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Tom Chumbley, PhD's avatar

I do NOT support removing cell phones entirely from schools. First, parents CAN and SHOULD control access. This is pretty easy for iphones. Second, just because a particular way of doing things may be better for most kids, does not justify the school doing it instead of parents. I think the school should work to inform parents how to limit the phones. Third, overall and for most children, I agree that keeping them away most of the school day is advisable. However, I was very happy with how it was before.

The children put the phone in a cubby or pocket and retained access to it in an emergency or to be able to record and event, a teacher, an administrator, a fellow student/s, or to call for help if serious. Now that is taken away from them. So, if YOU agree to this and something happens to MY kid are YOU willing to accept responsibility for MY kid's inability to access his/her/their phones? It is one thing to throw out an opinion, it's another thing to actually be responsible for them. We only know about some things that happen in schools BECAUSE some one recorded what happened.

With the way things are now the kids do not have effective access to their phones. I was on the phone committee also and this is one of the things that was recommended by that group that made the initial recommendation. They recommended AGAINST the children not having access to them for emergencies. So we have gone from access to not access. I fundamentally disagree with that. I dislike the system so much, I seek to opt my children out of the system entirely.

When "immunity" of any form was created sovereign, qualified et ectara is the day government accountability went out the window. There is no justification in the modern day for any immunity like these. Only through this type of immunity can government and quasi-governmental entities do stupid stuff and be not accountable for it. Or people give opinions that government do things that doesn't work. We need to re-think how to do schooling in general.

A lot of very smart, educated, and adaptive people were educated under the shade of a tree ... I really don't see the need for spending money on these big buildings. I'd much rather focus on getting and retaining the best teachers.

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