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Schools had emergency plans for decades before students had cell phones that worked just fine.
I think they could manage that again.
Some adjustments will need to be made, to account for changes in the world, but yes, that should be the goal.
In an actual emergency, the last thing in the world that I want is every kid in the school texting their parents, checking social media, or calling their friends. We need to deal with the emergency in front of us in the moment.
We have land lines in our classrooms. There is no reason kids should have their phones at school.
Student cell phones are not needed in an emergency. All they can do is quickly spread information and misinformation to add confusion and lead to endless stream of panic calls from parents or others.
Only land line or teacher cell phones are needed to contact for help in emergency situations.
I remember when I had to make a plan with my parents before I went to school… when there was an emergency communication still got done. Phones can actually cause more chaos in emergencies (or drills). Staff should have phones to connect with other staff members but things can get blown out of proportion fast when adolescents (whose brains haven’t fully developed yet) have access to literally the whole world.
Extension after reading the article:
This is a joke lol I literally found myself laughing at some of the questions and statement made by these people.
I feel like there are many of us that are on the same page. We got by without phones before. It’s not the end of the world if students can’t text their parents. Also, hello parents! You’re kids are supposed to be learning!!!
Also, sending police in if a kid has a phone is a little dramatic. How about schools just have clear and consistent expectations with consequences for those who don’t follow the expectations….
Students, teachers, and schools got along just fine for decades before cellphones were invented.
Exactly
We have a lot of safety issues because students have phones.
We've had fights because students have phones. We've had parents come up to assault students because of phones.
HS Technician 1 "...problems with society that are greatly exacerbated by students with easy access to cell phones."
Fixed it.
In a true emergency, the cell towers will be overloaded and their phones will not work. Parents will need to rely on school communications as the students will not have reunification details.
Same sentiment as everyone here.... it's ridiculous. My high school had one payphone that was always locked, so unless you were bleeding from your eyeballs, you went to class or the nurse would call home for you. We all survived. I was at school everyday from 6am until most evenings, completely disconnected from my parents. Working at a high school today, I can unequivocally say cell phones/social media cause 99% of the safety issues on campus.
Just say, “No” to cell phones in class. Inundating 911 Emergency dispatch and overwhelming the system is Dangerous. There are 2600 students at my school; that’s a lot of people tying up the phone lines. Shelter in place, lay low, and give police/fire space to do their jobs.
I think that, to keep students safe without cell phones, we should install landlines in schools that parents can call if they need to pick their students up. Probably we should also have landlines in each classroom so that the office, when they answer the landline there, can call the landline in the classroom to have the kid sent down, or for someone in the room to dial out in case of emergency.
Less sarcastically, I'll agree with the many other people who've pointed out that students' cell phones ALWAYS cause more unsafe situations than they resolve, by at least a factor of 100.
It's a valid concern, and I completely understand the worry about not having quick access to communication during an emergency. Our school has walkie-talkies for staff in every classroom and emergency stations set up around campus. Another idea we've tossed around is having a reliable, up-to-date text or alert system that students and families can sign into.
The argument here is that we should ignore the very real dangers that are created by letting students have their phone in their hand all day, because of a possible situation that may arise if a catastrophe occurs.
As if literally none of the adults would be able to summon help in one of those very, very rare situations.
There is no perfect answer. Having kids put their phones where they can't instantly access them every minute is much better than the alternative.
Ban them! Nothing else works. Students don’t have the self control needed to put them away during class. Parents shouldn’t be texting/calling them while in the classroom. The front office has a phone. Believe it or not there was a time when life/school existed before cellphones and students became successful adults … with lots less fighting.
I agree as I said a very similar thing… however I do think that even though we didn’t have phones there was most likely something else to fight about. Albeit it probably wasn’t as distracting during our learning time lol