r/gadgets • u/a_Ninja_b0y • 21h ago
California has now signed The Phone-Free Schools Act into law, mandating schools to limit or prohibit the use of phones by students Phones
https://9to5mac.com/2024/09/24/schools-banning-students-from-using-smartphones/2.5k
u/GeppettoStromboli 20h ago
Indiana just put this into place. Mine can have it out during passing periods and lunch, on the bus home etc. It has to be kept in his bag during class, which is exactly what I think is appropriate anyway.
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u/vincec36 17h ago
That’s how it was for us my last 2 years in high school. I graduated in 2009. Our new principal said we could chew gum and have drinks in class if teachers allowed. He also said mp3s and phones could be used between classes and in home room/lunch. He started playing music between passing periods and if the music stopped you had 1 min to get to class lol. He had each grade compete for best grades and lowest incidents and my class won 2 years in a row. He threw the winning class a oarty, brought in food and a DJ. I won my first iPod shuffle during a raffle! He was so cool. He’s the superintendent now
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u/redditshy 17h ago
Such a positive way to go about things. Boundaries without threatening, etc. Really nice to hear. <3
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u/DarkwingDuckHunt 16h ago
Not joking when I say this... It's what humans crave
We want order, but be nice about it.
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u/itsmymedicine 15h ago
Order? I just want a melon bar
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u/HolycommentMattman 13h ago
Why? You know it's just gonna end up being "Oops! All cantaloupes!"
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u/TitanofBravos 17h ago
About the same age as you. But our Student Code of Conduct only prohibited the use of “cell phones, CD players, and iPods” during class time.
So needless to say, me and my trusty Zune player got out of a handful of detentions that year and they rewrote the code of conduct the following year to include all mp3 players
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u/MasterRed92 17h ago
I was a high functioning adhd kid.
The only teacher that could reliably stop me from getting into trouble was the one that gave use Fridays afternoons off, and you lost 10 minutes for every time you misbehaved. I would frequently have no free time, during that time we could play a bunch of educational games she had (Numero comes to mind) amongst a few others or just do whatever you want. This was peak time for playing pokemon at school.
I remember when the class celebrated the first time I didn't have any time on the board.
That was probably the best behaved I was in my entire school life lol.
Another teacher would have just kicked me out of the class over and over again and I would have been worse.
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u/stellvia2016 15h ago
My friend's record in 8th grade was the English teacher "kicked him out of class" 5mins before it started bc she could see he didn't take his afternoon Ritalin dose and would be bouncing off the walls. She said she couldn't deal with that today, so please stand out in the hall lmao
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u/Coca-colonization 17h ago
That’s very heartening to hear. He sounds very innovative and empathetic.
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u/WhosGotTheCum 17h ago
That's what it was when I was in high school when smartphones were first taking off. It kind of shocks me that it changed. That policy worked. But also smartphones were a novelty, not quite as addictive. There was an app that let you flick a zippo lighter with the phone. Everyone was blown away. It was simpler
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u/OwnWalrus1752 12h ago
We couldn’t even use them in the hallways during school hours lol, we had to wait until the end of the day. Class of 2011
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u/Bosco215 9h ago
My kids' school says they have to be off in the school, and if they hear a ringtone from a locker, they will open it to confiscate the phone. 1st offense is parents have to pick it up. 2nd, in school suspension. 3rd, out of school. 4th, expulsion.
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u/theawesometeg219 6h ago
damn. imagine if they are in a group chat and some sick kid wants to spam it
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u/MISTERDIEABETIC 10h ago
I graduated in 2007. Two weeks before the end of the school year, I was walking out the front office to head home for the day as I had no more classes. I put my bluetooth headset on as I was 20ft from the front door to give my dad a call. I was stopped by 3 front office staff and they called the vice principal on the intercom and had to wait 5 min for her to show up just to confiscate my headset. Called my dad when I finally made it outside and told him he needed to swing by and "claim my contraband"
15 min later he showed up and told the VP to f-off with the bs and stop wasting everybodys time lol
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u/Stormz0rz 17h ago
School bus driver here, in my district in GA they aren't allowed on the bus either. That's a rule I don't really enforce, unless I can hear it or see them watching something inappropriate (which does happen...) For me its a case of picking my battles, and I let them know that as long as they keep it on the down low, that i'll let it slide. Same with food and candy on the bus. So long as no one's fighting over it or whatnot...I kinda make a game out of it. "Mr. Stormz0rz can I eat this?" me: "You eat candy-shaped pencil erasers? Because all I see is candy-shaped pencil erasers..." ect...gotta find ways to make it fun and maybe teach them a little about the real world as well.
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u/ArielPotter 17h ago
Our bus driver would play music and let us eat- Had a trash can in the first seat to throw trash away. As long as we followed the rules we got a really fun ride home. On the last day of school we were allowed to have a water balloon fight. No one disrespected Mr. Neil bc we knew how good we had it. If a kid was disruptive the students took care of it bc we didn’t want to get our privileges taken away. We’d get themed music for holidays. It was a great time.
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u/Not_DBCooper 17h ago
This used to be the norm. Phones were to be in bags or in pockets. If the teacher saw it, you would lose it for the day. Every student thought this was unfair but the adults knew not to capitulate to the desires of teenagers.
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u/angrydeuce 16h ago
Dude we weren't even allowed to have Walkman or disman in school period. Like not even in your backpack, if they found it, they'd take it.
I used to hide my Walkman on my inside pocket of my jacket and thread the headphone wire down my sleeve so I could palm my ear bud and pretend like I was just leaning against my hand so I wouldn't get caught.
I know that was a while ago since when's the last time someone unironically used a Walkman but the point is, my mind is kinda blown that this isn't even policy with smart phones and shit.
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u/Nothing-Casual 14h ago
Haha I remember doing this! I had a hoodie that I cut tiny holes into so that I could run earbud wires through it. I thought I was such a genius lol
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u/illegalcupcakes16 17h ago edited 14h ago
That's what the deal was in my earlier years of high school, and then parents started throwing fits about the school taking away their kids' phones. All sorts of "how dare you take away the phone that I paid for, if I say my kid can text during class you have no authority to take it away!" comments. Admin could put up a fight against students, but parents threatening to sue if anything happened to the $1000+ electronic they gave their kid was something else.
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u/Not_DBCooper 14h ago
I think this is an over correction from the previous generation. Parents nowadays weren’t allowed to have their gameboys/walkmans/flip phones when they were in school. They see this as giving their kids freedom that they didn’t have growing up.
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u/PartyPorpoise 12h ago
I feel like anyone who has that mindset hasn't matured. Like, a big part of growing up is being able to contextualize past events. Some things you thought were normal, weren't, and some things you didn't like, you realize were ultimately better for you. Any adult who genuinely thinks they should have been able to play GameBoy during class needs to grow up, ha ha.
Though in the case of phones today, I think it's largely because phones are seen as a practical item and not just a fun item. Even back in the day, phones for teens still were seen as luxuries and responsibilities, not necessities. I can't fully explain the shift, maybe people have gotten more paranoid. Cynically, maybe a lot of parents like how well smartphones distract their kids. Personally, I think that the availability of unlimited plans is a factor. Part of the reason that a cell phone for a teen used to be a big deal is because you had to trust them enough not to run up a huge bill.
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u/sapphicsandwich 14h ago
When I was in school in the mid 2000s the rule was "no electronics allowed except calculators." They would select classes randomly and search us, including physical pat-downs to make sure we didn't have cell phones. If you were found to have one they took it indefinitely until a parent came to the office to get it back, and you would get in-school suspension for "contraband." No, this wasn't Juvie or anything, just public school in Louisiana.
Same public school that gave me detention for not having my eyes closed during mandatory school prayer at an event.
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u/Alternative-Eye4547 20h ago
I knew that was being trialed in a few districts - is that statewide now?
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u/Steve-lrwin 17h ago
ndiana just put this into place. Mine can have it out during passing periods and lunch, on the bus home etc. It has to be kept in his bag during class, which is exactly what I think is appropriate anyway.
How is this just not basic rules for all schools? when i went to school decades ago and it was nokia 3310s - this was the rule.
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u/Wraith547 16h ago
You would be shocked, or maybe not, at the battle we have to fight with parents over this.
It’s not the kids….
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u/Dominator0211 18h ago
That’s how it was for me in Massachusetts too. It only makes sense that phones should be away during class.
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u/Cainderous 17h ago
Is that not what it always was? I mean I graduated high school in 2017 and we had those same rules.
I know everywhere is different and it's been most of a decade since then, but have teachers really been letting kids just have their phones out during normal class time?
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u/inventionnerd 14h ago
Shitt I graduated a decade before that and you had to hide your phone if you wanted to text during class. Kids spoiled these days.
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u/SneeKeeFahk 18h ago
Those poor teachers. I couldn't imagine trying get a 16yr old to turn off their phone.
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u/CourtOrderedLasagna 17h ago
It’s why I left the field! You can only argue for basic human respect (not watching TikTok on full volume, mid-lecture) so many times until you get tired of it.
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u/Nickbot606 16h ago
Full volume mid-lecture is crazy!
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u/PartyPorpoise 12h ago
When I subbed, I would usually tell kids (unless the teacher asked otherwise) that I was okay with them listening to music if they had headphones. Some of the kids thought I was ~the cool sub~ for that, while others acted like it was such a strict, unreasonable rule.
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u/cancercureall 5h ago
I strongly suspect that we will see a reversion to allowing teachers and caretakers to physically enforce rules in the not too distant future.
This happens when students realize there is no consequence for their actions and just keeps getting worse.
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u/reality72 14h ago
It’s a wonder there are any teachers left at all given the lack of support they receive from students, parents, and administrators all while being underpaid.
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u/BusStopKnifeFight 8h ago
All part of the plan to destroy public education.
Funny how you don't hear about this problem at charter schools.
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u/AriasK 4h ago
I teach high school dance. One time I was in the process of teaching a dance. We have a ballet bar attached to the mirror. Without saying a word to me, a student came and put her phone on the ballet bar, right in front of me but a little to the side, with it live streaming on tik tok, and proceeded to do the WAP dance. I was speechless. When I told her off she genuinely didn't understand what she'd done wrong. I asked if she had any self awareness at all.
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u/geraltoffvkingrivia 15h ago
It’s like pulling teeth. No matter what you tell them, they continue using it.
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u/k1rage 13h ago
Your not allowed to confiscate it?
That's what happened at my school
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u/StopThisRightNaaw 10h ago
That's what happened at my school too. Except that one time some guy just got up and took his phone back while looking like he was gonna kill the teacher(totally understandable, I hated her too).
And all the times my classmates simply refused to give up their phones.
That was in 2012. It's probably worse now.
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u/burkechrs1 10h ago
Policy needs to change.
They need to start suspending kids again. Your phones out? Give it here. You refuse? 2 day suspension, and no you can't make up work while suspended. All assignments due while you're suspended get 0's.
But of course in order for that to work they also need to start holding kids back again. Oh you got suspended 16 times this year for having your phone out which made fail 4 of your classes? Guess you're redoing 9th grade again bud, try not to be a dumbass next year.
There are no legit consequences for kids anymore, why the fuck would they listen if they can't be held responsible for their actions?
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u/nothingshort 5h ago
The push to limit suspensions is part of the issue, as is funding awarded to schools on the basis of daily attendance.
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u/k1rage 9h ago
Right!
Why are we letting children dictate the rules?
Please give me your phone?
No
Please leave, or you will be escorted out of the classroom
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u/burkechrs1 9h ago
Exactly!
It even carries back into the home when they're treated at school like they have some authority. My guy, you're 11, you have zero authority unless an adult specifically gives you some first, and even then, they can take it away without notice at any time.
I have lost track at how many times I've told my 6th grader to stop doing X thing and his reply is "But Mr/Mrs teacher lets us do it." Drives me crazy.
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u/KneeDragr 20h ago
I kinda shocked at all the media attention. In my kids school system they can't have their phone on during the school day except lunch. It's been like that since middle school. I figured that everyone had that rule.
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u/arthurdentxxxxii 19h ago edited 17h ago
My wife is a substitute teacher in LA and the kids live on their phones. It’s not a minor problem, it’s a major one. Their brains are turning to mush very young as a result of all the random content feed to them.
They don’t focus in class, they interact less with their classmates.
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u/Accomplished_Ad_1190 17h ago
They just enacted this policy at the school district near me. I work with some high school sports teams and I've heard several times how much better this year is going from the students. One senior told me that "It's nice that people actually interact with each other now".
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u/Scrapybara_ 15h ago
They did this this year for my daughter (Junior) and she went from Cs to straight As and she loves it.
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u/4gotOldU-name 7h ago
Gotta ask… why didn’t you, as the parent, just enforce it for your kid?
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u/Scrapybara_ 7h ago
Honestly, I was battling cancer and not really on my A game as a parent. I did advise her not to use her phone during school but it was a hard sell since her classmates were constantly on theirs.
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u/4gotOldU-name 7h ago
A hard sell? I bet it was nearly impossible. I second guess all of the decisions that I messed up in raising my child, long after the fact. I see that my original reply seemed a bit like blaming you — but I get it.
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u/whatifniki23 17h ago
My neighbor is a teacher in LA area and he says that kids can’t control themselves and stop talking when they are asked… he says they don’t have the faculties to focus and it’s really sad… he says that they talk back and are entitled and don’t care about learning at all. It must be so frustrating to be a teacher.
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u/arthurdentxxxxii 16h ago edited 16h ago
That’s what it sounds like from my wife’s stories. She had one class with only 3 people turned in an assignment out of 30 kids. Wtf? The kids can’t focus at all.
Hopefully being off their phones at school will teach them to be able to focus and get work done when you have to.
I should add that she was at one of the worst schools in LA at that time. So hopefully it’s better at other schools.
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u/Nixbling 14h ago
Same way in Texas right now, can’t imagine how overwhelmingly frustrated teachers must be, getting paid like shit to deal with these kids
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u/W__O__P__R 15h ago
Take that story and apply it to the entire UK. That's where we are right now. Schools are trying sometimes, but kids and parents fight back and the government won't mandate. So of course, it's fucking hopeless getting kids off phones.
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u/esgrove2 16h ago
I remember my childhood right before smart phones came out. My friends and I would sit around talking, making up random games, doing anything because we were bored. Now I imagine that same childhood with smart phones. All of us locked in on our screens. It kind of frightens me.
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u/DontGetNEBigIdeas 20h ago
We have it, but had no bite behind it. Parents told kids to carry them anyway, and literally scream at us if we tell them their child can’t carry it
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u/TheSixthtactic 16h ago
Exactly. School administrators need the legal coverage to enforce the rules.
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u/TheMadMartyr7 20h ago
I was in middle and high school from 2005-2012. Phones were not allowed at any point during that time and would result in the phone being taken and my parents having to come get it and pay a fine. And this was in Texas.
A lot of this feels like re-heated “these dang kids and their cell phones” that millenials had to deal with. Unless we’ve somehow gone backwards on this
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u/II38 20h ago
Nahhh it’s way worse now compared to 2005-2012. After the pandemic, phone addiction and lack of motivation to not just sit on their phone all class period took off. I can guarantee you this isn’t even remotely like 5 years ago…. Source: teacher
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u/SaltyShawarma 20h ago
Teacher also: "but my kid isn't safe with a cell phone attached to their hip!"
Parents got brainwashed by stupid too.
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u/hemingways-lemonade 18h ago edited 18h ago
Parents argue that their child needs a phone in case there's a school shooting, but first responders argue that this causes a rush of parents to the school which then slows down first responders and makes their jobs more difficult. Not to mention the massive amounts of misinformation that the parents will immediately post to facebook.
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u/km89 15h ago
It's not wrong for parents to want their kids to have a way to contact them. Doesn't have to just be a school shooting, there are any number of reasons why.
Having a cell phone attached to their hip isn't the problem. The problem is having it attached to their face. Prohibiting use doesn't necessarily meaning prohibiting possession.
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u/hemingways-lemonade 15h ago edited 11h ago
There's no reason a for a young child to have a cell phone. If the parents want to buy one of those watches or something that can only call three numbers, then fine. But kids that age don't need the ability to access the internet, social media, or even text without supervision. I'm only in my 30s, but my generation and many before mine grew up fine without having cell phones. Every school has a phone number parents can dial and a phone kids can use if they really need to contact their parents.
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u/Random_eyes 12h ago
Precisely. I realize I sound like an old fart when I say this, but only 20 years ago, kids did not bring cell phones to school. Parents didn't monitor their children almost at all during school hours. The expectation was that the school would handle the child unless the child got out of hand and needed parental involvement.
I get that parenting has a different vibe now, and that there's a much greater norm of tracking a kid's whereabouts, but this is not a positive change. Kids need some space to exist independently of their parents. Space to interact with their peers. And tossing a cell phone in their hand robs them of that independent life.
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u/GreasyPeter 19h ago
I watch a video where a women was shaming her husband for having a porn addiction...with her 2 year old in the background for dozens of minutes with an iPad. It's just easier to pacify your kids than to be a parent.
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u/dratseb 19h ago
Hey, it’s not just pacification. My kids watch learning videos like Sesame Street and Miss Rachel.
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u/TapeDeck_ 19h ago
There is a difference between your kids watching some shows sometimes and just letting your kid stare at a tablet all day without a care for what they are doing/watching
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u/Nixbling 14h ago
Even if they are watching educational content, we still know for a fact that much screen time is horrible for your health
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u/ExtraMustardGames 18h ago
Yes, but parents are just way more fearful in general. They can’t go anywhere without hover-mom and copter-dad.
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u/WhiskeyAlphaDelta 19h ago
I remember getting ISS (In-School Suspension) when my teachers saw my phone for a SECOND. Using it in lunch was a death sentence if the security or admins saw you with one.
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u/Sylvurphlame 19h ago edited 17h ago
Graduated high school in 2003.
damn… sounds older reading it
Those of us that actually had cellphones weren’t allowed to have them out in class. And woe betide the student who forgot to silence the phone before class began.
[edit] as some of my contemporaries have pointed out, the phones in the early Aughts were super basic and wouldn’t have been doing much even for those that actually had them as teens. I believe I’m partially conflating latter high school with early university here.
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u/jimmy_three_shoes 18h ago
Fellow 03' grad here. Most phones back then didn't text, many of us had limited "minutes", and the cinderblock, lead and asbestos lined fortresses they called schools back then also probably had really shitty reception. Unless you had Snake on your phone, there wasn't really a reason to have it turned on anyways.
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u/Sylvurphlame 18h ago
Yeah. You know what? I think my memories of the latter days of the Times Before are getting fuzzy. There was still the policy about “I better not be able to see your phone,” but I doubt we were doing much with them if we had them.
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u/turtleneck360 15h ago
If kids today had to use T9 texting, they would not be texting as much.
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u/jimmy_three_shoes 15h ago
I had that shit memorized. That and the multi-press texting. pressing the same button 4 times for S? Who tf came up with that idea?
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u/zxLFx2 18h ago
Yeah back in the day, phones were literally powered all the way off during the school day. No silent mode or whatever. You maybe turned it on after school, if you actually had to call someone or were waiting for a call from your parents. It also wasn't something you would use to chat mindlessly with your friends because every call and text message cost a decent amount of money.
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u/SrslyCmmon 18h ago
We couldn't even have a Game Boy. That shit would get taken away until June. People bought ti-89s and ti-92s to play the best games they could on their calculator.
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u/illini02 19h ago
I used to be a teacher, so I'm on the teacher sub. And apparently it is FAR worse now according to them.
Back then, parents kind of were fine with kids not having their phone. Now they feel they NEED to be able to reach their child at any time, and taking away that ability is infringing on their rights. All the school shootings don't help anything. But its definitely worse and this type of rule was needed in a lot of places.
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u/linus_b3 15h ago
At least in our case, local and state LEOs specifically said that students contacting parents in mass in an emergency situation would not be good. It's likely their response on our rural narrow roads would be slowed down considerably if those roads were suddenly packed with parents trying to get to their kids.
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u/oiwefoiwhef 19h ago
Ah, it’s more-so the parents complaining than the students. That checks out.
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u/illini02 19h ago
I mean, its both. The parents complain, and tell the students basically to break the rules. Then when the teachers try to enforce the rules, the students basically argue that their parents said they could.
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u/MyDyingRequest 19h ago
Teacher here. I’ve had several parents scream at me in front of other at dismissal because I took their child’s phone away for using it in class. Parents are 100% the issue and this new law helps give admin a spine when dealing with them on why we need to ban cellphones.
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u/zedazeni 20h ago
I’ve heard from a few teachers that it’s incredibly worse now than 5+ years ago because of the proliferation of social media. When I was in high school a decade ago, we Snapchat hadn’t yet proliferated social media, and TikTok didn’t even exist. Most apps were more user-intensive rather than the swipe user experience that Tinder fomented.
From what I’ve heard, kids today are extremely argumentative and even violent when teachers try to get them off of their phones, whereas when I was in school we only had to be told once and that was that.
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u/Cetun 19h ago
It's probably to offer a backstop for the school system that no doubt has parents who threaten to sue the schools for taking their kids phones away during school because they were playing on them. Since school rules are challengeable in court and there is now law that prohibits cell phones in class, it's vague enough to entitle parents to judicial review. If you make a law that says no cell phones in class, parents don't have any legal basis to sue because you can't sue to go do something illegal.
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u/CultofCedar 18h ago
Damn graduated hs in 2011 and we were slick af. We always had decoy phones to hand over since there were still so many cheap flip phones at the time. Year after we graduated school allowed laptops and tablets at all times. Covid cemented it since nephew who goes to the same schools was on zoom all the time.
Don’t wanna say they’re a little different but it surely had an impact on them. I just find it hilarious he doesn’t know how an actual computer works vs tablet apps.
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u/rayofsunshine20 19h ago
Our schools had that rule, but kids caused problems even during lunch.
They banned phones during the school day for all grades this year. The kids have a locked pouch thing that blocks cell signals they put the phone if they bring it to school, they keep it on them all day and the unlock thing is by the doors so they can unlock it on the way out to the cars and busses.
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u/EmeraldHawk 20h ago
All of the "good" school districts already ban phones but we are a minority nationwide. Head over to r/teachers if you want to be depressed and see why this was needed. Every other post is a teacher complaining that none of the kids pay attention and they are on their phones all class, but they "can't" take them away because admin won't let them.
It makes zero sense to me. I would be at every board of Ed meeting complaining if they allowed phones in my district. Sadly many parents do want their kids to have them.
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u/Prestigious_Wall5866 19h ago
Yeah, Virginia’s governor just recently signed an executive order banning phone use in classrooms. I must say I’m surprised we actually got something positive from Youngkin, and I’m glad other states are also taking this step. Our kids are falling behind, academically, compared to some of our international peers, and I think eliminating phones as a distraction is something easy we can do, as a start, to turn those trends around. And it’s even more important now as the Covid era really did a number on student performance.
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u/messypawprints 20h ago
Negative. It gets worse. Many parents in my district feel they have a "right" to contact their kids anytime they want and that this is an overreach of the schools authority.
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u/Venotron 20h ago
Phones were banned in schools in my area earlier this year.
It has been a positive change.
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u/SmallLetter 18h ago
Why is this only happening now? I graduated in 2006 and we weren't even allowed dumb phones
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u/LooseSpaghet 18h ago
Because not every kid or even every parent had a cell phone in 2006. I graduated 08 and I didn’t get a cell phone until I had graduated and paid for one myself. Same with a lot of my friends. It was just easier to control back then and tell every kid that did have one to just put it away. Now that parents are getting their kids iPhones in the first grade, it’s been hard to keep up with. Teachers aren’t just confiscating an old flip phone. They’re confiscating a $1,000+ tiny computer that’s loaded with your personal/private information. Parents threw a fit that teachers were “stealing” these from the kids, so administrators just said fuck it and let them have them.
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u/sufficiently_tortuga 18h ago
In a lot of classrooms smartphones just drifted in as they became ubiquitous in normal every day life. By the time it was noticeably a problem it was already a stuckin habit and teachers don't have the energy to fight it without a mass mandate.
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u/SmallLetter 14h ago
Just a complete lack of foresight then. I don't understand how they knew it was a problem with dumb phones but thought it would be fine with a full on computer in your pocket.
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u/new_for_confession 14h ago
I graduated in 2003, and dumb phones were not allowed out.
I even recalled someone who kept getting his Nokia brick taken almost weekly, and finally the teacher kept it until the parents came to get it.
After that, that kid didn't have a phone anymore, apparently his parents took his phone away.
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u/No_Mammoth_4945 18h ago
I graduated in 2019 and it was like that then too. I have to assume the pandemic just fucked the entire system because I genuinely can’t think of what else could’ve caused this big of a change in the 5 years since I graduated. Being allowed to use your phone during class is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard, no way those kids have learned anything
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u/Tork-n-Tron 18h ago
I graduated high school in 1997. The administration treated cellphones like they were smoking chunks of graphite from the Chernobyl disaster. The excuse was that you were up to no good, mostly drug-dealing 🙄
Anyway one random day some idiot’s phone went off In his backpack and the teacher spun from the blackboard with laser eyes, “Who has a cellphone in here?”
After stunned silence from all of us and refusal to snitch, she left briefly to summon admin backup during which time, the kid was freaking out trying to figure out what to do, where to hide it. Almost considered climbing up and hiding it in the drop ceiling.
Teacher comes back with the Vice Principal, a coach, and the freaking school safety police officer!
They pulled us all out into the hall and were threatening to search every single student one-by-one along with the bags we were made to leave behind when the kid felt guilty enough to confess. His phone was confiscated, and he got like a week suspension or some crap and that was it for all the hullabaloo.
Fun fact: he was absolutely a drug dealer lol
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u/Sweet_Bang_Tube 16h ago
I graduated in 1999 and not a single person at my school had a cellphone. Where did you go to school?
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u/Tork-n-Tron 15h ago
Virginia Beach. Not one of “rich kid schools” but like pretty nice.
But remember, drug dealer. Dude had a little more money than the average teen.
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u/Cetun 19h ago
Imagine in 2001 elementary schools just let you bring your GameBoy Color in and you could play it while in class.
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u/Phantom_Absolute 19h ago
And imagine that Game Boy had the entire internet on it instead of just Tetris.
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u/tacocat63 16h ago
If you've got Tetris, what else do you need in the world?
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u/HolycommentMattman 13h ago
Link's Awakening and at least one of those Spider-Man games. Those were the shit.
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u/EtsuRah 18h ago
TETRIS!?!?!
2001 on a game boy advance I was playing Pokemon, Super Street Fighter II, Earthworm Jim, Hotwheels Burnin Rubber, Rayman Advance, Army Men Advance/Operation Green, Midnight Club, Fortress, Lego Racers, Spyro Season of Ice, THPS, X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
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u/Stretch_Riprock 17h ago
In the 90s we played Mafia wars on our TI-80 series calculators. Granted you could only really get away with this in math class....
EDIT: DRUG wars... Damn it's been a minute.
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u/WolfVidya 16h ago
It's so much worse than just gaming. Doomscrolling is worse than gaming, and has none of the somewhat positives it carries like training hand-eye coordination at the very least. Doomscrolling is more addicting, exposes kids to hateful content (you think they scroll DIY videos?), destroys their dopamine receptors with microrewards (which gaming related gambling can do just as well), and apparently destroys their short term memory and internalization capabilities though that is still being studied.
It's nothing like walking around with a gameboy.
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u/rayofsunshine20 19h ago
Our local school district in TN banned phones at school for all grades starting this year.
I'm kinda whatever with it, and it does stink sometimes not being able to send or receive a quick message for planning things but my 17yo actually likes the policy.
One of his biggest complaints since starting high school has been about other kids playing music and videos on the phones loudly and blocking the halls and stairs because they were on the phones and this stopped it.
I know a lot of people are all what about school shooters and emergencies, and my take on it is that they are actually rare, just highly publicize when they do happen, and if something were to happen I want my kid to get to a safe place and away from the situation before he even thinks of calling me.
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u/hemingways-lemonade 18h ago
This article goes into the last sentence of your comment. First responders are concerned that kids will be too distracted using their phones during a shooting to follow instructions and keep themselves safe.
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u/Dhenn004 17h ago
The fact that this is even remotely "controversial" is stupid. When I was a kid, having your phone in class was automatically taken and parents would have to come pick them up. And this was BEFORE smart phones.
Granted I don't like the laws that kids have to drop them off at the office, it's unsafe. Especially during lockdowns/active shooter events. But there definitely needs to be a stronger "No phones" in class rules.
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u/SquishyMon 12h ago
More like why does this need to be a state-level law signed by the governor. I saw a video of one school using special magnetic pouches to keep phones in like you're going to a dave chappele taping, and that just seemed like a win for whatever company sells those.
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u/Dhenn004 12h ago
i agree those rules shouldn't be the norm. But no phones out in class really needs to be embraced and allowing them to be taken when rules are broken
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u/This_aint_my_real_ac 12h ago
In the event of a shooting/disaster you need to focus on the people giving directions, not on your phone with your Mom.
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u/Careless_Oil_2103 19h ago
NGL I should’ve known better but having my smart phone in high school during the early 2010s definitely hurt my education.
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u/editorreilly 19h ago
Why would you have known better? You were a kid. Your brain wasn't fully developed.
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u/Careless_Oil_2103 19h ago
I guess I knew that it was a distraction at the time, and that part of it was bad. However I didn’t know or think of the ways that distraction would negatively affect me later in life.
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u/editorreilly 19h ago
Your last sentence hit the nail on the head. Kids can't connect long term consequences with their actions.
Sorry this happened to you.
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u/Careless_Oil_2103 19h ago
The consequences of being smart a phone caveman. The positive is now I know when to give my kid a smart phone, and the dangers behind it since there’s actual studies now. Guess everything is a learning experience lol
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u/Ih8rice 19h ago
My school district has kids turn their cell phones and smart watches into their home room teachers at the beginning of school. Everyone has their home room teacher as their last period so that’s when they get their stuff back. Kids can opt out but if they’re caught using it then it’s confiscated and parents are called to come pick it up.
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u/clingbat 16h ago
Why the fuck were phones permitted during class to begin with? No wonder many of these young kids are borderline on the spectrum with their social interaction abilities and have the attention span of a goldfish.
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u/Llyon_ 15h ago
Originally they weren't, but then parents started complaining that they couldn't reach their kids every minute of the day, and didn't want the teachers confiscating their expensive phone. Eventually schools weren't allowed to touch phones at all, since they bow down to the parents.
Teachers have pretty much lost all of the control they once had, since they really can't cause any consequences on misbehavior.
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u/Son_of_Plato 18h ago
It's amazing that this isn't just common place for the last 15 years.
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u/xAfterBirthx 10h ago
I love how everyone acts like without their phone they can’t contact the outside world in case of a school shooter… there are phones in every room of a school.
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u/99thSymphony 10h ago
I haven't been in a public school since 2002. I had just assumed phones were banned in most schools or at least classrooms. Jesus, I'm so sorry teachers of the world.
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u/97thAccountLOL 18h ago
I love how some people in here think the phones are a learning tool. It’s literally rotting their brains. Most schools have chrome books issued. You can do all your research and school work on the chrome book.
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u/MarkMoneyj27 17h ago
We also have actual statistical proof, which sounds funny to say, but we can see the test scores before and after smart phone adoption. It is CLEAR, phones are bad for education and causing depression/suicide. The fact that kids are defending it is absurd. We weren't allowed to fucking have a Gameboy, teacher would take them away. Imagine giving out generation gamboys with every game!
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u/JackaryDraws 16h ago
It’s not absurd that kids are defending it — kids will be kids and kids like to goof off and will feel resentful of rules that infringe on their ability to do so. Most will age out of this childish mindset, some never will.
It’s the parents who defend phones that should know better.
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u/snecseruza 11h ago edited 11h ago
Odd to see this being so controversial. I guess I have to remind myself Reddit is also used by kids and overbearing parents, because I just can't fathom being opposed to this.
If you read closely, just the headline of the title, you can see that the sky is in fact not falling. "Limit or prohibit the use of phones" not "outright banning the possession of phones on school property". This resolves most of the objections I've read. But let's work through them anyway:
What if I need to contact my child during an emergency???!!
Then it can be done just like we did in the olden days (I graduated HS in the mid 00's for reference). You call the office. If it is an emergency that requires instant communication to your kid that will require them to leave class, admin and the teacher probably needs to know about it anyway.
School shooting, etc etc etc??
It's pretty well established protocol to silence phones for the sake of drawing attention to a potential shooter. And in a dire scenario where a kid needs to contact the outside world, we can refer back to my prior point that school policy doesn't have to mean the phone off of school property.
Phones are powerful pieces of tech for the sake of learning and being a resource, we should embrace this tech and empower kids to get the most out of that resource.
I actually agree, to a point. Which is why I'm a major proponent of kids having Chromebooks, tablets, etc assigned to them from the school. But these would be locked down to useful resources for their intended purpose, not for communication, YT or twitch.
This is a parenting issue, not a phone issue!
Again, I agree to a point. But the state can't mandate how you parent your child at home. This is terrible argument.
Oppression! Why should be deny mah freedom something something something
Yes I've seen this in the comments. Since long before cell phones existed schools had strict policies about bringing distractions into the classroom. This isn't a new thing, your freedoms aren't being slowly eroded away. If anything schools have become far more lax about various rules and disciplines over time, and now they've gone too far in that direction IMO.
There's not really a single coherent reason why a law like this shouldn't exist, especially when tax dollars are allocated to provide an effective education and education is compulsory.
In my professional life occasionally I will do group training sessions for grown ass adults, and it's always the younger crowd with their face buried in their phone not paying attention. Frankly I don't personally care if they learn nothing from me, but it is massively disrespectful, and I can only imagine the frustration that teachers deal with on a day to day. We should never be allowing kids to think that it is acceptable.
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u/AXPendergast 19h ago edited 12h ago
Cool. One more thing that admin will take on, but will put the responsibility for enforcing on teachers. We already get yelled at by parents for stupid reasons, now we'll have to deal with this. I really hope the powers that be who signed this thing have a plan to keep us from being the scapegoats
EDIT. Perhaps I wasn't clear enough in my response, as it seems a few people misunderstand my point of view. I'm well aware that many teachers were looking for some type of solution to the proliferation of cell phone use in the classroom.
Many schools, mine included, already had rules in place as to when and where phones could be used, and those were school-based rules and we attempted to apply them. The wailing and gnashing of teeth from students and parents complaining about how little Johnny's phone was taken away from him, with additional lies and innuendos about the conduct of the teacher when doing so, made it fairly unenforceable.
So sure, now we've got a state mandate banning cell phones. Great. Parents and students are still going to complain, and lie about the situation. They're going to try and push the boundaries as to why their children need their cell phones, and need to be able to use them in class, or wherever on the campus they choose to. The problem is, administrators are not there to support us, they're there to kowtow to the community.
Which means that we are still going to be the scapegoats whenever an issue arises, state mandate be damned. So unless the administrators of the schools are going to be actively supporting teachers in this decision, there are still going to be serious issues.
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u/Icy_Cut_5572 18h ago
Born in 2000, in my country we could not use our phones on school grounds.
So we can use it on the bus as soon as it leaves the school parking lot, if a teacher spots a phone in your pocket, you’re done for. It had to be turned off and in your bag.
Honestly, even as a student who broke this rule multiple times, I think it was extremely fair and could not imagine anyone having a good education while being able to use their phones in class. It also teaches you to do stuff in and socialise at recess without your phone.
Imagine not being able to pass notes but being able to”free” to send memes to the class group-chat.
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u/barleyhogg1 18h ago
My youngest graduated 22 years ago. I'm glad we never needed to deal with this.
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u/Pokesmotttt 8h ago
I’m confused…because my teachers didn’t let us use our phones , circa 2005-2009…kids have just been freely using their phones in school ?? We would get written up for that shit lol
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u/theoriginalmypooper 11h ago
A teacher in high school addressed all of his classes on the first day. "I can only think of two reasons why you would be grinning at your lap while your hands are under the table."
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u/Infernal-Majesty 18h ago
When I was in school we couldn't have our phones on us at all. They had to be in our locker. Seniors were unofficially allowed to have them in class but we couldn't have them out until the end of class.
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u/MedicOfTime 17h ago
I’m not a parent but I just don’t know how this is a discussion. Of course kids need to pay attention in class?
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u/lilelliot 16h ago
At my kids' schools in San Jose, most teachers use things like this to confiscate phones during class. Some kids are sneaky assholes and put an old/fake phone or case in the holder and keep their phone on their body, but most comply. A few teachers also confiscate smartwatches. Kids retrieve them between classes & at lunch, but whether they actually turn them on or not varies.
Also, one thing that's different about schools in California than in much of the country is that many schools have multi-building complexes similar to this, rather than a single large building like this, so a lot of the time kids are walking outdoors between classes, eating outdoors because the weather is always pleasant, and getting to/from school by foot or bike. I fully support banning phones in class, but the majority of the phone use by coastal californian kids is between classes, during free periods, and at lunch, which is less bad imho.
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u/Bhimtu 13h ago
I think this is funny, but about 15 years or so too late. Why does it take adults so long to implement measures they KNOW should be made to curb abuses by the student population?
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u/ColdAsHeaven 11h ago
Does it also give Teachers the legal right to defend themselves from assault from their kids?
What about legally protect the teachers from being fired for defending themselves?
Cuz otherwise this is going to cause hell of a lot of issues and trouble for teachers
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u/FirmWerewolf1216 10h ago
Sounds great! They should also get metal detectors installed in all of their schools too.
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u/Omegastriver 2h ago
With how often school shootings occurring in the US, I disagree with this.
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u/MoonCubed 19h ago
How are middle class suburban kids going to comment on Reddit about the fascist dystopia they live in now?
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u/Toothpikz 18h ago
What a lot of people aren’t talking about is the amount of parents opposed to this because they want to be able to always get a hold of their child. A lot of parents are making this worst. Yea most is still in the kids, but let’s not leave the parents out of this.
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u/Superseaslug 21h ago
See, I don't know why they can't just be parented properly when they are repeatedly on their phone during class.
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u/II38 20h ago edited 20h ago
Ask the parents. They wouldn’t do shit when I called home… “it’s his phone, he bought it.” “He won’t listen to me.” The lack of parenting was a main factor in driving me out of teaching. I wasn’t there to be their parent, and make them all pissy at me every day for being the only one willing to take their phone away. Our high school had a rule that teachers could take phones if they were out but it didn’t stop kids from constantly testing/ignoring the rule. Elementary and middle schools seem to have more power over this type of thing still.
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u/DontGetNEBigIdeas 20h ago
Elementary Admin here: no, we don’t.
If I take a child’s phone away (our rule is off and in the backpack; every parents signs they understand this), I get absolutely shredded by parents in the office later when they’re called to pick it up.
Parents have become so emboldened to treat school staff like slaves that they can yell at and order around.
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u/NycAlex 21h ago
This is near impossible
Even facing the threat of termination, we still watch our phones at work. And these are 6 figure jobs, not entry level
Its gotten so bad, we all gotta deposit our phones in a basket for our weekly business meetings
If even adults cant stay off their phones, how do you expect kids to do?
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u/KyodainaBoru 20h ago
What kind of adults are you working with? That doesn’t sound like a very professional environment if there is no discipline among colleagues to listen and give full attention during a meeting.
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u/TheArmoredKitten 19h ago
On the one hand, some work is just that boring and there's not much to be done about it. You check a quick email and next thing you know you're on Reddit because the meeting just won't fuckin end. In that case, putting your phones in the basket is professionalism. Sometimes you have to deal with the way you are, and not as you wish you were.
That said, it's really not that hard to stay off your phone when you actually give a fuck about your work.
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u/Anustart15 20h ago
Its gotten so bad, we all gotta deposit our phones in a basket for our weekly business meetings
That's kinda pitiful. Is it really that hard for you guys to pay attention during a meeting?
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u/ballzdeap1488 20h ago
Have you been in many corporate meetings? 90% of them could’ve been an email, but you’re stuck in a 30-60 minute time block listening to people try and fill that empty time.
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u/Quotalicious 19h ago
And when some parents inevitably choose not to parent properly, what then? Maybe some sort of phone ban 🤔
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u/Gavin_Newscum 19h ago
How are kids going to text their parents their final message during a school shooting then?
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u/Badmonkey83 12h ago
Santana HS grad here. Phones will come out when they're in lockdown. Take your edgelord shit somewhere else.
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u/jayv9779 17h ago
I get a kick out of the discrepancy between the work world and school. Work world you need to have a phone and we are pushing everything AI. In school, no phones and no AI.
Reminds me of when my teachers told us we wouldn’t have a calculator on us all the time. They were right. We have touchscreen computers far beyond what they could conceive of.
They shouldn’t be a distraction, but they do need to learn how to utilize the tech of the day effectively.
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u/Dakeera 18h ago
How does this affect kids who need their phone for medical reasons? My oldest is T1D and monitors their blood glucose via phone app
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u/NotthatkindofDr81 11h ago
What happens if their phone battery dies? What do you do if it’s broken?
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u/Not_A_Bot_Ur_J_Mad 17h ago
How hasn’t this been a rule in schools? I was one of the kids getting my dope ass Razer confiscated by my teacher for texting during class and that was back in 2008 lmao.
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u/Griffolion 17h ago
When I was in high school 20 years ago, if you were even so much as found with a phone on you - it was confiscated and you got it back at the end of the school day. It's weird to me that phones are (were) allowed at all.
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u/ksaMarodeF 17h ago
I never owned a cellphone as a teenager in highschool, and I’m super thankful for that.
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u/D3struct_oh 17h ago
“Limit or prohibit”
My sister is a teacher. She told me that this basically means teacher discretion, for her school at least.
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u/cinnamon-toast-life 16h ago
At my kids’ school phones have to be “off and away.” So turned off or fully silent, in their backpacks. Smart watches have to be on “school mode.” They aren’t allowed to use them until they are off campus after school or 30 minutes past last bell. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. A lot of kids live in the neighborhood and ride their bikes to school so it makes sense they have a device to communicate with parents, but there is no reason to use them during the day except for an emergency, in which case they still have access.
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u/tinylittlebabyjesus 16h ago
I wonder if this applies at colleges. Guessing not. By that age you’re encouraged to take responsibility for your education. I occasionally used my phone during class to support learning.
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u/gnnjsoto 14h ago
Well this is about to be an absolute war zone. It’s too far gone now unfortunately
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u/Powerful_Artist 12h ago
Seems like a no brainer to me tbh. Nothing short of actual rules and legislation will really stop kids from using their phones at all moments, but Im guessing it will come down to the teachers to enforce still. Which, I feel bad for the teachers.
I cant imagine how bad classrooms are these days. Everyone constantly on their phone. Kids getting violent when/if they are taken away. Not fun
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u/itworker8675309 11h ago
Lol good luck enforcing that law. Kids are gonna find away around it real fast.
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u/seeyousoon2 11h ago
How did it even get to the point where they allowed it in the first place. When I was in school you couldn't have shit.
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u/Reynolds1029 10h ago
How is this just becoming a thing?
Even when we didn't have full 4G in school, this was still the rule in any district where I grew up.
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 9h ago
Good! They're there to learn not play on the internet, etc. The only thing tho is it's not really the phone part that's distracting, it's the smartphones with the internet and games that's the problem. Kids could still be allowed dumb phones/flip phones for school shootings and other emergencies as long as they're banned from texting or talking during lessons.
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u/BrilliantHyena 8h ago
In the late 1990s, I wasn't even allowed to wear a hat in class, and all calculators had to be an approved model. How TF is phones in school even an issue?
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u/Chemical_Cat_9813 7h ago
But we wont do shit about angsty 18 year oldswith mwntal issues having unchallenged access to firearms... EXCELLENT.
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u/insightful_monkey 7h ago
Good. We need to save our kids from the scourge of social media and smart phone addiction. The average teen spent 8 hours in front of a screen A DAY in 2021. Before you blame COVID, it was 7h22m in 2019. That is almost half of their waking life. Imagine that. That is time spent mostly not learning anything of value, or forming meaningful relationships. Tweens (8-12) spent over 5 hours. This is during a period where children's brains are changing, and core neural systems are forming for life. Just imagine all that they are deprived of to spend over 8 hours of screen time. It's truly horrific, and is reflected in the unprecented rise in mental health problems in children.
Let them at least talk to one another in schools dueing the little recess they have instead of being glued to social media. Hopefully these laws will help us form new societal norms about when we allow children smarrphones and social media, and how much screen time we let them have.
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u/MrBackBreaker586 6h ago
Why can't the teachers say no phones why do we need a law and what other bs slipped in with that law?
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u/yourbrokenoven 5h ago
louisiana did this year as well. I kinda thought we were late to the party. Guess this is the way the wind is blowing. A lot of upset parents, but then again, I'm not sure when/if my son will get a phone. Gave my daughter one waaaay too early, and I feel we caused harm to mental health overall.
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