Students fined $15 for using cell phones in school

[Pigeon]

The parents should pay. They should be teaching some boundaries when it comes to that blasted phone.

I had a family reunion over Thanksgiving in my home and there were kids text messaging under the table. It was like business as usual for them and their parents. I made them stop.

I see them text messaging all the time when they are with their family at restaurants as well. I recently saw a girl who was text messaging while on a date with a guy.

How rude is that?

Fine them MORE!

I'm with you on this issue. I had to get tough with my nieces and nephews one Thanksgiving over the texting at the table. Unbelievable.

Last month, I went on the 6th grade field trip with my daughter. Part of the field trip was to a really top notch science museum. The school worked very hard to raise the money for what was an expensive trip. I was absolutely disgusted by the number of kids who didn't see a single thing in the museum because they were too busy texting on their phones.

So, if the parents are stupid enough to just pay the fine and not make the kid work it off, that's their problem. But the fines are an excellent idea.

 

[Kimmumum]

My DS's HS has the blocker so phones don't work in most of the school. Also if you get caught with your phone it is an automatic 3 detentions. The next time it is 6. The next is a suspension.

My DS's middle school has the policy of the phone will be taken away, a parent has to go retreive it and you get 1 detention.

 

[DisneyKing82]

I don't think $15 is enough. It should be 50, and continue to double for repeat offenders!

 

[SandrA9810]

Depending on the income level. I'm sure most parents don't think twice about 15$ big deal.

Now what got my mom in high school, was if you got 4 detentions (i forget if there was a time frame for it or not), but then the next one was saturday detention WITH A PARENT. My mom well really didn't mind being there and I think it was for two hours.
I was bad at showing up on time my senior year (long story), and your detentions could also be served during lunch time (because of the work program, they sorta had to offer this since this is when those students left school). I had no problems sitting in a nice air conditioned auditorium, not to mention perfectly quiet during my lunch time. I preferred being in there than sitting outside in the florida heat.


The newer area of davenport, Champians Gate (becoming a popular resort for Disney area), has horrible cell phone reception. And if you're in a house, you might be lucky to get a bar next to a window.

Truthfully, I don't think a kid needs a cell phone. I still made it home every day from school, and if needed I could go to the school office and make a call home. Or if it was something extra curricular, the teacher in charge usually has no problem allowing a phone call from thier office. That's happened to me in the colorguard and I just went into the band office to use the phone. And these days with "everyone" having a phone, it's very easy to borrow some one's after school if a phone call is needed. Then when the kid gets home from school, they can pick their phone up if they're going out.

 

[etoiles]

I used to work at a school who also fined students for cell phones. Also for swearing, being late to school, all sorts of stuff. It didn't really work because most of the kids would just pay the fine and not care about the money they were wasting.

Also, before they started fining kids they did collect the cell phones in the morning and return them later until one kid claimed his was missing and so they had to pay top dollar for that and began the fining system afterwards.

 

[C.Ann]

The parents pay, not the jobless students.
Kids won't see $15 as an hour of work after taxes, or a third of the cable bill, or three lunches out, etc. if their parents are paying it.

And this is where the role of being a "parent" - not a "buddy" - comes into play.. Once the child has committed the offense, if said child has no money to pay the fine him or herself, then the parents need to come up with a way to have that child "work off" the $15 - in whatever manner they deem appropriate..

Escalate the fines for repeat offenders and maybe the parents will finally starting setting and enforcing some limits.

Exactly.. $15 the first time.. $25 the second time.. And so on and so forth.. Hopefully at some point the parents will take their responsibilities seriously and either totally confiscate the phone or keep making the "list of things to do" to work off the fines harder and more time consuming..

There isn't a reason in the world that these kids need to be texting, surfing the web, or making calls on a cell phone during school hours..

 

[Disfan3]

That is exactly what I was going to say! If I was a teacher, I would have a basket at the door - drop it off when you come in - pick it up when you leave. Problem solved.

Although - I do like the block thing for the school!

As a HS teacher let me say this...I am not a police officer, I am a teacher. I honestly see a few kids every now and then text in class and they are not supposed to but hey...they miss the material...live with it. I teach 18 year olds...am I supposed to take their personal property from them? I will if I see it and tell them to put it away but they don't. Most of the students I work with respect me enough to listen and will put it away. Less disturbance for all...it takes a lot of attention away to stop the class then take a phone, etc etc...usually a "look" or a "um....excuse me" will do. I keep them VERY busy in class. No time to text unless they want to fail.

If they want to...they will.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

Now what got my mom in high school, was if you got 4 detentions (i forget if there was a time frame for it or not), but then the next one was saturday detention WITH A PARENT. My mom well really didn't mind being there and I think it was for two hours.

That's not a bad idea considering that every single detention I ever got was my mom's fault. I was always ready and waiting by the time it was time to leave for school. And yet, she had a tendency to make us late. I never got in trouble for anything else.
She still runs late for everything to the point that if I need her to be somewhere, I tell her she needs to be there half an hour before she actually does.
As to the original question, my child (if I had one) would be paying the fine him/herself.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

I think it sounds like a good idea. Yes the parents might have to pay the fine but I would make my child pay me back. I mean the parent pays the cell phone charges to begin with why teach responsible that comes along with it.

Personal while my child is in school I want her to be learning NOT texting. Time and place for everything.

 

[MrsPete]

I don't have kids, so I'll ask, what could be that important that a parent of a high school student needs to text throughout the day? I understand that things come up and you need to get a message to your child, but throughout the day? In cases like this, the parent should be paying, it's their fault.

I have no problem with a parent sending a text during the day IF it's a matter of reminding the child of something, and the expectation is that the child'll read the message at the end of the day once school's over:

Don't forget to return those movies I left in your car.
Hope you did well on the Biology test!
I need your help finishing grandma's birthday present tonight.

That's one of the positives of texting. You can send the message RIGHT NOW while it's fresh in your mind, and the recipient can read it hours later.

The problem comes in when the student has the phone TURNED ON DURING SCHOOL HOURS. That's breaking the rules and deserves punishment.

As a HS teacher let me say this...I am not a police officer, I am a teacher. I honestly see a few kids every now and then text in class and they are not supposed to but hey...they miss the material...live with it. I teach 18 year olds...am I supposed to take their personal property from them?

I'm a teacher too, and my take on it is quite opposite: Texting during school is a major issue, and you cannot just say, "Oh, well, if they miss the material, it's their own fault." You're the teacher, and maintaining a disciplined classroom is your responsibility. It's common knowledge that students are using texting as a cheating method these days. Are you really going to be able to allow texting -- because that's what you're doing, you're allowing it -- during class, yet restrict it during tests?

You have to take the phones the first couple times you see them in class, lock them up in your desk drawer, turn them in to the office, and let those students get their detentions. If you don't, you'll have one student texting on Day 1, three students texting on Day 2, and the whole class texting by Day 3. Texting is a teen obsession, and if you allow them to do that instead of taking part in class, they'll do so.

 

[Lanshark]

The HS my kids attended would confiscate the phone the first offense and return it at the end of the day. The understanding was if it happened again, it would not be returned to them but to their parent.

 

[Pumbaa_]

i have no kids so I get to play armchair parent

In today's day and age, my kid would have a phone and would have it with them all day. It an be on vibrate only so it doesn't ring. And it would never be confiscated To me, a cell phone is a matter of safety. If it is being used inappropriately, it will be handled at home. But it would never leave my child's possession.

If there is an emergency or a lockdown, i want to know that my child could reach me or i reach them immediately.

cheating has been going on forever, as has notes passing and every other kid thing. Now it is just electronic. Zero tolerance for cheating.

ok, go ahead, and at me

 

[disneyfav4ever]

Right now using an electronic blocker is illegal, it violates FCC rules. I think that Congress needs to make an exception for using them inside school buildings, just to curb the cheating. (The law was written in the days of radio, they were not thinking about modern cell phones.)

Some buildings are built in a way that just naturally blocks signals; it's called a Faraday Cage effect. The building I work in is partially this way -- I have no signal in my office.

Actually I think it's legal if there is a notice saying that a jammer is being used in that building. I remember reading a big debate awhile back about cell phones in restaurants, and that came up.

Here's what I think about cell phones in school. They should be allowed, but they should have to be off, unless it's lunch or a free period.

When I was in HS, phones were new enough that there weren't rules, but enough people were getting them that they were just starting to cause problems.

I think I've said this a few times in other cell phone debates, but during my junior year, one of my classmates had there cell phone on and charging, and it rang in the middle of class, which he then answered, and started a conversation with his other friend. The teacher glared at him, so he was like "dude I gotta go, I'm in the middle of English." This was after a few minutes of conversation.

In instances like this I'd say a fine or some other sort of punishment, detention or otherwise, is totally acceptable.

I think the problem is a lot of "punishments" in schools don't really affect the student.

 

[MM27]

I teach 4th grade, so this whole fine thing doesn't really apply, but we do have kids with cell phones at this age.

I always tell my students in the beginning of the year, that as long as I don't see it or hear it, I won't know you have it and it's not a big deal. Some of them at this age want to show it off because I guess it makes them cool since not everyone their age has one.

I will usually just tell them to put it in their bookbag or purse and that's the end of it. Sometimes in the middle of math we hear ringing from the closet, but it's usually just someone that forgot to turn their phone off. I always ask them who could be calling them in the middle of the school day. Aren't all your friends in school too? It's usually a parent.

 

[TanyaLovesPooh]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=8074283&page=1

I think it's a good idea. Perhaps kids will think twice before they text in class.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

My boys don't have cell phones, and I am not sure that I will ever give them one. Problem solved...

 

[FireDancer]

They should be kept in the lockers. I think if they are on the student in class they should be confiscated.

I don't know why anyone needs a phone until they can get it themselves anyway. I have one friend with kids old enough to have phones. They do have them but they have all texting blocked and they can only make and receive calls from specified numbers (parents, grandma, 911).

Even in college I would have my phone off in class, show respect to the rest of the class and pay attention.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

They should be kept in the lockers. I think if they are on the student in class they should be confiscated.

I don't know why anyone needs a phone until they can get it themselves anyway. I have one friend with kids old enough to have phones. They do have them but they have all texting blocked and they can only make and receive calls from specified numbers (parents, grandma, 911).

Even in college I would have my phone off in class, show respect to the rest of the class and pay attention.

Hey, something we agree on
In my college classes, we were given an automatic zero if we were caught with a cell phone on during a test. It was assumed that we were using it to cheat.

 

[declansdad]

i have no kids so I get to play armchair parent

In today's day and age, my kid would have a phone and would have it with them all day. It an be on vibrate only so it doesn't ring. And it would never be confiscated To me, a cell phone is a matter of safety. If it is being used inappropriately, it will be handled at home. But it would never leave my child's possession.

If there is an emergency or a lockdown, i want to know that my child could reach me or i reach them immediately.

cheating has been going on forever, as has notes passing and every other kid thing. Now it is just electronic. Zero tolerance for cheating.

ok, go ahead, and at me

If they had it turned off, you wouldn't need to worry about them having the phone confiscated.

 

[KitKat_Tink]

The only time I ever text in class is to contact my mother or grandma. I often have to get ahold of them to bring me my migraine meds, not allowed at school without a parent giving them to you, so I will text them in class. I don't know anyone who uses texting as a method to cheat. Its quite obvious and stupid. Most kids are more creative then that. If people are going to assume that they are cheating and such through text message then they need to start checking pens, watter bottles, legs, arms, shoes, and under the desk. Kids are much more creative then people think. Someone had the answers to a chem test in one of those clicky pens that spin and say stuff. Getting fined for texting isn't going to stop it. Kids will just get better at.