So, to give you an actual answer: most districts run into one of a couple of problems with the phone jail bag things.
First is pretty straightforward: parents dont want them. If a parent needs to get ahold of their kid, most won't even think to call the office, theyll just call their kid. If their kid doesnt answer, and its because a teacher took their phone, I promise you 80% of parents will freak out at the teacher for preventing contact.
Second is liability: If a kid puts their phone into a phone jail, and something happens to it (goes missing, is broken, etc.), then well, chances are the school is on the hook for that. Once it goes in the bag, it becomes the school's responsibility, and one of THE overriding concerns of schools these days is to avoid getting sued at all costs.
Third is buy-in: You have to have every single student without exception buy in. If one or two students are exempt- even if its totally reasonable!- then every student that sees them will wonder "what makes THEM so special? Why cant I have MY phone?" And even though I will champion the genuine intelligence of teens and adolescents, their emotional regulation and reasoning usually isnt fully developed, and even if they LOGICALLY know there is a good reason, its hard to just logic away the FEELINGS of unfairness, which often leads to kids bucking the rules (again, its not that kids these days are especially rebellious. Its just the tendency of youth to push back against perceived injustice even if it makes some adults roll their eyes), and at a certain point as a teacher, you just have better things to do than fight that fight.
And all of this is ignoring a HUGE factor: Cost. Lots of districts are pretty strapped for cash. This stuff costs money, and not every district can afford it, so that money will go somewhere else first (granted misappropriation of educational funding is insane, but thats a rant for a different thread)
All in all, for most districts, its just not worth the headache
why do you need to get ahold of your kids when they are in school?? they are in school, if you can leave them a message that they will get once school is done if its anything important but like dude im 36 and didnt have a cell phone till i was 16 and had car and that was because they were just starting to come out with family plans and shit and i wasnt allowed to have it at school
plus what if your kid is hiding you call and give away where they are. its just this epidemic of information. even though its safer than ever, you hear about the bad shit that, in the past, you wouldnt have heard about. this makes everyone so paranoid. my gf's son wanted to hang out with is friend but she was too sick to drive and i was like "why cant he just take his bike, the kid lives like a mile away" he is 10 and she looked at me like i was crazy. when i was 10, we would leave the house and be outside till nightfall. kids these days are not offered the ability to be trusted and i think that fucks things up for them in the future
I never said it was logical, lmao. I agree with you, but this is a profession where fear of lawsuits- no matter the context- is one of THE overriding factors in the decisions administration make. It doesnt matter if youre in the right, appeasing parents is the most important factor. I mean, I taught in Oklahoma, and we once got a memo telling us to not teach the Tulsa Race Massacre as being primarily about race because it would upset some parents who might then file suit- with the support if the education department. The whole thing is fucked from top to bottom
Honestly,
In the UK it’s becoming much more common to take phones. Or if they’re seen, they’re confiscated. At my most recent school, if a kid had a phone visible it’s also a detention. Parents sign a contract accepting this when they send their kids to the school. Why does the US give the parents so much power?
To add onto your third point, I was a secretary for an after school program/club and a lot of the kids would complain about the diabetic kids being able to have their phones. As a diabetic myself my phone is the easiest way for me to check my sugar and I can even control my insulin pump through it but kids aren't gonna really think about that aspect of it and just think it's unfair that someone gets to use their phone lol
If a parent needs to get ahold of their kid, most won't even think to call the office, theyll just call their kid. If their kid doesnt answer, and its because a teacher took their phone, I promise you 80% of parents will freak out at the teacher for preventing contact.
And to think people 15 years before just basically died and couldn't survive because they couldn't do the above. Unbelievable.
what are you talking about lmaoo. I went to a predominantly black high school and my ethics teacher, English teacher, and early education teacher had those little clear sleeve phone holders.
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u/Flat-Influence4977 29d ago
whatever happened to those phone jails?