School Cell Phone Rules

[epchick]

Originally Posted by 33girl

While they shouldn't have cellphones in school for the reasons Dee mentioned, I would have a REAL issue with the school keeping it till the end of the year. I'm assuming some of these phones have prepaid plans that you can't turn off, and I'd be irate if my money for the phone service was being wasted while it sat in a school office somewhere.

But at the same time, the school will only keep the phone at the 3rd offense. It isn't like the parents didn't know it was going to happen.

IDK about everyne else, but if my child reached the 2nd offense, i'll be damned if he/she keeps the phone. I'd take it away from them for the rest of the year.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by epchick

IDK

IDK my BFF Jill?


Sorry - I found that acronym funny in a thread about cell phones.


Carry on.

[SWTXBelle]

I was teaching when cell phones became common. I usually gave kids one "freebie". If it rang again, I'd take up the phone, and go give it to the headmaster. The parent would have to come talk to the headmaster in order to pick it up.
I didn't have a problem with the phones in school as long as they were turned off. I knew that I would want my daughters (they were too young at the time) to have phones when they were older.
My favorite phone story - I'm giving a final when a phone rings. Andrea gives me a panicked look."Answer it", I say. It turns out to be HER MOTHER. Where, I ask you, did she expect her daughter to be at 10:00 in the morning on a school day? We laughed about it, and she turned the phone off.
Kids. I don't know what's wrong with these kids today.

[NUBlue&Blue]

I used to volunteer at the front desk at the HS and until the last two years there were supposed to be no cell phones in the school. First offense, parent had to pick up phone and student had Saturday school. Second offense, the phone was school property until the end of the year. This rule was in place when cell phones were mainly used for making drug deals (along with pagers, etc.). When oldest daughter was a freshman, her friend got Saturday school for standing in the parking lot calling her mom to pick her up from band. Puh-lease. (this was in 2001)

Now they can have them in school as long as they are off and kept in backpacks. I don't work in the office anymore, so I don't know what the current punishment is for using them. I know the teachers used to pick up lots of them during lunch and in the bathrooms between classes. My favorite was when a freshman's dad came in to talk about her phone getting confiscated "because we didn't know she couldn't have it in school" and she called him from somewhere in the school on somebody else's phone while he was at the desk talking to us. Another time a mother called and wanted us to page her daughter so she could get another mother's cell phone number from her friend. When we refused to call her to the front desk to take this very "important" call during school, she said "well, I'll just have to text her and if she gets in trouble it will be all your fault!"

[ForeverRoses]

My niece was telling me that at her high school, they have to put their backpacks against the wall away from the desks during tests. I never thought about it before, but I wonder if that helps cut down on the cell-phone as a cheating tool?

And I was in HS school when CarPhones where the big thing. If I remember correctly, they were actually installed into the car and where HUGE. I think the handpiece even had a wire connecting it to the base. Ahh, the good old days.

[SydneyK]

I can understand why the no cell phone rules exist, but let's face it, kids cheated before cell phones, and they'll cheat without them. I have seen guys with notes written on the inside of the brim of their hats; girls wearing skirts would write notes on their thighs and simply pull their skirt back a little to read them; students would leave pages with notes under their books on the floor and nudge the books aside with their feet to read their notes; etc...

I'm not saying cell phones should be allowed - I'm certainly a big fan of keeping them out of classrooms. But, if administrators think they're making headway against cheating by banning cells, they're sadly mistaken - students who cheat will just find another way to do it.

[ThetaPrincess24]

Originally Posted by Army Wife'79

When I was a sub in a HS the students and their parents all signed a booklet on the first day of school with the school rules. This rule was in there (along with the no fighting, no saggy pants, etc) so they couldn't use the excuse " I didn't know the rule". That was before the school shooting at VA so maybe they have relaxed the rule now. I've heard in colleges the kids text each other and cheat on tests so I can see why teachers don't want them.

This was true at my nursing school. NO cellphones period. evenhtough all bookbags, purses and belongings were required to be at the front of the room during an exam, if your cell phone was on and went off during an exam it was considered an intent to cheat and you automatically failed the exam. I have seen people try to use them to cheat so I know it happens. I did have a couple of instructors that made an exception for me when last year my husband was having problems with the ex-wife and there was a chance someone not on the kids' pick up lists may try to take them out of school. So during exams i had my phone on vibrate and my instructors held my phone for me and watched for three numbers, but I let them know about that situation as soon as it started. I also didnt have a habit of allowing my phone to go off in class or leaving class to answer my phone. Scanning pens and calculators were also not allowed....and about half the instructors wouldnt let you tape record the classes either unless you had a form from the office of disabilities.

When i was in high school, cell phones were mainly in people's cars because they were all huge analog phones. A lot of students, myself included, did have pagers and those were confiscated if you were caught with one.

[Xidelt]

I teach middle school. Students are allowed to have cell phones, but they have to be turned off and out-of-sight. If they ring or students are using them, we take them up and turn them in to the office. Parents have to pick them up. Our big problem is students texting each other or calling parents from the bathroom.

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I agree with you about that part and I'm sure I'd be furious.. I'm just not sure if I'd be more furious with my kid or the school. I think I'd be more ticked with the kid for not keeping the dang thing in their pocket/backpack or purse on THREE separate occasions. I think I would take their phone away from them after I had to pick it up from the office myself.

eeeeexactly!

it shouldn't be an issue if they would just follow the rules.

the parents should be mad at their kids for being idiots and taking it out during class for no reason in the first place. but of course nothing is ever the kid's fault anymore since all parents think their kids are perfect angels and are being picked on by the teachers

[CuriousWildcat]

At my high school, you could have cell phones, but you could not use them. If you were caught using them you got into trouble (or in my case, it fell out of my pocket at lunch, a principal saw it, then checked through my text messages and saw I had been using it during school). 1st offense MOST teachers would just call you out and make you put it away then the 2nd time they would take it away for the rest of the day/class. After that most teacher's would take it to the office who would then send it to the school board and you have to have you parents go with you to pick it up, if if got sent to the school board again, then they kept it for the rest of the year.

In college, most people keep their phones on the desk next to them for most of the class, and just keep them on silent. Some profs get upset about it, but almost all of mine don't seem to mind unless it is a studio/lab/ensemble type class.

Honestly, in high school it is so easy to subtly use your cell phone that getting it taken away multiple times is just ridiculous!

[Buttonz]

In HS the rule was no phones, and if you had them they were supposed to be in the lockers or at the very least, in your bags. Most teachers were cool and didn't take them away or would give you it back at the end of class unless it was a constant issue...and that that point it would go down to the principle's office. Not sure what happened after that, seeing as how I only had a cell for the last not even three months of senior year.

In college now, most of my professors demand that they be kept off unless you have a situation that requires you to have it on vibrate. Mine never goes off *nor does most peoples* but I am very careful about answering it/texting during class.

[SoCalGirl]

Cell phones were still uncommon when I was in high school. Pagers/Beepers were what the cool kids carried. Unfortunately, Virginia Beach schools considered them to be drug paraphanalia. Having one on campus was grounds for immediate expulsion. Even during football games, etc, any adult caught with a pager would be required to leave it in their car. The only way they could keep it on them is if they proved they were a doctor.

[Taualumna]

Toronto public schools passed the no cell phone on campus rule just DAYS after the Virginia Tech shootings, which outraged parents.

At other schools, phones are to be kept in lockers from what I've been told.

[LeslieAGD]

Originally Posted by AGDee

My kids are both in middle school and the rule is "No Cell Phones". They can have them in backpacks, lockers, purses, etc., but if they are seen they are confiscated.
1st Offense: Student can pick it up at the end of the day
2nd Offense: Parent must come in to pick it up
3rd Offense: School keeps it til the end of the year

This rule is the same as many of the schools where I have taught.

[BaylorBean]

At the HS I work at we have a pretty hard line policy. No phones are to be seen or heard durring school hours. If a phone is seen or heard we have to take it from the student, attach their student profile to it and turn it into administration. Once administration has it, it is turned over to the police department who hold on to it for at least a week. They then send a postcard to the parents telling them they can pick up their childs phone but must pay a $15 fine.

This is a district wide policy as well not just at our school specifically.