Sixth grade boys caught texting in class

[hereyago]

Just because you can, doesn´t mean you should!

But it's the company's best interest. can you imagine if someone was looking at child porn on a company computer? or selling trade secrets info? the computer is the property of the company. People have no business doing personal stuff on a company's computer.

 

[orlandothebeagle]

A friend of mine told me about a situation that happened a few days ago at our local elementary school, and I thought it would be interesting to get your opinions.

Here's what happened: 3 sixth grade boys were texting on their cellphones during school hours. One of the boys got caught "mid-text" and got his phone taken away by the teacher, who then gave the phone to the principal.

The principal apparently scrolled through the texts and found out that these 3 boys had been texting back and forth about her (the principal) during school hours and had been calling her some very DIS-unfriendly names. The boys parents were called into school, and the kids are receiving some sort of school punishment.

Well, the parents of these 3 boys were discussing the situation on the playground after school, and they said that although they know their kids shouldn't haven been texting in school they are upset that the principal read the texts. They say she had no right to go through the phone, and that she violated the boys' rights. There was even talk of calling the superintendent of schools and a lawyer.

What do you think about this situation?

You loose any rights when you break the rules.

I personally would have been very peeved if they scrolled through my kids phone and read their texts.

If they broke one rule maybe he was checking if he had been cheating or bullying, but I dont know
ANd also, an added incentive to stop wasting everybodys time and playing with phones.
The parents should be concentrating on the kids not the teachers.....
TYPICAL

 

[hereyago]

This is what I was thinking exactly. It's just the new form of passing notes.

When I used to teach in a classroom (I teach online now), I would just take the notes and never read them.

this reminds me of 8th grade I think, early 80's. My friends and I did the SLAM book, not sure if kids do it now or what it's called now. but my friend got busted trying to pass it to the other friend.

Oh my. We wrote bad things about some of the teachers, well, not bad like hot for teacher or caling bad names, but someone wrote that the Social Studies teacher was a big blob.

The teacher who caught them was our English teacher, she read it, not sure if anyone else read it. but we liked her. in our yearbooks she even wrote about don't do it in high school with a smiley face winking.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I think the parents are trying to divert blame from their kids.

 

[dngnb8]

And people wonder why schools are failing. LOL this thread is premium

 

[15isto2]

In our school district, it is written in the Student Code of Conduct handbook that a cellphone or other electronic device brought to school is subject to seizure if it's used during class. It's also stated that school personnel has the right to monitor any electronic communications by the students anytime, any place, or in any form, including Facebook in the middle of the night or on the weekend.

We had an incident in town where a big feud started brewing between some students on Facebook. Before it escalated into an actual battle, our principal alerted the police who visited the student's homes. We had another incident where a boy was caught with naked pictures of a 12 year-old female student. She sent them to him, and he shared them with about 100 kids on his phone's contact list. It was a BIG DEAL! Every one of those kids had to bring their cellphone and memory card to the principal and vice principal to make the photo was deleted.

So now our district says that for the sake of the community on the whole, it has the right to monitor anything our kids do electronically. The police and parents totally back the district up on this. I agree with it too, and I don't believe a sixth grader has the right to expect privacy over cell phone texts. If one of the kids in the OP were my child, he'd be losing his cell phone for a few months.

A school with the resources to look at childrens personal e-mails at home????
And since the nude pictures were child porn, why were the teachers looking at it and not involving the police

 

[marcyinPA]

Some.

If my 10th grader got busted texting in school, I wouldn't waste a minute of my time listening to her complain about the principal reading her texts. I would too busy figuring out how to punish her.

Same here. You disobey the rules, you receive consequences. End of story. I'm sick of parents always trying to bale their kids out of trouble. What happened to personal responsibility??

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

I think the parents are trying to divert blame from their kids.

And people wonder why schools are failing. LOL this thread is premium

I agree.

 

[palavra]

I have no problem with her taking the phone, reading THAT text, and doling out punishment. I have a real problem with her going back and reading OTHER texts from before!. She had no need to do that.

Yes, she did. Most likely, she was trying to see who all had been texting that day. At my school, the cell policy is clear-no cell phones can be seen or heard during the school day. If a student is caught with one, it will be taken up and someone will look at the phone for inappropriate messages, etc. At the end of the school day, a parent must come and get the phone. Oh, and it is an automatic lunch detention for breaking the cell phone rule.

 

[Talking Hands]

And as a parent I would go pick up the phone and go home without showing the principal the text because it's none of their business.

Actually what is being texted is the school's business. Texting is used to cheat on tests, to harass other students, to set up drug buys, to warn students of administration in the halls so they can avoid them while skipping. Good reason for the principal to check the texts. A text made during state testing can invalidate an entire school's tests, requiring they be retested.

Now days the teacher has a phone in the classroom so there is no reason for a student to have a cell phone in class. They can ask the teacher if they need to call home. Or they can go to the office. I know ours has a phone on the front counter students can use to call a parent.

 

[Freyja]

But it's the company's best interest. can you imagine if someone was looking at child porn on a company computer? or selling trade secrets info? the computer is the property of the company. People have no business doing personal stuff on a company's computer.

I never said anything about company computers. These phones were not school property but the kids' private phones.

 

[postage stamp]

There is very little expectation of privacy for students in most schools. MOST schools have a "search at will" policy whereby a teacher/admin/other staff member can search lockers, bags, etc. at will with or without a reason. As far as I'm concerned that extends to the phone while the phone is on school property. No different to me than going through a bag or a purse. Key is, don't do anything wrong with it and there isn't a problem. If the kids had been following the rules there would have been nothing for anyone to get upset about in the first place. Not that hard to figure out. (Never mind the fact that I think a 6th grader having a phone in school is asinine to begin with.)

 

[Principessa1284]

I remember being told that you shouldn't write something down that you don't want to be read. If that were my kid, I would tell him that he shouldn't be texting in class if he didn't want them to be read by a teacher. Too bad, so sad.. texting would probably be taken off the phone for a while.

 

[hereyago]

I never said anything about company computers. These phones were not school property but the kids' private phones.

You asked for those who thought the texts should have been read in school how would we feel about companies checking our emails,etc. that is why I am talking about.

Kids don't have private phone, they don't have jobs unless they are in high school, however, they are also on the school's time. they chose to whip out the phone in class disrespecting the teacher and classmates to text. at school, it's not about the kid's personal time to do what they want.

 

[Freyja]

You asked for those who thought the texts should have been read in school how would we feel about companies checking our emails,etc. that is why I am talking about.

Kids don't have private phone, they don't have jobs unless they are in high school, however, they are also on the school's time. they chose to whip out the phone in class disrespecting the teacher and classmates to text. at school, it's not about the kid's personal time to do what they want.

I also asked whether people thought it was o.k. for employers to go through their employees private phones if they use them during work hours.

I don´t agree that kids don´t have private phones. My kids have phones (I pay for them), but I definitely consider them private and have never gone through their texts. I can´t imagine ever doing so unless I thought there was something major going on.

 

[hereyago]

I also asked whether people thought it was o.k. for employers to go through their employees private phones if they use them during work hours.

I don´t agree that kids don´t have private phones. My kids have phones (I pay for them), but I definitely consider them private and have never gone through their texts. I can´t imagine ever doing so unless I thought there was something major going on.

I' don't think for a person's private phone that the company would have a right to look at the messages. however, most companies allow cellphones where as the schools do not.

I also don't think in a business meeting someone would be so unprofessional to whip out their phone and start texting away, and not have a boss say' Um, put that away, you are on our time right now.


yes YOU pay for your kids phones, so they are your phones. I wouldn't care if it were 2 cans on a string that these kids were using, they had no business having them in class and disrupting everyone's time and attention.

 

[Freyja]

I' don't think for a person's private phone that the company would have a right to look at the messages. however, most companies allow cellphones where as the schools do not.

I also don't think in a business meeting someone would be so unprofessional to whip out their phone and start texting away, and not have a boss say' Um, put that away, you are on our time right now.


yes YOU pay for your kids phones, so they are your phones. I wouldn't care if it were 2 cans on a string that these kids were using, they had no business having them in class and disrupting everyone's time and attention.

No! They are not my phones. Your kids' phones, which you maybe are paying for, may well be YOUR phones. But my kids phones are not my phones and I can´t understand why you need to insist on them not being their private phones.
However, it is totally irrelevant to this discussion.

 

[dngnb8]

The school my DD13 goes to has a policy on phones that parents sign. In that it says if the phone is used on campus, it will be confiscated and can be reviewed.

As a parent, we sign and agree with this. I wonder if the school in the OP has a similar form with similar language.

 

[hereyago]

No! They are not my phones. Your kids' phones, which you maybe are paying for, may well be YOUR phones. But my kids phones are not my phones and I can´t understand why you need to insist on them not being their private phones.
However, it is totally irrelevant to this discussion.

You said private phones. I am just saying this: great you pay for your kids phones, but if I pay for a phone it's my phone and i am letting my kid use it. I'd like to hear my kid tell a teacher if got caught disrupting the class, it's my phone you can't touch it. If it were truly THEIR phone on a certain amount of times getting caught, why would their parent have to come pick up the phone, but whatever.

I don't care if a kid uses smoke signals, that are HIS, 2 cans and a string that are HIS, those big ol Navy lights for sos signals that are HIS, he doesn't need to disrupt the class especially if those things aren't allowed.

 

[minniebride]

I work in a public school & we just had an inservice last week about bullying & cyberbullying/sexting. Cell phones are NOT allowed in class in our school district and they are not allowed to be turned on or taken out of their lockers until school is over. If a student is caught with their cell phone, it will be taken away and parents have to come and get the phones themselves at the end of the day.

The people who led the inservice said that, in our state, it has been ruled lawfully that cell phones in school are like backpacks and administration has every legal right to go through them, if they are confiscated and if administration is suspecting that the student is using it to break school rules (whether that be to cheat on a test, bully someone, text during class, etc...)