These days, it seems that schools are stepping in for parents more and more. School handbooks mandate what students can wear. Administration is dealing with more and more behavior issues. Educators are trying to find ways to encourage students to learn and succeed. These are all issues that should be handled by the parents, but all too often these issues fall on the shoulders of administration and teachers. And, now we get to add yet another area we need to “parent” our students on. Cell phone usage. A recent survey by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows that “1 in 5 teens have sexted”, or sent sexually provocative pictures using their cell phones. While most of these teens have sent these pictures to people they know, 11% have sent these images to complete strangers! With the advent of this abominable practice, schools are being looked at to provide education about sexting for not only students, but their parents as well. I would assume that common sense would kick in and encourage parents, who at some point must read/hear/see the news stories, to talk to their teenagers themselves! Why is this responsibility falling on the shoulders of the school personnel? The majority of sexting takes place outside of the school. What does occur within the school is repercussions of the sexting, taunting and sharing of the image among classmates. When a student is caught in a sexting situation, one of the first questions to the parent should be if they have talked to their child about sexting and if not, why not? Isn’t that parental responsibility? Shouldn’t parents be held more accountable? Why, when something happens, are fingers pointed at the school and statements made about the school not doing enough to educate their students on the ramifications of sexting?
Another issue that parents need to be held more accountable for is students using their cell phone to cheat on tests. Twenty-six percent of students recently surveyed admitted to storing information in cell phones for assistance with test questions. Twenty-five percent stated that they used their cell phones to text message test answers to friends. This is all in spite of school bans on cell phones and the fact that cheating is wrong. But yet, only 23% of parents think that their children do use their cell phone is school when in fact 65% of those students surveyed admitted to it. Yes, this is an issue happening is school and is yet another area that school staff is now having to monitor. However, cell phone policies are stated in school handbooks. Why can’t parents, who are most likely the ones supplying students with the phone, monitor their child’s cell phone usage and discuss the rights and wrongs of such usage with their child? Lack of responsibility? I’m thinking so.
I am a responsible parent. I have discussed proper cell phone usage with my 11 year old son who does have a cell phone. I do believe my son to be a good kid, but stuff happens. He knows that I can and will check his text messages and his usage. Some may say that I am invading his privacy. My kid, my house, my cell phone, my right. Period. I am not going to make school personnel my scapegoat.
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Cell phones are becoming so common it is scary. I remember not having my first one until college and even then it was just for use in traveling. Now, my wife and I have no land line and only cell phones. I think parents like you that monitor usage are in the minority. Our school just changed our handbook to say phones/electronics are to be used at a teacher's discretion. There are some cool sites out there that you can use cell phones to answer quizzes or different types of questions. It is another way to keep kids engaged but we must be careful. If it is out of their backpack/pocket, it could be used for cheating or be a distraction. We have also discussed the small number of students that don't have cell phones and how this singles them out in class.
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting point about cell phone usage in schools. Cell phones have the capability to do so much and they are so small that they are imposable to detect. You are right when you wrote the burden of the child’s safety falls onto teachers and administrators. Parents need to play an active role in educating their children on the dangers of cell phones.
ReplyDeleteOne possible solution is for schools to buy a cell phone disruption device. I am not sure if a device like this is even possible, but if the schools could find a way to disrupt the student cell signal while in the building then problems like sexting and cheating can be avoided while in school. One negative of this method is how students deal with emergencies, but school did not have cell phones problems as little as ten years ago and the students seemed to survive. One possible solution can be to have a special emergency code built in to the system, and students can dial the code then the system will allow them to place their call. Cell phones are an increasing problem in schools and steps need to be in place to maximize security and keep the students safe.
One aspect of cell phone usage that you didn't mention was bullying. I know this goes on a great deal, especially in High School. And, yes, I'm going to use my soon-to-be infamous son (at least in this class) as an example again. My son was assaulted in school by another student. He was punched in the back of the head by another student who had the unfortunate luck to have done this right under a security camera. Routine procedure for the school is to have the school resource officer investigate the incident. However, my husband and I requested a different officer to handle this as the assaulter was the son of the SRO. During the course of the investigation it turned out that my son and this other student had been engaging in harassment through the use of texting. I confiscated his phone, emailed all the text messages to my email and printed them out for the police. Between what I printed and what the assaulters father printed we were able to conclude that the harassment had been mutual. Both both were cited by PYB for harassment and the other student was also cited for assault. His dad and I had no idea that this had been going on. After that we developed a policy that I could at any time request my son's phone and look at his text messages. If he refused to show me,texting was discontinued from his plan with no arguments. We did not hold the school resonsible for this assault. It just happened to escalate at that location. Schools already deal with enough student behavior problems, that cell phone usage shouldn't have to be one of them.
ReplyDeleteI know in our county students are not suppose to have cell phones on them. If a student takes a cell phone out during school, we are allowed to take it away from them. To get their phone back, the student has to go home, tell their parents, and then the parent has to come to school to get the phone. I think it’s good that the school does not call the parents, but makes the student tell their parent. This shows responsibility and normally causes consequences for the student so they are not willing to make the same mistake twice.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on giving your kid the information he or she needs on proper cell phone usage and the ramifications of improper cell phone usage. Also, congratulations on recognizing that no matter how much you teach them, stuff happens. That is the biggest problem with parenting today. Parents believe that either their kids are angels, or that they cannot tell their kids no because it would be hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that cell phone usage is one more thing that we must monitor with students is the direction public education is taking today. Education is all about parenting, not teaching. We must teach children the difference between right and wrong and if we do not, we are not doing an adequate job. I don’t think that public schools realize the technology shift that is taking place. Students have an opportunity to use technology that is so far advanced that we could never comprehend it.
Our school is trying to ban cell phones, the simple answer is to get a scrambler. The parents get upset and say that they need to get in contact with their kids in case of an emergency (a car crash was the example used). I say if you call your kid instead of calling 911, then you probably should reevaluate your priorities.
Cell phones are another example of schools having to adjust their practices to deal with a new technology. The common place of cell phones is fairly new to schools, so there is no best practice with how to effectively handle there use. Some schools have taken a liberal approach and have incorporated cell phones into the classroom. Other schools have taken a hard line with them and have banned them from entering the school. Most schools fall somewhere in the middle. Schools will adjust and readjust to find what works for them. Once schools have found that perfect solution, cell phones will be obsolete and replaced with some new technology that will cause schools to start the whole process all over again.
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