Do kids need immediate access to cell phones during school hours?

What you have to realize is that most of these ideas would involve a major change of culture that would be fought by parents as well as students. The time for plans like these was a while back, and all of the schools missed it.

 

I had no clue that kids text each other during class now. I guess I'm naive. I would think that cell phones would be forbidden in the classroom. Seems from this thread that their presence is accepted. Keep them in your locker. I remember as a senior in high school accidentally keeping my pager in my pocket, and being scared shitless the teacher was going to somehow see a flash of it at some point and I was going to be marching down to the principal's office.

Oh, and the idea that they should be allowed in class because of "all the school shootings" is a little silly. Complete overreaction.

 

We should just abolish school to keep kids safe from school shootings and bullying.

 

Wonder if the parents homeschooling their kids have the same problem?

 

Home-school kids don't text.
Texting requires that you have a friend who can receive the text.

 

They have lots of problems.

 

Homeschooled kids, in my experience, are better behaved and better adjusted than the majority of their public-schooled peers. It's not for everyone, but is certainly a good option for many.

 

Plus, where else could you get to watch episodes of "The Flintstones" in history class?

 

I subbed for two years, and I'm still the faculty adviser for a HS newspaper, and cell phones are by far the biggest annoyance. The school I was in had a pretty "no tolerance" policy - If you had the phone out, you got one warning to put it away. Second time, it was confiscated for the day. Two violations in a year, and your parents are called.

Someone mentioned that kids should be able to use their phones to text during lunch, but even this creates big problems. Think about it this way - Who would they be texting at lunch? Not anyone in lunch; they're texting their friends who are still in class, and disrupting classes that are going on.

The kids will use pretty much any argument to justify using them, from the Columbine thing (let's justify a constant nuisance with something that happens about one a year across thousands of schools) to "I'm texting my mom about a ride after school." The worst part is when they actually are texting the parents, and the parents get indignant that you would dare limit their ability to talk to their spawn during school hours. The buses at this school don't even leave until 10 minutes after the bell, so there is plenty of time to negotiate rides and what not after school.

 

Is there a school anywhere that still has lockers?

 

This guy says he has friends, dammit!

 

I haven't seen one without them.