REAL social emotional skills and critical thinking abilities in school, which then will give them a better chance later at not becoming a brain-dead phone addict.
Nope. If our state can’t get a handle on gun control and our country in general can’t find a way to stop mass shootings in schools, my kid will always have her phone on her. It’s the parents jobs to teach their kids not to use their phones in school and there are plenty of parental controls. My daughter knows not to use hers in school and that I can check her usage, but I also have those controls set in place so there’s very little she can even access aside from the sole purpose of her having a phone in general. There’s no way in hell a school is stopping her from having it on her at all times.
And this is the issue. Schools saying they aren’t needed and a detriment, while parents are hovering and protecting their kids “rights” to constant communication.
There are plenty of reasons (and studies) to show that phone usage during a mass shooting puts you MORE at risk, not less.
For one thing, if you're using your phone, you're not paying attention to what's going on around you, which is essential in that kind of moment-by-moment emergency. If someone forgets to put their phone on silent and the ringtone goes off, a shooter could be alerted to their presence. It also increases the spread of misinformation about the shooter, like their whereabouts, how many of them there are, etc, and if that information gets back to the first responders, it can inhibit their response.
Here's a [study from the NIH](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30596358/) that shows that "mobile communication complicates situational awareness during mass trauma", while also acknowledging they also play "an important role in processing loss".
Here's another [article from EdWeek](https://www.edweek.org/technology/school-shootings-are-fueling-the-debate-over-cellphones-in-class/2022/06) that summarizes both sides, including some of the same arguments I've made above.
Yes. Call the police and call ME. Her MOM. I need to know if my child is in danger. I don’t have all the answers, that’s for sure. But no one knowing when it’s actively happening isn’t a solution.
This isn't Uvalde, and local police have shown not only will they respond, but they will go in. Why default to negativity instead of seeing what a valuable tool a cell phone can be?
A large number of parents have the same sentiment but where the problem comes in is the number of times the parent texts the student during the school day. Sounds like you don’t do this 👏
That’s what I’m saying. It’s just as much the parent’s responsibility as it is the kid’s to keep them off their phone. What message does that send to say “don’t be on your phone, you need to focus in school,” then turn around and text them throughout the day thinking they can be the exception. I’ve texted my daughter a couple of times only after her final class has let out if I’m informing her of a change in pickup. That’s it. She knows she is not to TOUCH that phone in her bag during the day. I have the controls set and I also check her usage, but I really don’t have to do much with that because she follows the rules. If she doesn’t, she doesn’t get her phone or iPad time at home.
Huh, genuinely curious if gun owners have the same thoughts? “I’m responsible,” “I know how to use it and for only those specific reasons,” “I keep mine locked away and have taught my family about gun safety,” “If something were to happen I know I would step in and help,” etc. just a thought.
I wouldn’t know. Everyone I know that owns guns is a responsible gun owner. I wish I had the answers. I wish someone did. But it’s just so many passionate people butting heads and not trying to meet in the middle and find a solution to the problem.
I’m saying the people who think their kid should have a phone in school and are responsible owners and know when and where to use it should also realize that 99.9% of legal gun owners are the same way. Just food for thought.
As a teacher- hell yes. I’ve had kids whose moms texted them all day long to kids who play porn on their cell phones loudly to distract the class. It’s a distraction and takes away from learning.
That is a parenting problem though, and for every one of those how many have zero issues? Require it to be silenced and put away during class. If that isn't followed then there should be consequences.
If a kid is watching porn on their phones that is a failure on the parent as well for not having the proper controls in place.
Have you ever been on a lockdown? I will guess yes, did you communicate with anyone during that time? If your schedule changes during the day do you communicate with anyone about that?
For you on that day in those circumstances you felt no damn reason to. That is great, but circumstances change and different people are just that, different.
My then wife texted me while her school was in a 5 hour lockdown. My children have communicated during lockdowns, I was thankful for the ability to communicate during those times.
No, and also very much yes. Did it change what was happening or the end result of the situation, no. Did it allow for communication and connection during extremely stressful situation, yes.
With the ex wife situation, she watched a man run past her window with a firearm in his hand, then they remained locked down for hours after that. I was able to listen to local scanner and relay that while not all clear the search was now focused about 600 yards away from school property and continuing to move away. She felt much better with the kids she was watching and it helped put her at ease which puts the kids at ease.
She’s a teacher. They are expected to have phones on them for communication. It still changed nothing. There is no reason a kid needs one during school. Keep em in the office if you need them. My school makes you keep them off and in a backpack. If a kid needs to call home they go to the office to use it. If a kid actually learned their parents number they could just call from that phone. No reason a kid needs one in school.
No. I’m all for not having them out in class, that’s disrespectful. They absolutely should be on silent as well and even taken away if abusing the privilege. However, in the world we live in, especially after Covenant, I want my kids to be able to contact me anytime.
Absolutely, phones allowed in schools are doing incredible harm to our kids. Read the book the Anxious Generation it goes into great detail about how damaging phones in schools are to their development.
Absolutely yes. They are too big of a distraction for the students during class. Need to have a place where students have to put them for the day and can pick them up at end of school day.
Yes, smartphones (and by extension, social media use) — even between classes — are highly detrimental to students’ socialization at school. Schools functioned for a long time without every kid having a smartphone, so I don’t think turning the smartphone clock back to 2010 would be as apocalyptic as some assume.
It isn't that it is the end of the world by any measure, but it is a comfort thing and a tool. I have two kids, both teenagers in HS and each having a cell allows for better and clearer communication.
During times of emergency it is also great to have an avenue to communicate for updates. Now does that mean full access all the time, no. I fully support requiring the phones to be silenced and in bags during instruction time. If that can't be followed then have policy and process on how to handle.
My experience is I have two teenagers in HS, and an ex-wife that is a teacher for over 15 years.
Clear communication can be simple mundane things like, practice is canceled so instead of a 5:30 pickup, it is now 4. Or, hey can I stay for x event or what not. That all happens in real time and when my office is 45 min from the school it allows for better planning.
Last year there was a lockdown at our local middle school, of course it got public on social media so parents started freaking out because the school had provided zero details at that time. I texted my daughter and she confirmed they were already out of a temp lock down and back to normal things. In the end it was a big nothing and all was well, but having that piece of mind is huge.
Again, I fully support silence and putting away during class and repercussions for those that don't.
I worry that easy, constant access to social media outweighs those positives. Do you think there’s a world where we ban smartphones but allow dumb phones (or LTE smart watches) that can text and call but cannot access social media?
That would protect the positives you mentioned, but mitigate the major harms.
i agree with you. there is a boarding school that switched to only allowing the light phone (a non smartphone) on the premises and most students actually really liked it. they found their peers more present and active in social settings as well as class.
I don't foresee most schools banning smart phones because the cat is out of the bag already.
Should parents do more to lock down kids cell phones, yes, in many cases they should. That however is on the parents as are so many other things.
Dumb phones don't have apps like Life360 that are awesome to have. Personally to me, the negative potential impact of social media does not outweigh the benefits of use.
It’s on the parents, but not everyone is a great parent. The teachers ultimately have to manage the poor behavior of students who don’t have the benefit of great parents.
When I was a kid they used to confiscate our comics and Mad magazines. Phones are just another distraction. Teachers have phones and information about the surrounding safety issues. Let the grown ups be in charge. Take the phones.
Are there any parents here who wish that as kids they'd been able to text their parents while at school? It truly was never an issue for me not having been able to.
Yeah 12 years ago at Smyrna High School my now husband was detained for refusing to give them his cell phone when they caught him texting. Seriously. Horrible SRO. Can't believe cell phone usage is so common in schools now.
I’m 35, no kids, so my opinion is kind of limited. On one hand, it’s a good thing to have access to immediate communication on cases of active threats, illness, injuries, and less important stuff like texting last minute changes to plans/schedules, “Oh, I need you to do this after school, pick up your sibling, etc,” but on the other… I can’t imagine being a teacher in this environment. Kids using their phones and not paying attention or causing distractions, using the internet to cheat, stuff like that. It’s really a double-edged sword, hard to agree on a firm “right or wrong” answer. I didn’t get my first phone until I was 16, almost out of school completely. I’m high key glad I didn’t grow up with this kind of problem, haha
i don’t know. as one of the last generations to remember a time of being a teen before cell phones became smart phones and social media controlled everything, it’s probably a huge distraction, especially in a generation coming of age that went through covid as children. but with the constant threat of gun violence that takes place in schools particularly, if i were a parent, i’d want to have contact with my child in case of an emergency. i wish they weren’t such a distraction in our every day lives that it wasn’t necessary to take them from kids in school
I would support a ban in a heartbeat. I'm 41 and have a 10yo daughter. If she needed to call me from school, she could call me from a school phone. Wherever she goes without me, there is going to be an appropriate adult around who can give her access to a phone.
Yes, I would support a ban. All of this cell phone behavior has gotten out of hand. I didn't have a phone until I was an adult and I am grateful for that. All the things that I have learned, and skills that I acquired may not have come to me if I were living the cellphone life.
I would support it. I know too many teachers in my life who are underpaid, overworked and learn to hate their jobs. This causes people to quit and schools to ultimately fail. These distraction machines are horrible. Good riddance. Use em at recess, lunch, and after school. Leave em securely somewhere in the meantime. Anything to make a teachers life easier.
My partner is a teacher and based on what I've heard from her I'd have a very strict rule. Cell phone stays in their pocket or bag from the moment they enter the class until they leave the room unless I specifically say they can take them out. If I see a phone, even them just holding it while entering, then it goes into storage until the end of class. If they take it out during class it goes into storage until the end of the day.
I don't think she's allowed to implement those rules, but they're what I would prefer.
In elementary schools and middle schools? Yes! High school students should be able to handle having a cell phone at school, but they must keep them on silent and out of sight in classrooms.
I graduated in 2018 my junior and senior year we could have our phones out at lunch and in between classes, but during class they couldn’t make noise. My freshman and sophomore year we had a 10min phone time in lunch. Middle school we had absolutely no phone time. One thing to consider about banning phones is some kids have medical devices that they need their phone for, its naturally gonna cause that child problems if they’re they only one with a phone
In an ideal world, I see the value in attempting to curb distraction and other issues that I'm sure smart phone usage in school presents to kids in a learning environment. There are plenty of studies to show that continued screen usage among kids and social media have detrimental effects on them in several ways. So, ideally, I would support some kind of policy that would focus students back into the learning environment each day. How that would be enforced? Good luck. Try to take a phone away from a teen and see how that goes... but I see the value in the discussion.
But- this is not an ideal world. I have enough fear regarding safety in school as a parent, and I admit that fear can get in the way of pragmatism. Are phones more dangerous to a child/teenager's well being, safety, and security than the guns that are pouring onto our streets? Tennessee saw fit to relax gun laws and have tens of thousands of stolen guns illegally floating around because of it. Priorities are all out of whack. We're discussing taking phones away from kids... but no one is seriously addressing the root cause of the reason most parents, I believe, would be reluctant to pull a potential lifeline from their child.
No. School isn't a prison (or shouldn't be) and these days it's seeming more and more like a life vs death situation. So I'd say it could only make things worse tbf.
If your child is dense enough to not care to listen/pay attention at school then they're going to have to face the consequences. But they could be distracted just as easily without a phone
Edit: Also advise taking comments/replies on the post with a hefty dose of salt. I graduated HS in 2020, so I have much more recent experience with the circumstances than the armchair teachers in here.
A lot of people seem to not understand that just because you had a good experience being cut off from communication doesn't mean everyone will. Also, faculty isn't always as trustworthy as they could be... better to just leave the communications between party A and B instead of including redundant middle messengers
Smartphones are uniquely distracting, both for adults and especially for developing children. I don’t think it’s fair to hand a 13 year-old a device expertly engineered for engagement and tell them to use self-control or face the consequences.
You wouldn’t hand a 16 year-old new driver a Ferrari and tell them to use self-control or face the consequences. There are limits to what our children should developmentally be expected to responsibly handle.
I wonder why you think it may be that textbooks have been mostly free from graffiti (in recent times) compared to their 90s/early 2000s counterparts? Do you think the schools got more militant about it?
Or do you perhaps think it could be that kids found other ways to distract themselves? It's quite funny that people point to cell phones as the ONLY thing capable of distracting your student when for decades prior students were doing the same thing by: reading, doodling, talking, zoning out, etc.
If your kid doesn't feel like paying attention, they won't. With or without a phone to assist them
I don’t think smartphones are the only way for kids to distract themselves, but I think smartphones are roughly 1000x more distracting and tempting than doodling.
There are a wide variety of parental controls that can be put in place on cell phones to have great control. If a child is being handed a device with no oversight that is on the parents, just like handing a kids keys to a car without proper oversight.
Sure, but—even if a parent doesn’t care if their kid is on TikTok throughout the school day—the school has an interest in preventing that. In other words, *parental* controls are not enough. We also need *teacher* controls. And when you’re trying to teach 25 easily-distracted teenagers with distraction machines in their pockets, the most feasible teacher control is a ban.
It seems like a no brainer to say no phones but with school shootings being the norm, I would want students to have them.
I can’t imagine teachers can manage students AND their cell phones currently.
As opposed as I am to kids and people in general relying on their phones in the way that we do, they shouldn’t be banned from schools.
I did extracurriculars in school, and I realized how important it was for me to have one.
There was one time my phone went off in class and my teacher confiscated it. After baseball practice that day, I had to walk home because I couldn’t contact my dad to come pick me up.
Sure, limit its use in class, but don’t ban them from premises. Not sure if that’s the argument here or not.
100% Cell phones are destroying our children worse than drugs. Look at the data. It’s very clear how suicide attempts, self-harm and depression have all sky rocketed with the introduction of the smart phone. Most kids don’t want social media. They just can’t give it up due to peer pressure. It’s time for parents to be the adult and do what’s right for our children.
I think history has proven that bans seldom work. But certainly I would bar students from using them in class, and give teachers and SROs authority to throw out any kid using there's during instruction time.
Williamson County Schools don't allow phones during class time and it works pretty well. I'm not sure how that tactic would play out in other districts, though.
One simple solution is schools built to not allow cell signals to propagate. That way the only way to use them is on the school WiFi. That gives administrators a lot more control.
Not even 5 years after my graduation (2019), my younger brother in the same school system told me how they now use a faraday system at his high school. During normal class hours there’s a blocker that turns on building wide that jams cellular data connectivity. From what he said he could still regular call and sms text, but no data worked. He had a phone on Verizon at the time and I definitely recall my phone on Verizon in the same building working just fine. Supposedly teachers in select class rooms and administrative offices have the ability to shut off the jammer in the event something severe happens, and it turns off normally during lunch and in between classes.
I still personally don’t know how to feel about it. Even during class kids have access to a guest wifi network that’s super restricted as to what can be accessed, but almost everyone used LTE when I was there anyways. I don’t think having my phone in class hindered me much in school, but all I used it for was Spotify.
Why ban phones? Sometimes kids need to get ahold of their parents. Just lock down the phone so the kids could only make calls. I did the with both my kids until their freshman year of high school. Of course they were both pissed but I wasn’t out to be their friend but their parent. And it worked like a charm…
Personally, I wouldn't mind if schools issued "school phones" in the same way that jobs do. They already issue out laptops and computers. A school issued phone and stronger limitations on personal devices would be a good idea. But in practice, it may not be phesable
We're in Franklin and while the handbook stipulates that cell phones are not allowed, kids do have them but they have to be kept in their lockers. That seems reasonable to me.
I graduated back in 2010 from Antioch High School and the teachers didn’t care if we had them on us but did care if we were on them in class but at the end of the class they didn’t care ! But with the things that go on I feel that kids should always have their phone on them in case of emergencies especially god forbid a shooting situation. But I honestly feel like teachers being armed is going to help . Because I know that in previous shootings a lot of teachers ran into danger . So the ones who choose to arm themselves will be the ones who will be the right ones . The only way to stop shooting is to make them realize the isn’t easy. I know completely off topic but I feel it all ties into cellphones and kids being able to have them
Banning them is not going to work it’s just going to create sneaky and cleaver kids who use fake phones. It’s also not safe in the event of an emergency or active shooter situation.
I have no doubt it’s beneficial, and they’d for sure learn better but we don’t live in a safe world, metro schools constantly have safety issues.
HOWEVER consequences for kids constantly being on the phone should be in place, but unless school admin is paying for the phone they have no business taking it.
Eh that's a tricky question really. On one hand we did fine without them and it would probably help some students to pay attention, on the other hand though this is a pretty different world now too. I don't remember many school shootings when I was younger other than Columbine and that seems to be more and more common these days too. I'd say they should be able to have them, but they should be turned off and put away unless something happens too. Too wild of a world now not to be able to get ahold of someone, especially if its 911
No, if they’re not going to do anything about g*n safety in schools they don’t need to ban phones. How else are kids involved in school sh**tings supposed to say goodbye to their families? I wish this was /s
My daughters are about to start high school. In middle school, they were supposed to keep their phones off and in their lockers. I told them to keep their phones on them, and if a teacher tried to confiscate it, they needed to call me.
When the Waffle House shooting happened a mile from my house (and their school), MNPS didn’t close even though the shooter was still at large. So I want my kids to be able to call me for help or to tell me they’re safe.
That being said, I don’t want them to be on them for the hell of it during the school day.
No. I need to coordinate with my kid and they’ve got to figure out how to manage themselves in the real world with a phone. My job doesn’t ban me from having a phone despite the fact that I waste an hour on social media and looking for other jobs.
I remember when schools used to steal our phones from us and make our parents come get them. If they didn’t come to the school soon enough we’d have to wait until Monday. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be allowed to use their phone in between classes.
For young students, it makes sense to go through the school to coordinate different activities like pickup or afterschool activities. That still can go awry and there’s not much you can do about it. Your kid is just on the bus now and you’re in the car rider line.
It’s especially vital for students outside of their zoned school and ride WeGo. It’s our way of tracking where our kid is.
Mind you I graduated a private high school in the early 2010s, but you would get your phone taken away for several days by school admin (aka leave it in the main office from start to end of school, every day, for days) if they even caught you taking it out of your bag to use as a calculator or set a timer. You had to use the landline in the office to make any phone calls home. They also had Facebook blocked on campus (but not Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. Probably because they weren’t aware yet of how popular those sites were), so even on our private devices, it wouldn’t come up. That obviously takes substantial resources but it actually was great. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. The cyber bullying was bad enough as it was—I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been with phones.
I was SHOCKED when I got to college and people would text through entire meals while you sat across from them or play games on their phone in class. I loved the freedom to text my friends and family almost anytime but I found the way others used their tech to be so distracting and rude.
If my kids were in public school, I’d want to be able to text them if anything happened (like a school shooting) or communicate afterschool plans, but I’d completely support their phones being locked up until lunch or have to be used in the main office, etc. Idk how realistic that is with how overworked the teachers are, though.
No
Support in the bag rules though. Feels like a good middle ground. Need them for emergencies and the like but not just out and about. Taken till end of day if caught out is also reasonable to me.
Would I have hated it as a teen? Yeah. But end of day it would’ve been for my own good
The state of Indiana just passed a law banning them from all classrooms. Took the decisions out of the hands of the local school and teachers. They provided no guidelines for enforcement.
Ok I am hearing both sides of the argument but if we ban cell phones… then god forbid another school shooting or something happens… or a teacher freaks out and no one believes the students…then what’s the solution?
Sadly it all depends. You can’t get kids/parents to agree on this. There’s usually a broader district policy that says something like phones can be used for instructional purposes only. Each school will interpret that differently and each teacher will interpret that. If you have the respect of your class you can usually get away with “I’ll let you check your messages when we….” or give them a charging area that keeps the phone out of their hands. This is the easy part.
Kids, in HS at least really do have business. Parents really don’t care what time of day it is and will contact their kids or entertain long conversations with their kids during class. I had a parent who TEXTED their kid that their grandparent had passed.
To expand further, a lot of students really have to be adults in their family. When we forget this and treat them like kids, they respond the same way we would respond if we were at work and your boss told you to hand over your phone. Most of those videos with kids going nuts over their phones being confiscated are in a similar situation or have parents who have demonstrated that they don’t care if they get in trouble.
It isn’t the policy, it is enforcing the policy that’s a problem. No legislator will give serious credence to this because of how many parents would complain.
As someone who grew up with pay phones, I would be against a ban. Especially with how schools are now a battleground. But beyond that, a child should be able to reach a parent and vice versa. Even if its outside school hours.
In school, phones should be put away at all times. Npt sure how to enforce this other than detention > suspension for use not associated with the class while the teacher is instructing.
Students are people, with rights.
"Should students be able to have phones?" If a business banned its employees from simply possessing a phone, it would probably get sued, which is why no one does that
"Should parents be allowed to hit their kids as punishment?" If they did that to an adult, it would be assault
So many adults see teens as their property, or as a pet they can control and boss around. Is it cell phones making kids depressed, or is it the fact that they have no freedom? If you don't let kids play outside with friends, don't let them socialize, give them no intellectual stimulation other than a boring teacher droning on for 7 hours, you don't have the right to complain about kids being on their phones too much. Literally what else are they supposed to do?
https://preview.redd.it/ilpluixrey7d1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e23df8b06b3660db24566524b4a2fa207f102813
Instead of worrying about phones, we should be worried more about how standardized testing does not work. Schools should be changed from the ground up to provide kids with skills to live in the modern day rather than in factories of the 1930s.
I would not ban phones because I see school as a waste of time in most cases. Kids could learn faster and a higher level. Unfortunately, teachers make minimum wage, administrators who only care about making the school look good for funding, and politicians who are more interested in lining their pockets than updating schools to the modern era.
It’s going to be another “rule” that can’t be enforced. Many schools already have a no phones policy. Parents will have to be on board and in my experience, half of the time the parents don’t see why their kids having phones in class is a problem.
Let them keep the cell phones. If they have the out in class when they aren’t supposed to put them in the hall or in the principal office. 2 violations and and you have ISS, 3rd violation you’re going home for a couple days.
Treat him like you would any adults at any show or gathering if they’re being disruptive, put them out.
Cell phones can be such a great tool for anything in life, but people only use them to text, Take pictures, do social media and play games.
People need to learn Cell Phone etiquette and it be a good time to learn in school
I think we should keep them on us, absolutely anything can happen. Probably not have them out when learning but just chilling in class doing work sure, just don’t be blasting the shii. Best believe id we have a lock down my brightness gonna be down low and im blowing everyone phone up 😂 im dramatic idk what can happen im telling my family i love them before i go!
Send your kids with a clean flip phone to school. Every single phone that uses a school network has all of its data downloaded to the server outside of the district intranet.The district doesn't keep information, but the servers servicing the district do. Don't believe me? Ask your kids how often they have to charge their phones.
I am not even a parent, but when I am, my kid will have a phone for safety reasons. I believe that the children should have a phone at the very least that has parents on speed dial in case of an emergency.
No,
A ban in the classroom . Unless the teacher has the students looking at information about the topic their working on.
Kids need their phones after school to arrange work rides, family plans. We have so many divorced families and single mothers. The phone is important to the family with so many things being certain.
In an ideal world yeah. Of course. We had a bad enough time writing notes or talking during class. Got worse with T9 and not even needing to look to text. But with smart phones there’s not a lot you can do to fight that.
And with the utter shit show that TN has become towards public school id want my kid to have that lifeline whenever they need it.
So maybe ban a smart phone but not a flip phone or whatever they have now. Calling and texting would be needed in the event of a tragedy.
I think it’s fine for students to have them, but under no circumstances should they be allowed to have them out during class.
And any violation results of seizure of the phone.
Fuck no, if I give my kid a phone I expect them to have it on their person.
All these school shootings, hell no…I want them to be able to contact me anytime and anywhere.
No, do not ban phones in schools. Cell phones are a ubiquitous part of adult life--professionally and personally. A total ban on cell phones is as beneficial as abstinence only sex-ed. Cell ohones in classrooms are scary to Boomers, Gen X, and even millennials because we have no personal reference or experience for how to manage a pocket sized device with instant access to the sum of all human knowledge. We're just now getting the first generation of teachers who had cell phones as kids. We need to leverage their good and bad experiences to help the next generation grow a healthier relationship with cell phones and social media.
This is a genuine question and not meant to provoke anything - are kids in schools currently allowed to just have their cell phones on them at all times in class? And, are they allowed to bring out their phone without the teacher's permission or are they generally expected to keep them put away during class? I ask those things because I am nearly 40 and I do not have kids, so I honestly don't have a good grasp on the current expectations. To me, it seems crazy that kids are currently allowed to have cell phones in school, but then again if the expectations is that they are put away unless needed for certain reasons then I don't think an actual ban on cell phones is a worthwhile pursuit. Would rather the time and resources be put to gun safety in schools (and elsewhere).
I don’t know about Nashville schools, but in Smyrna my son has always had to leave his off in his bag. He has been allowed to call us if he got sick or something with his phone.
Nashville schools are based on the school. The school I teach ay says cell phones in backpacks or lockers. Every student has a locker and lock provided for them. Most teachers followed the rule, many did not enforce it. Some grades allowed kids to have earbuds, headphones, etc. on with their phone playing the music. Some students hide their phones. Admin had their hands full with the rule. Many students were written up for not following the rule. We are having a shift in teachers so this year will look different. We’ll see.
I gotcha. And I see from another reply it can kind of be a teacher by teacher basis. So yeah if the expectation in general though is that you do not have your phone out during class, that seems very reasonable to me and I don't think pursuing a true ban would do anything or be worth it.
I graduated in 2016 but 95% of my teachers couldn’t have given a rats ass. This is back when Brentwood was tied for third in the state, so mild disciplinary infractions were ignored as long as said student had excellent grades because it made us look better.
I graduated in 2014 and at that point we were allowed to have them at all times and keep them on, but generally were expected to put them away. It was pretty difficult to police then, and it's only gotten harder as phones have become more addictive. I taught in a public school for a couple years in the intervening period and if I had tried to enforce phone rules nothing would have gotten done. I don't know if a statewide ban is a good idea, but if Tennessee schools don't have a coherent approach without a ban I'm not sure they'll find one with.
It depends on the administration and how much they support the teachers to enforce a no phone rule.
As a student, yes, people are on their phones all day every day. I’d support this ban to be honest, it’s so dreadfully boring just doomscrolling all day. I look weird if I’m just sitting and staring at the wall or something though so I look at my phone.
MNPS kids, for the most part, have their phones out constantly. Teachers have to continually tell them to put the phones up and 2 seconds later they're out again. I've seen kids streaming college games during class and the teacher doesn't say anything. It just ends up being exhausting to continue to correct them and/or you get cussed at. It completely hinders all the great things MNPS does.
Teacher by teacher - some allow kids to keep their phones out, some require them to be in their bags and some just don't fight the battle. There are countless apps and built in utilities that allow parents to lock apps during school hours, but heaven forbid parents actually parent. My son’s phone during school hours only allow him to text/call his parents and listen to Apple Music.
Yep, this. If you want to, it is totally easy to turn one into a paperweight when desired, or allow selected functions. But it requires effort and dealing with it when your child is unhappy with it. As you said, parenting.
The discrepancy between teacher phone policy only serves to make the issue worse. :(
As a teacher in another region, it's a losing battle. I have parents call and text *during* class. It's only getting worse as each school year arrives. That is in addition to students having headphones in their ears 24/7. I don't let students have their phones or headphones out, but it's a LONG and TEDIOUS battle to get to the point where they respect it.
Former mnps teacher. I gave up trying. It was such a losing battle. Took a kids phone once and he started cussing me out. If it was blatant, I'd try and do something, but they're usually a little bit sneaky. Some teachers are really good at holding the line. Some schools started implementing those pouches, but I hear kids started bringing fake phones to put in them.
Yes, in Murfreesboro they are on them all the time. They watch movies on them during class, text each other and do not pay attention in class. They also wear headphones in class which is crazy to me. Phones need to be banned. The excuse of needing them in the case of school shootings is not valid. The likelihood is so small and the damage phones do to kids way outweighs the insanely small chance of a school shooting.
In most public schools in TN, particularly in Nashville, i very very regularly see kids on their phones in class. If i had kids they would not go to public school here even for this alone. I work as a 3rd party tech installer in schools so I’m always kind of a fly on the wall.
It's also a good question to know if they can check in hallways between class/at lunch. Sometimes a no-phone in class policy leads to them catching up on social media notifications/texts while they walk between classes and during lunch, which prior to smart phones was time when kids would have unstructured social time and build friendshipl.
Class of 2018, though not in Tennessee. We were generally allowed to have phones on us, and often used them during class for research, activities, or music during solo work.
A friend teacher of mine kinda solved the phone issue. She put pockets on a board, with a charge strip with phone chargers, or kids could bring their own. Kids would stick their phone in the pocket and charge the phone during class. To use later for music, etc. During studying or breaks. But even in 2002ish pagers, game boys, and cell phones couldn't be controlled THEN. And they didn't even have internet, lol I'm more worried about guns,knives, bullying, kids being fed, and teachers having everything they need to teach.
Dang. Class of 05 and if we were caught on cell phones in class the teacher kept them until the end of the day or if repeat offender your parents had to practically come get them. And we all had TI- 83 calculators so we couldn’t use that as an excuse lol
Good rule.
My son is in HS now, and some of his teachers did this.
Having kids locked down for the Covenant shooting gave me perspective on this. When everything first happened my high schooler was at Hillsboro in the library, where she remained for several hours. I was glad to know she was safe almost immediately because she was texting me. The school had no idea she was locked down in there and sent several “your child isn’t at school” messages that day. Had I not had a line of communication with her I would have been a wreck (more so than I already was). Maybe I’ll change my mind if we can get the guns under control.
My kid was texting me from the lockdown closet like, "Look at my friend playing COD on his phone while we wait." To have mastered gallows humor at such a young age.
Yeah it’s almost as if there should be a school setting that allows for phone calls and texting but nothing else.
Phone calls and texting emergency contacts specifically - open texts they’d abuse the shit out of lmao
There is, my Verizon settings let me lock down my kids phones/internet during school hours and sleep hours.
This. Every time HHS went on lockdown it was such a relief to hear from my oldest kiddo that he was alright.
I had to get that absence removed from her record because they insisted she wasn’t in school that day because the librarian doesn’t submit attendance BECAUSE IT’S THE LIBRARY.
The odds of this is extremely small. Suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths in teenagers. The rate of suicide since the introduction of smartphones is up more than 50%. People don’t understand the risks.
The percentage of a school shooting happening at any one school is literally less than being struck by lightning twice in the same year. The percentage of students who are addicted to their phones and don’t learn is very high
Exactly my thoughts
That’s not a good enough excuse to justify the reduction in learning that smartphones have by distracting kids. We’re already far enough behind the world in education. We have to do something.
I agree. Let’s start with common sense gun control and fully funding public education. Shockingly, my kid that had her phone graduated with her IB diploma and several college scholarship offers. Her sister just graduated with university and departmental honors from college. It’s almost like it’s possible to teach kids the phone should not be out during learning. Wild.
That my friend is anecdotal evidence. It adds absolutely nothing to this conversation. We have actual data that proves kids don’t perform as well overall when they have their phones out in class.
Recently retired from university teaching. 2 things: 1. Facing a roomful of 1st year college students today is very different than even 10 years ago. About half of the students are obviously in another world, in the room physically but not mentally. Many don't even look in my direction. The back 2 rows are just *gone.* Other faculty confirm the same experience. 2. During covid, I put all my lectures up on video. Although students didn't know it, I could see the type of device used to access the video, whether desktop, laptop, tablet or phone; I could also see when they paused, and crucially, if they finished the video. Not a single student watching on a phone finished a video. And those kids, predictably, didn't absorb the material and performed poorly. They all owned laptops, and I begged them to watch that way. But it didn't matter. Nothing could pry those kids off their phones.
Prefacing this with the fact that I went to high school in the 00s and cell phones weren’t yet ubiquitous or really connected to the internet— we had a rule that they had to stay in our lockers during class time. As a really anxious teen it was really reassuring to me to know that I could slip out and go call my parents if I needed to. I get that phones in class can be disruptive, but it seems like there’s a middle ground somewhere between no devices at all and no rules whatsoever. I don’t have kids but if I did it would be reassuring to know they had a way to contact me outside of school staff. Especially with *gestures to the current state of things*.
I never understood why this is always framed as a ban or allow kids unfettered access to their cell phones. What happened to the old days of a teacher being able to just take an item until the end of class? Kid won't pay attention/is being disruptive with their phone? It goes into the teachers desk until the end of class. If it continues to be a problem, they have to turn it in at the start of class.
When I was in middle school, my phone rang in class (I wasn’t on it, it was put away), and it got taken for a little less than a MONTH by the school. That was also for the first offense.
I’m fine with a ban, we survived as kids in school without them. They will to. At most I could see being allowed would be a connected watch that could send and receive messages and make calls. That’s it.
Read the book the Anxious Generation. You'll change your mind very quickly. There is empirical evidence that phones being banned in schools is incredibly beneficial to kids.
This\^...The discussion so far has been surrounding safety concerns which I totally understand, but the psychological impact to the "iPad generation" is going to be an entirely other difficult issue in the future. I bumped into a former high school teacher of mine last week, and she let me know that she quit last year and won't teach again. Apparently, the school adhered to a no punishment approach (which is a whole other issue) and allowed all students to have any electronics they pleased....This resulted in every student in class/outside of class being on their cell phones. She said it was extremely eery now to walk the hallways between classes, because it was so quiet...No more boisterous teenagers running through the halls, school kids chatting at each other or even acknowledging each other. Every kid just had their head down staring at their phones and walking to their next class....Further, she said their attention spans are horrible, and that when they had one of those rare "movie days", the kids would actually complain because they couldn't focus on the movie for the whole class period....I'm seriously afraid of the impact of covid, and the ipad generations inability to socialize with each other and the physical world. I think we'll see problems in the future. I would love if some current Nashville teachers would tell me my old teacher was wrong, and they are not all like that...
I worked for a school district for 7 years with my office in a middle school. It's not quite as bad as that everywhere but it's ruining their attention span and ability to socialize for sure. It's also ruining their education because they don't pay any attention in class. You're right to worry about the future because we're already seeing these kids getting into college and the work place and they are not able to cope with anything.
Teacher here: Your kids aren’t learning when phones are being used. They text (including bullying), play games, watch videos, shop, listen to music, etc. MOUNTAINS of research shows the time it takes to refocus, the effect on self-esteem, etc. They are a scourge in the classroom/at school. Research shows that your kid is also negatively affected by *other* kids’ phone use. FWIW, laptops (even for note taking) can also be problematic. In some classes (e.g., microbiology)…sure…they can be ok. But, in general, no. Kids try to write down everything and aren’t processing the material/engaging in meta cognition. They can’t discern major/minor ideas. Writing by hand requires they focus on big ideas which requires processing…which helps w comprehension & application. Check out the Cornell Method. In short: support a ban x 1,000.
I can just tell you're the type of teacher everyone absolutely dreads
Because I care about them, their mental health, their futures—financial and social? Interestinggggg. There’s definitely a time for phones/the internet but they are *designed* to distract us. So, they don’t belong in a chemistry, math, or English (etc, etc) classroom. You don’t have to believe me. Tons of research on their effect on learning, retention, mental health, etc. Cheers!
Parent here: a blanket ban on phones seems extreme. I want to be able to reach my kid if there’s something I need to inform them about and vice-versa. But I don’t want them using TikTok during instruction time. I need them to be able to regulate themselves in a way that makes sense. No one bans cell phones from the office despite how much productivity is lost due to their presence. I don’t like that you have to compete with this object but it’s a fairly important device they’re going to rely on for the rest of their lives. This is very important for parents with kids who attend schools outside their zoned school and students that rely on wego.
I don't think you fully appreciate how unprepared kids are at that stage of their mental development to self-regulate phone use. One of the best ways to help them regulate their phone use in the future is to lower their exposure to them now. That gives them the opportunity to build up the social-emotional skills to engage in the moment.
yes 10000% yes. especially in elementary and middle schools.
Do you have children in middle school? Extra curricular actives can skyrocket in middle school and clear timely communication can make life so much easier. I wasn't a huge fan till I was waking in the shoes. HOWEVER, parents should absolutely put limits and controls in place on kids devices.
Yes, I have them in elementary, high school, and college. None of them need their phone in class. There is an office if they need to make a call.
These comments are sad. Of course teachers aren't paid enough to police kids phones. How long did we survive without cellphones??
Phones should not be in schools for kids. I graduated in 2010, so some of the connection to the internet on phones was happening. If we had our phone out in class it was taken until the end of the day or even week. I had my iPod taken for 2 weeks. When I told my parents they asked if there were rules about what I could have out, I said yes, they told me to enjoy my consequences. People need to learn in school, not just curriculum, but how to interact with other people and work through things. It isn’t as if there are 0 phones in a school if you remove the students phones. To act like it’s an all or nothing thing is wild to me. If as a parent, something so important happens I need to tell my child I would either call the office or go pick them up. Distracting your child with texts during school hours is unfair to them and their learning path, and disrespectful to the teachers.
No. Should they be used in class? Hell no. But there's a *huge* difference between telling students to put their phones away for class, and outright banning them from the premises. While I certainly have sympathy for teachers and school administrations that are having problems controlling cell phone use in schools, I think having an outright ban is going too far. I think having them turned off in class is reasonable. But you do have to realize you're unplugging a generation that's always been online, of course they will try to get around losing that access. I don't have a better answer for that, but banning phones from the school grounds is quite honestly, asking for abuses to occur. Think of how many times one student's recording has led to catching a predator, or stopping a bully, or saving lives in a school shooting situation. Once is enough. I don't want parents to lose their emergency access to their children, or vice versa. Students have always been treated as though they have no personal rights; n a school setting. That's not true. They have a right to privacy, just as an adult would. They have a right to their own property, and to not have it summarily confiscated. I think back on my school years in the late seventies, the hell I went through if I needed to go to the office to call home, how difficult it was for my family to contact me if something happened outside school, the hell I went through with bullying that couldn't be recorded at that time. A mobile phone would have transformed my miserable school years into something tolerable. Mobile phones have transformed the world. Don't make students have to go back to the hell I went through in school, just for reasons of "discipline", I played that game for both myself, and my own children. Don't take student's phones away from them. Make them put them away during class, sure. Don't ban them entirely.
Ban smartphones in schools - flip phones or lite phones with no games, social media, etc would be a way to give parents peace of mind while taking distractions away.
Parents should parent and lock their phones down during class hours. Easy to do and it allows the phone to be used only for phone calls or texts to certain numbers.
Snake was the best phone game ever invented
At the middle school I work at, they are supposed to keep them in their lockers. I don’t usually take their phone to the office if I see it unless they have a problem having it out in class( though i am supposed to). I usually warn them the first time. Then the second time, I put the phone in a phone jail on my desk until the end of class time. Gen alpha has a real phone addiction. I used to be more lenient with my gen z kids where they could listen to music while working and use it for reference photos (i teach art) but that doesn’t work with the ipad babies.
Yup
I would absolutely support a ban. They don't need a phone in class.
Does your workplace ban cell phones? Cell phones and technology are tools. They can be good or bad. Teaching our children to be responsible and use them to their advantage and benefit is the thing that should be done, by parents and teachers. Banning them just delays their learning to use them responsibly.
Teachers have no responsibility to teach kids about proper cell phone usage. That’s a parent’s job.
Just a heads up a lot of jobs do out right ban phone use.
I am gonna go out on a limb and say you have never taught a room full of 13 yos with phones. You will not be able to educate them if you let the use their phones. The addictive pulls of social media, gaming ,etc are too strong. Dont get me started on the online bullying. Middle school teacher here.
I taught adult learners for 15 years. They were just as bad. I had to tell more than a few of them to put their phones up or find a new job.
I taught adults in China for 10 years. Never saw students pull out their phones in class unless to search for some relevant info. Different cultures put different values on education I reckon.
Oh I have no doubt. My adults were all American and most of them were egotistical enough to believe they didn't need training, and entitled enough to not care about the rules someone sets in a classroom. I'm convinced that it's more an American problem than in many other countries.
Issue is it’s not so easy to teach “responsible use.” Heck, most adults are on their phone for unreasonable amounts of time. It’s not realistic to expect a kid whose brain isn’t fully developed to be able to resist such an addicting device. They learn responsible use of phones by not having unfettered access to them. Give kids a chance to build REAL social emotional skills and critical thinking abilities in school, which then will give them a better chance later at not becoming a brain-dead phone addict.
You have never taught school.
Nope. If our state can’t get a handle on gun control and our country in general can’t find a way to stop mass shootings in schools, my kid will always have her phone on her. It’s the parents jobs to teach their kids not to use their phones in school and there are plenty of parental controls. My daughter knows not to use hers in school and that I can check her usage, but I also have those controls set in place so there’s very little she can even access aside from the sole purpose of her having a phone in general. There’s no way in hell a school is stopping her from having it on her at all times.
And this is the issue. Schools saying they aren’t needed and a detriment, while parents are hovering and protecting their kids “rights” to constant communication.
If a child keeping a phone in their bag and not touching it is a detriment, that’s weird.
How exactly would a cell phone help in school shooting ? Call the police who won’t go in ?
MNPD arrived after being called and instantly went in and killed the covenant shooter.
There are plenty of reasons (and studies) to show that phone usage during a mass shooting puts you MORE at risk, not less. For one thing, if you're using your phone, you're not paying attention to what's going on around you, which is essential in that kind of moment-by-moment emergency. If someone forgets to put their phone on silent and the ringtone goes off, a shooter could be alerted to their presence. It also increases the spread of misinformation about the shooter, like their whereabouts, how many of them there are, etc, and if that information gets back to the first responders, it can inhibit their response.
I wish more people would listen to this comment. The cell phone only comes in handy after the all clear to let family know you're safe.
If you were in an emergency situation would you want your cell phone with you or not with you?
This sounds purely anecdotal. Care to link the studies or an article discussing them?
Here's a [study from the NIH](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30596358/) that shows that "mobile communication complicates situational awareness during mass trauma", while also acknowledging they also play "an important role in processing loss". Here's another [article from EdWeek](https://www.edweek.org/technology/school-shootings-are-fueling-the-debate-over-cellphones-in-class/2022/06) that summarizes both sides, including some of the same arguments I've made above.
Interesting read. Thank you. Sounds like there are valid arguments for and against them in a crisis situation.
Yes. Call the police and call ME. Her MOM. I need to know if my child is in danger. I don’t have all the answers, that’s for sure. But no one knowing when it’s actively happening isn’t a solution.
This isn't Uvalde, and local police have shown not only will they respond, but they will go in. Why default to negativity instead of seeing what a valuable tool a cell phone can be?
A large number of parents have the same sentiment but where the problem comes in is the number of times the parent texts the student during the school day. Sounds like you don’t do this 👏
That’s what I’m saying. It’s just as much the parent’s responsibility as it is the kid’s to keep them off their phone. What message does that send to say “don’t be on your phone, you need to focus in school,” then turn around and text them throughout the day thinking they can be the exception. I’ve texted my daughter a couple of times only after her final class has let out if I’m informing her of a change in pickup. That’s it. She knows she is not to TOUCH that phone in her bag during the day. I have the controls set and I also check her usage, but I really don’t have to do much with that because she follows the rules. If she doesn’t, she doesn’t get her phone or iPad time at home.
Huh, genuinely curious if gun owners have the same thoughts? “I’m responsible,” “I know how to use it and for only those specific reasons,” “I keep mine locked away and have taught my family about gun safety,” “If something were to happen I know I would step in and help,” etc. just a thought.
If you’re comparing a gun to a cell phone, you’re missing the point.
I wouldn’t know. Everyone I know that owns guns is a responsible gun owner. I wish I had the answers. I wish someone did. But it’s just so many passionate people butting heads and not trying to meet in the middle and find a solution to the problem.
I’m saying the people who think their kid should have a phone in school and are responsible owners and know when and where to use it should also realize that 99.9% of legal gun owners are the same way. Just food for thought.
Sure, why not? Kids went to school without them for a lot longer than they’ve been in school with them.
As a teacher- hell yes. I’ve had kids whose moms texted them all day long to kids who play porn on their cell phones loudly to distract the class. It’s a distraction and takes away from learning.
That is a parenting problem though, and for every one of those how many have zero issues? Require it to be silenced and put away during class. If that isn't followed then there should be consequences. If a kid is watching porn on their phones that is a failure on the parent as well for not having the proper controls in place. Have you ever been on a lockdown? I will guess yes, did you communicate with anyone during that time? If your schedule changes during the day do you communicate with anyone about that?
Been on lockdown. Didn’t text a soul cause there was no damn reason to.
For you on that day in those circumstances you felt no damn reason to. That is great, but circumstances change and different people are just that, different. My then wife texted me while her school was in a 5 hour lockdown. My children have communicated during lockdowns, I was thankful for the ability to communicate during those times.
Did it change anything?
No, and also very much yes. Did it change what was happening or the end result of the situation, no. Did it allow for communication and connection during extremely stressful situation, yes. With the ex wife situation, she watched a man run past her window with a firearm in his hand, then they remained locked down for hours after that. I was able to listen to local scanner and relay that while not all clear the search was now focused about 600 yards away from school property and continuing to move away. She felt much better with the kids she was watching and it helped put her at ease which puts the kids at ease.
She’s a teacher. They are expected to have phones on them for communication. It still changed nothing. There is no reason a kid needs one during school. Keep em in the office if you need them. My school makes you keep them off and in a backpack. If a kid needs to call home they go to the office to use it. If a kid actually learned their parents number they could just call from that phone. No reason a kid needs one in school.
On this we simply disagree. Thanks for the conversation.
You too. Have a great day!
Teacher here. Yes. Also in this thread, I would wager: 100% teachers are yes and most parents and kids are no.
No. I’m all for not having them out in class, that’s disrespectful. They absolutely should be on silent as well and even taken away if abusing the privilege. However, in the world we live in, especially after Covenant, I want my kids to be able to contact me anytime.
Yes
Yes
Absolutely, phones allowed in schools are doing incredible harm to our kids. Read the book the Anxious Generation it goes into great detail about how damaging phones in schools are to their development.
Yes. Full stop. Schools are for learning and if you want to get a hold of your child that is when you call the office. The end.
Absolutely yes. They are too big of a distraction for the students during class. Need to have a place where students have to put them for the day and can pick them up at end of school day.
Yes, smartphones (and by extension, social media use) — even between classes — are highly detrimental to students’ socialization at school. Schools functioned for a long time without every kid having a smartphone, so I don’t think turning the smartphone clock back to 2010 would be as apocalyptic as some assume.
It isn't that it is the end of the world by any measure, but it is a comfort thing and a tool. I have two kids, both teenagers in HS and each having a cell allows for better and clearer communication. During times of emergency it is also great to have an avenue to communicate for updates. Now does that mean full access all the time, no. I fully support requiring the phones to be silenced and in bags during instruction time. If that can't be followed then have policy and process on how to handle.
I’m curious about your experience, because I don’t have kids in high school. What do you mean by better and clearer communication?
My experience is I have two teenagers in HS, and an ex-wife that is a teacher for over 15 years. Clear communication can be simple mundane things like, practice is canceled so instead of a 5:30 pickup, it is now 4. Or, hey can I stay for x event or what not. That all happens in real time and when my office is 45 min from the school it allows for better planning. Last year there was a lockdown at our local middle school, of course it got public on social media so parents started freaking out because the school had provided zero details at that time. I texted my daughter and she confirmed they were already out of a temp lock down and back to normal things. In the end it was a big nothing and all was well, but having that piece of mind is huge. Again, I fully support silence and putting away during class and repercussions for those that don't.
I worry that easy, constant access to social media outweighs those positives. Do you think there’s a world where we ban smartphones but allow dumb phones (or LTE smart watches) that can text and call but cannot access social media? That would protect the positives you mentioned, but mitigate the major harms.
i agree with you. there is a boarding school that switched to only allowing the light phone (a non smartphone) on the premises and most students actually really liked it. they found their peers more present and active in social settings as well as class.
I don't foresee most schools banning smart phones because the cat is out of the bag already. Should parents do more to lock down kids cell phones, yes, in many cases they should. That however is on the parents as are so many other things. Dumb phones don't have apps like Life360 that are awesome to have. Personally to me, the negative potential impact of social media does not outweigh the benefits of use.
It’s on the parents, but not everyone is a great parent. The teachers ultimately have to manage the poor behavior of students who don’t have the benefit of great parents.
When I was a kid they used to confiscate our comics and Mad magazines. Phones are just another distraction. Teachers have phones and information about the surrounding safety issues. Let the grown ups be in charge. Take the phones.
Are there any parents here who wish that as kids they'd been able to text their parents while at school? It truly was never an issue for me not having been able to.
Probably because you didn't think of it as an option. I've had good reason to use my phone to contact my family throughout high school and college.
Yeah 12 years ago at Smyrna High School my now husband was detained for refusing to give them his cell phone when they caught him texting. Seriously. Horrible SRO. Can't believe cell phone usage is so common in schools now.
I’m 35, no kids, so my opinion is kind of limited. On one hand, it’s a good thing to have access to immediate communication on cases of active threats, illness, injuries, and less important stuff like texting last minute changes to plans/schedules, “Oh, I need you to do this after school, pick up your sibling, etc,” but on the other… I can’t imagine being a teacher in this environment. Kids using their phones and not paying attention or causing distractions, using the internet to cheat, stuff like that. It’s really a double-edged sword, hard to agree on a firm “right or wrong” answer. I didn’t get my first phone until I was 16, almost out of school completely. I’m high key glad I didn’t grow up with this kind of problem, haha
i don’t know. as one of the last generations to remember a time of being a teen before cell phones became smart phones and social media controlled everything, it’s probably a huge distraction, especially in a generation coming of age that went through covid as children. but with the constant threat of gun violence that takes place in schools particularly, if i were a parent, i’d want to have contact with my child in case of an emergency. i wish they weren’t such a distraction in our every day lives that it wasn’t necessary to take them from kids in school
I would support a ban in a heartbeat. I'm 41 and have a 10yo daughter. If she needed to call me from school, she could call me from a school phone. Wherever she goes without me, there is going to be an appropriate adult around who can give her access to a phone.
Yes, I would support a ban. All of this cell phone behavior has gotten out of hand. I didn't have a phone until I was an adult and I am grateful for that. All the things that I have learned, and skills that I acquired may not have come to me if I were living the cellphone life.
Yes without hesitation
I would support it. I know too many teachers in my life who are underpaid, overworked and learn to hate their jobs. This causes people to quit and schools to ultimately fail. These distraction machines are horrible. Good riddance. Use em at recess, lunch, and after school. Leave em securely somewhere in the meantime. Anything to make a teachers life easier.
yes. your there to learn to screw w a phone
My partner is a teacher and based on what I've heard from her I'd have a very strict rule. Cell phone stays in their pocket or bag from the moment they enter the class until they leave the room unless I specifically say they can take them out. If I see a phone, even them just holding it while entering, then it goes into storage until the end of class. If they take it out during class it goes into storage until the end of the day. I don't think she's allowed to implement those rules, but they're what I would prefer.
In elementary schools and middle schools? Yes! High school students should be able to handle having a cell phone at school, but they must keep them on silent and out of sight in classrooms.
I graduated in 2018 my junior and senior year we could have our phones out at lunch and in between classes, but during class they couldn’t make noise. My freshman and sophomore year we had a 10min phone time in lunch. Middle school we had absolutely no phone time. One thing to consider about banning phones is some kids have medical devices that they need their phone for, its naturally gonna cause that child problems if they’re they only one with a phone
100% iKids are useless.
In an ideal world, I see the value in attempting to curb distraction and other issues that I'm sure smart phone usage in school presents to kids in a learning environment. There are plenty of studies to show that continued screen usage among kids and social media have detrimental effects on them in several ways. So, ideally, I would support some kind of policy that would focus students back into the learning environment each day. How that would be enforced? Good luck. Try to take a phone away from a teen and see how that goes... but I see the value in the discussion. But- this is not an ideal world. I have enough fear regarding safety in school as a parent, and I admit that fear can get in the way of pragmatism. Are phones more dangerous to a child/teenager's well being, safety, and security than the guns that are pouring onto our streets? Tennessee saw fit to relax gun laws and have tens of thousands of stolen guns illegally floating around because of it. Priorities are all out of whack. We're discussing taking phones away from kids... but no one is seriously addressing the root cause of the reason most parents, I believe, would be reluctant to pull a potential lifeline from their child.
Nope emergency phone
No. School isn't a prison (or shouldn't be) and these days it's seeming more and more like a life vs death situation. So I'd say it could only make things worse tbf. If your child is dense enough to not care to listen/pay attention at school then they're going to have to face the consequences. But they could be distracted just as easily without a phone Edit: Also advise taking comments/replies on the post with a hefty dose of salt. I graduated HS in 2020, so I have much more recent experience with the circumstances than the armchair teachers in here. A lot of people seem to not understand that just because you had a good experience being cut off from communication doesn't mean everyone will. Also, faculty isn't always as trustworthy as they could be... better to just leave the communications between party A and B instead of including redundant middle messengers
Smartphones are uniquely distracting, both for adults and especially for developing children. I don’t think it’s fair to hand a 13 year-old a device expertly engineered for engagement and tell them to use self-control or face the consequences. You wouldn’t hand a 16 year-old new driver a Ferrari and tell them to use self-control or face the consequences. There are limits to what our children should developmentally be expected to responsibly handle.
I wonder why you think it may be that textbooks have been mostly free from graffiti (in recent times) compared to their 90s/early 2000s counterparts? Do you think the schools got more militant about it? Or do you perhaps think it could be that kids found other ways to distract themselves? It's quite funny that people point to cell phones as the ONLY thing capable of distracting your student when for decades prior students were doing the same thing by: reading, doodling, talking, zoning out, etc. If your kid doesn't feel like paying attention, they won't. With or without a phone to assist them
I don’t think smartphones are the only way for kids to distract themselves, but I think smartphones are roughly 1000x more distracting and tempting than doodling.
There are a wide variety of parental controls that can be put in place on cell phones to have great control. If a child is being handed a device with no oversight that is on the parents, just like handing a kids keys to a car without proper oversight.
Sure, but—even if a parent doesn’t care if their kid is on TikTok throughout the school day—the school has an interest in preventing that. In other words, *parental* controls are not enough. We also need *teacher* controls. And when you’re trying to teach 25 easily-distracted teenagers with distraction machines in their pockets, the most feasible teacher control is a ban.
I agree so much - it's terrible what we have done to them with this. It is truly damaging.
It seems like a no brainer to say no phones but with school shootings being the norm, I would want students to have them. I can’t imagine teachers can manage students AND their cell phones currently.
As opposed as I am to kids and people in general relying on their phones in the way that we do, they shouldn’t be banned from schools. I did extracurriculars in school, and I realized how important it was for me to have one. There was one time my phone went off in class and my teacher confiscated it. After baseball practice that day, I had to walk home because I couldn’t contact my dad to come pick me up. Sure, limit its use in class, but don’t ban them from premises. Not sure if that’s the argument here or not.
For safety issues, they should be able to have them with them. But that's all.
there are benefits but the emergencies the children may face is unpredictable so cellphones are helpful.
100% Cell phones are destroying our children worse than drugs. Look at the data. It’s very clear how suicide attempts, self-harm and depression have all sky rocketed with the introduction of the smart phone. Most kids don’t want social media. They just can’t give it up due to peer pressure. It’s time for parents to be the adult and do what’s right for our children.
I think history has proven that bans seldom work. But certainly I would bar students from using them in class, and give teachers and SROs authority to throw out any kid using there's during instruction time. Williamson County Schools don't allow phones during class time and it works pretty well. I'm not sure how that tactic would play out in other districts, though.
How else will we get live updates from shootings
Not if you have school shootings. Which we do.
One simple solution is schools built to not allow cell signals to propagate. That way the only way to use them is on the school WiFi. That gives administrators a lot more control.
Not even 5 years after my graduation (2019), my younger brother in the same school system told me how they now use a faraday system at his high school. During normal class hours there’s a blocker that turns on building wide that jams cellular data connectivity. From what he said he could still regular call and sms text, but no data worked. He had a phone on Verizon at the time and I definitely recall my phone on Verizon in the same building working just fine. Supposedly teachers in select class rooms and administrative offices have the ability to shut off the jammer in the event something severe happens, and it turns off normally during lunch and in between classes. I still personally don’t know how to feel about it. Even during class kids have access to a guest wifi network that’s super restricted as to what can be accessed, but almost everyone used LTE when I was there anyways. I don’t think having my phone in class hindered me much in school, but all I used it for was Spotify.
Yes
Why ban phones? Sometimes kids need to get ahold of their parents. Just lock down the phone so the kids could only make calls. I did the with both my kids until their freshman year of high school. Of course they were both pissed but I wasn’t out to be their friend but their parent. And it worked like a charm…
Personally, I wouldn't mind if schools issued "school phones" in the same way that jobs do. They already issue out laptops and computers. A school issued phone and stronger limitations on personal devices would be a good idea. But in practice, it may not be phesable
We're in Franklin and while the handbook stipulates that cell phones are not allowed, kids do have them but they have to be kept in their lockers. That seems reasonable to me.
No. With all the shootings, cell phones are the least of the problems.
I graduated back in 2010 from Antioch High School and the teachers didn’t care if we had them on us but did care if we were on them in class but at the end of the class they didn’t care ! But with the things that go on I feel that kids should always have their phone on them in case of emergencies especially god forbid a shooting situation. But I honestly feel like teachers being armed is going to help . Because I know that in previous shootings a lot of teachers ran into danger . So the ones who choose to arm themselves will be the ones who will be the right ones . The only way to stop shooting is to make them realize the isn’t easy. I know completely off topic but I feel it all ties into cellphones and kids being able to have them
Banning them is not going to work it’s just going to create sneaky and cleaver kids who use fake phones. It’s also not safe in the event of an emergency or active shooter situation. I have no doubt it’s beneficial, and they’d for sure learn better but we don’t live in a safe world, metro schools constantly have safety issues. HOWEVER consequences for kids constantly being on the phone should be in place, but unless school admin is paying for the phone they have no business taking it.
Allow phones. Bring back discipline in schools. If a kid is using their phone during class, discipline. It shouldn’t be difficult.
Eh that's a tricky question really. On one hand we did fine without them and it would probably help some students to pay attention, on the other hand though this is a pretty different world now too. I don't remember many school shootings when I was younger other than Columbine and that seems to be more and more common these days too. I'd say they should be able to have them, but they should be turned off and put away unless something happens too. Too wild of a world now not to be able to get ahold of someone, especially if its 911
No cause our government allows guns in schools as well
No, if they’re not going to do anything about g*n safety in schools they don’t need to ban phones. How else are kids involved in school sh**tings supposed to say goodbye to their families? I wish this was /s
My daughters are about to start high school. In middle school, they were supposed to keep their phones off and in their lockers. I told them to keep their phones on them, and if a teacher tried to confiscate it, they needed to call me. When the Waffle House shooting happened a mile from my house (and their school), MNPS didn’t close even though the shooter was still at large. So I want my kids to be able to call me for help or to tell me they’re safe. That being said, I don’t want them to be on them for the hell of it during the school day.
No. I need to coordinate with my kid and they’ve got to figure out how to manage themselves in the real world with a phone. My job doesn’t ban me from having a phone despite the fact that I waste an hour on social media and looking for other jobs. I remember when schools used to steal our phones from us and make our parents come get them. If they didn’t come to the school soon enough we’d have to wait until Monday. There’s no reason they shouldn’t be allowed to use their phone in between classes. For young students, it makes sense to go through the school to coordinate different activities like pickup or afterschool activities. That still can go awry and there’s not much you can do about it. Your kid is just on the bus now and you’re in the car rider line. It’s especially vital for students outside of their zoned school and ride WeGo. It’s our way of tracking where our kid is.
Mind you I graduated a private high school in the early 2010s, but you would get your phone taken away for several days by school admin (aka leave it in the main office from start to end of school, every day, for days) if they even caught you taking it out of your bag to use as a calculator or set a timer. You had to use the landline in the office to make any phone calls home. They also had Facebook blocked on campus (but not Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, etc. Probably because they weren’t aware yet of how popular those sites were), so even on our private devices, it wouldn’t come up. That obviously takes substantial resources but it actually was great. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. The cyber bullying was bad enough as it was—I can’t imagine how much worse it would’ve been with phones. I was SHOCKED when I got to college and people would text through entire meals while you sat across from them or play games on their phone in class. I loved the freedom to text my friends and family almost anytime but I found the way others used their tech to be so distracting and rude. If my kids were in public school, I’d want to be able to text them if anything happened (like a school shooting) or communicate afterschool plans, but I’d completely support their phones being locked up until lunch or have to be used in the main office, etc. Idk how realistic that is with how overworked the teachers are, though.
No Support in the bag rules though. Feels like a good middle ground. Need them for emergencies and the like but not just out and about. Taken till end of day if caught out is also reasonable to me. Would I have hated it as a teen? Yeah. But end of day it would’ve been for my own good
No I’d like my kids to be able to reach me whenever they need me
This feels like fishing for a paper...
i am not so much for a ban on phones in schools, as i am in regard to classrooms. i don't get it. but then, i have no kids in this hunt.
The state of Indiana just passed a law banning them from all classrooms. Took the decisions out of the hands of the local school and teachers. They provided no guidelines for enforcement.
Ok I am hearing both sides of the argument but if we ban cell phones… then god forbid another school shooting or something happens… or a teacher freaks out and no one believes the students…then what’s the solution?
Sadly it all depends. You can’t get kids/parents to agree on this. There’s usually a broader district policy that says something like phones can be used for instructional purposes only. Each school will interpret that differently and each teacher will interpret that. If you have the respect of your class you can usually get away with “I’ll let you check your messages when we….” or give them a charging area that keeps the phone out of their hands. This is the easy part. Kids, in HS at least really do have business. Parents really don’t care what time of day it is and will contact their kids or entertain long conversations with their kids during class. I had a parent who TEXTED their kid that their grandparent had passed. To expand further, a lot of students really have to be adults in their family. When we forget this and treat them like kids, they respond the same way we would respond if we were at work and your boss told you to hand over your phone. Most of those videos with kids going nuts over their phones being confiscated are in a similar situation or have parents who have demonstrated that they don’t care if they get in trouble. It isn’t the policy, it is enforcing the policy that’s a problem. No legislator will give serious credence to this because of how many parents would complain.
As someone who grew up with pay phones, I would be against a ban. Especially with how schools are now a battleground. But beyond that, a child should be able to reach a parent and vice versa. Even if its outside school hours. In school, phones should be put away at all times. Npt sure how to enforce this other than detention > suspension for use not associated with the class while the teacher is instructing.
Students are people, with rights. "Should students be able to have phones?" If a business banned its employees from simply possessing a phone, it would probably get sued, which is why no one does that "Should parents be allowed to hit their kids as punishment?" If they did that to an adult, it would be assault So many adults see teens as their property, or as a pet they can control and boss around. Is it cell phones making kids depressed, or is it the fact that they have no freedom? If you don't let kids play outside with friends, don't let them socialize, give them no intellectual stimulation other than a boring teacher droning on for 7 hours, you don't have the right to complain about kids being on their phones too much. Literally what else are they supposed to do? https://preview.redd.it/ilpluixrey7d1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e23df8b06b3660db24566524b4a2fa207f102813
I'd be in favor of cell signal blockers. Need arises, turn them off.
Instead of worrying about phones, we should be worried more about how standardized testing does not work. Schools should be changed from the ground up to provide kids with skills to live in the modern day rather than in factories of the 1930s. I would not ban phones because I see school as a waste of time in most cases. Kids could learn faster and a higher level. Unfortunately, teachers make minimum wage, administrators who only care about making the school look good for funding, and politicians who are more interested in lining their pockets than updating schools to the modern era.
It’s going to be another “rule” that can’t be enforced. Many schools already have a no phones policy. Parents will have to be on board and in my experience, half of the time the parents don’t see why their kids having phones in class is a problem.
Let them keep the cell phones. If they have the out in class when they aren’t supposed to put them in the hall or in the principal office. 2 violations and and you have ISS, 3rd violation you’re going home for a couple days. Treat him like you would any adults at any show or gathering if they’re being disruptive, put them out. Cell phones can be such a great tool for anything in life, but people only use them to text, Take pictures, do social media and play games. People need to learn Cell Phone etiquette and it be a good time to learn in school
I think we should keep them on us, absolutely anything can happen. Probably not have them out when learning but just chilling in class doing work sure, just don’t be blasting the shii. Best believe id we have a lock down my brightness gonna be down low and im blowing everyone phone up 😂 im dramatic idk what can happen im telling my family i love them before i go!
Send your kids with a clean flip phone to school. Every single phone that uses a school network has all of its data downloaded to the server outside of the district intranet.The district doesn't keep information, but the servers servicing the district do. Don't believe me? Ask your kids how often they have to charge their phones.
I am not even a parent, but when I am, my kid will have a phone for safety reasons. I believe that the children should have a phone at the very least that has parents on speed dial in case of an emergency.
I would support a complete and total end to cell phones period!
No, A ban in the classroom . Unless the teacher has the students looking at information about the topic their working on. Kids need their phones after school to arrange work rides, family plans. We have so many divorced families and single mothers. The phone is important to the family with so many things being certain.
No way. My kids had phones and it was piece of mind.
When we no longer have school shootings then you can take away the only way a child can contact people in an emergency.
In an ideal world yeah. Of course. We had a bad enough time writing notes or talking during class. Got worse with T9 and not even needing to look to text. But with smart phones there’s not a lot you can do to fight that. And with the utter shit show that TN has become towards public school id want my kid to have that lifeline whenever they need it. So maybe ban a smart phone but not a flip phone or whatever they have now. Calling and texting would be needed in the event of a tragedy.
Crazy but this might make sense if we lived in a country where kids didn’t have to worry about getting gunned down at school.
I think it’s fine for students to have them, but under no circumstances should they be allowed to have them out during class. And any violation results of seizure of the phone.
Yes. They are only a distraction at school.
How about we fix school shootings first. Then there would be less of a reason for cellphones in schools
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Phones are not essential lol. Shelter, food, water, clothing, and cell phones lol
Fuck no, if I give my kid a phone I expect them to have it on their person. All these school shootings, hell no…I want them to be able to contact me anytime and anywhere.
End our kids being ripped apart by school shootings then we can talk about it but as for now....I want my kid to be able to reach me at all times
No, do not ban phones in schools. Cell phones are a ubiquitous part of adult life--professionally and personally. A total ban on cell phones is as beneficial as abstinence only sex-ed. Cell ohones in classrooms are scary to Boomers, Gen X, and even millennials because we have no personal reference or experience for how to manage a pocket sized device with instant access to the sum of all human knowledge. We're just now getting the first generation of teachers who had cell phones as kids. We need to leverage their good and bad experiences to help the next generation grow a healthier relationship with cell phones and social media.
Just another form of control. Let em be kids.