So at my son's middle school orientation..

[RachelNinja]

I don't think it's problematic for students to have cell phones during the school day as long as they are not on. I've only had one instance when I had to take a student's cell phone away because she was showing her friends some apps or pictures. I told her that her mother had to pick it up from me. I didn't think it was that big a deal, but rules are rules and there was no reason for her to be disobeying them at that time. She didn't receive further consequences from me because it was the first and only time it happened, but I did want her mother to know.

Haha, kids are nervous about my taking their phones away because they think I'm going to read their text messages. Some students said that to me and I was like, "What do you text each other anyway? 'Hey' 'What's up?' 'NM' 'LOL'." Of course, I would never do that because it's an invasion of privacy. Never mind the fact that I don't know how to check texts ... hahaha.

I actually don't like the idea of putting cells in lockers. I remember we would have people break locks in junior high and high school. It was important to check that we properly locked them (spin the combination thingie after locking it) so that our things were safe. I would rather keep the students' cells in my desk. Some students don't want to carry their cells around all day because they're afraid to break them and they're expensive (why do middle school students have such expensive phones or iPhones anyway~) so they ask me to just keep it in a drawer until the end of the day.

On rare occasions, I have allowed students to use their phones during homeroom only if they've asked me. Often times they need to find out about transportation issues, and sometimes that's much faster than my allowing them to go down to the office and make the call from there.

A previous poster mentioned 9/11 and that is also what came to my mind when I opened up this thread. Once we learned about it, there were a few students who frantically tried to get in contact with their parents. One girl's mother worked in the WTC and it took a while before we all finally learned that her mom was okay. That was only possible through the cell phones.

 

[kaytieeldr]

As far as the argument of "We didn't have cell phones at school and we survived!" goes, that just doesn't seem to fit. Cars didn't used to have seat belts, and many diseases didn't use to have vaccines. But if we now have ways to protect ourselves and our loved ones better, or just provide a little peace of mind, I'm going to make use of those things!

Not a valid comparison. Cell phones in schools aren't nearly the safety equivalent of seat belts in cars or vaccines against diseases. Although I didn't quote the beginning of this post, it would seem from other schools' rules that there's no problem with a student bringing a cell phone TO school, the student would not be allowed to physically possess that phone while IN school.

In many of the classroom incidents that we hear about in the news, someone from the class calls 911 on their cell. What will happen when no one has a cell phone? If a child is abducted from school grounds, there might be a chance of locating them through the cell signal, if the cell phone wasn't in the locker.

Well, one good idea would be to find out from the schools if teachers are allowed to have cell phones on their persons during the school day - and yes, it IS fair that students have rules to follow which teachers don't. But, how many children are abducted from school grounds/property each year? Wouldn't abduction be astronomically more likely (not that it's anywhere near a typical occurrence) in the hours between waking and school or between school and going to sleep? A student who can bring a cell phone TO school but then must leave it in a locker WILL have the phone during the 'more dangerous' hours of the day.

If the person who brought up the policy at the orientation got grief from the principal, or presented her argument in a way no on else wanted to be associated with (whether or not they agreed), I can see others not speaking up.

While I can see the others not speaking up because they understand the school's policy on cell phones and, if not agree with the policy itself, at least agree to abide by the policy. Parents who feel their children should be exempt from this (or any) rule should consider sending their child to a school where the rules agree with the parents' opinions.

You need to trust your child's teacher to do the right thing to protect the students.

!

 

[torinsmom]

I teach at an elementary school and I have never been told I couldn't have my cell phone on. Everybody who would call me works, so it rarely rings during the day. We have bad reception inside the school anyway, because it is made of concrete. I can pick up a signal in one tiny area, so I just leave it there. We didn't have a phone in our classroom last year, so I kept my cell on in case of an emergency call from my son's school. This year, we have a phone, so it won't be that big a deal to have.

Marsha