Fremont county schools have moved forward with a cell phone ban… I wrestle with this issue, because I think parents should have the option of contacting their children and vice versa. But I also see the huge disruption caused by them and how it dilutes the quality of education in our kids’ classrooms.
Also, if the devices were JUST cell phones, perhaps it wouldn’t be as big a problem, but many phones today can access the internet, email, send texts, take pictures and video, play games, have calculators on them, just about everything except making an apple pie. We all probably saw the recent story about the teen who sent literally tens of thousands of texts each month. What a disruption from life.
The linked story above says that the district first tried a scrambling device, but it was interfering with some important devices needed by the district.
So I guess my question to you all, is this a matter of a parent’s right to communicate with a child, or is it the prerogative of the school district to ban them to ensure a quality education? Also, do you think that Districts 91 and 93 should take the same step as the Fremont school district?
Popularity: 12%
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- Bonneville School District 93 is considering a four-day school week. What are your thoughts?
- What about School District 91’s upcoming request for $85 million?
- Where is District 91 School Board Leadership?
Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Idaho Falls high school, and I believe Skyline high school last year adopted a policy of no cell phones. This measure is taken to the extreme that they are not allowed during passing in the halls, or even during lunch.
I’m all for parents being able to contact their children, but the kids should be required to keep them turned off and in their lockers during class.
I really don’t see the “need” being there to begin with. It’s not often that parents “need” to get in contact with their child while their in school. I mean seriously folks. We did just fine when I was growing up not having cell phones. Nowadays, people are glued to them like they’ll come down with some sort of sickness if they’re not talking to somebody on their cell 24/7.
So I guess you could say “yeah”, I’m all for the ban. It’s really not a necessity.
I agree fully CR67
Alex, it’s not going too far at all. The problem is enforcement and a simple choice – do you want to focus more time on telling kids to turn off their mobiles (it’s easy to hide and probably tempting to cheat with them) or using that time for teaching? The students are already A.D.D. enough and the mobiles are a huge distraction away from getting an education. Let’s keep focused on what they are in school for. Eventually technology will catch up and there will be a mode that allows the schools to turn off all functionality except for emergency calling.
The school has phones.
If you really need to get a hold of your kid, call the office, and I’m sure they can track them down. If it’s not important enough to call the office, then it can wait until later.
The teachers just don’t need to compete with the distraction of the phones.
A blanket no phone policy might seem lazy, but it eliminates the hassle of policing phone use, when the phones aren’t necessary anyway.
I think the school districts should ban cell phones. If a parent needs to contact their child, why can’t they call the office like we used to do? Or for that matter even visit the school? As distracting and annoying as cell phones are in the stores and in supermarket lines, can you imagine how they distract in a classroom?
I know one student who bragged that the only way he passed a test was due to his cell phone. I contacted his parents and they said it was no big deal. All the kids were doing it. Scary!
I think that it is a great move. Students don’t need to be in school texting and making sure that they can get ahold of each other. It distracts from the true purpose of why they are there. I know, parents want to be able to get ahold of their child in case of an emergency. That is not a worthy excuse!!! If they need to get ahold of them, call the office and have them pull them out of class. That is how it use to be done and it worked wonderfully. I have one question to those who have a cell phone pasted to their head 24/7, how in the world did we ever get along without the cell phone? I want to say quite nicely thank you!!!!!
In addition, I think that they should really start cracking down on the people who are driving distracted because they are talking on their cell phones. I truly believe that they should be charged with inattentive driving at a minimum up to the charge of reckless driving, depending on how poorly they are driving.
There is my two bits.
I agree with the policy of no cell phones during the school day. They can whip ‘em out after the final bell if they need to.
My kids turn their cell phones off and then forget to turn ‘em back on again, but I’d rather they did that than create a distraction in class.
I don’t think anyone needs their phone in school. My son turns his off when he goes in and turns it on and checks it when he leaves. I’d like to think kids could just turn them off and leave them in their lockers, but my kids have had too much stolen from their lockers to do that.
I’m with the comment above stating that the school has plenty of phones. When we were kids, each class didn’t have a phone, and they all seem to now.
Sometimes I’d like to go back to that time, not so long ago, when we didn’t have cell phones everywhere. I really don’t like how attached I’ve become to my own.
Well… it’s a hassle really. I can’t get in touch with my daughter when I need to see what her schedule is after school, to check on how her day is going and if the kids are treating her okay, to see if she has plans for the evening, to see how the test went, how she is feeling, and all of the other reasons a mom needs to check in with her kid. It’s really a pain – but as soon as she gets through teaching and gets home she calls!!!
Seriously, cell phones are fast becoming a problem not only in schools but in all work places. We need to focus on what we are supposed to be doing and having a cell phone is distracting to everyone. I totally agree with the ban. In emergencies there are several lines into the school and someone will answer!
Western mom, hilarious! Sadly there are conversations going on like that between teens and their moms all day long during school. It’s no wonder kids like that are unable to fly the coop at age 18 or survive at a college away from home.
Really, we all survived in school without having a cell phone attached to our hip, why can’t today’s kids? I don’t mind if they want to carry them in a backpack, but keep them off during school. Many kids use them to cheat on tests, according to most of the high school teachers I know.
I hate phones, land lines and cell phones. I don’t like talking on phones or being on call, but still have to do it, because that’s part of being me. On the other hand, my daughter loves phones, and loves her cell phone. She’s had one since she was about 12, and turned 18 this past June, the same month she graduated from H.S.
I was glad she had a cell phone, most of the time. Because of her busy schedule with school, being on the volley ball team, the girls basket ball team, drivers ed., other school events, and her father’s and my schedules, it would have been impossible to keep track of one another with out cell phones. The few times she did exceed her minutes (by a few hundred dollars cough, cough) we had her pay for it herself out of her allowance; which meant no spending money for her on the weekends for about a month. She’s learned that conveniences are to be treated responsibly.
The convenience of a cell phone, in school, was to keep it turned off and in her locker during school hours. That wasn’t just our rules, but the school rules. If the kids were caught in the halls or in class with a cell phone, the phones were taken away, and the parent or legal guardian would have to come in to get the phone. That’s the way it should be.
Once classes were done for the day, the cell phones could be used. It worked well for us.
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My husband and I are both professionals, with his profession being a junior high school teacher. We never had a cell phone, or even considered wanting/needing one. However, we are both transplants from Colorado, and once the Columbine tragedy occurred, I demanded that my husband carry one to school with him. It was never turned on, but he had it just in case he needed it.
We now have a 17 year old. I monitor the “bill” to make sure he is not using it during school hours PERIOD! If I need to reach him, it is simply by leaving a message, and he had better not be receiving my message until after the school day has ended. If it is imperative that I speak to him before day’s end, I will leave a message with the receptionist at the school to have him call me.
Our home rules: Cell phones are for emergency purposes only during the day, and for keeping in touch “after” school when he is out and about. I am also a stickler that he have one when he is out driving, but we also have very strict rules about never driving and talking at the same time ~ and yes, I do also check the phone bill to make sure he is abiding by the rules as best I can (should he break that one, he will be riding the bus for a few days!).
Because of the ramped school violence that has occurred in the recent past, I am not that happy with the cell phone ban, but I also realize that some kids are not adhering to the rules, i.e., being disruptive, cheating, etc., and my kid has been no exception. However, it does make me more at ease that he does have a phone should an emergency situation occur at the school.
As for my husband, a teacher, he would be more than happy to see rules wherein phones brought to school are turned off, and are not to be used during school hours. If seen being used, they would be confiscated, parents would be called, and that privilege would revoked for the student violating the rules.
There was an incident where there was a lockdown drill at the Jr hs last year, and my daughter texted me that they were in lockdown.
I panicked, texted back if she was okay, she said she was, then admitted it was a drill.
She got a stern talking to that night. I told her to never text during a drill again unless instructed by the school to do so. I hope she will never have to text because of a real emergency.
But otherwise, she’s been pretty good about not using the phone during school hours.
It seems that people take cell phones so much for granted that they need them everywhere. Their prevalence in our society is only increasing. It’s taken only 20 years to reach this level of inundation. What will occur in the next 20 may change how we think about these devices altogether and how much further they are integrated into our lives. A ban now is not likely to last.
Schools should not ban those cell phones. What if I have to call my kid and say he needs to bring home some food from the grocery mart. Second of all, I may need to call up a friend of mine who is a teacher and ask she if she wants to go clubbing in the night. Also, I may ask my daughter if she could bring home some Kool Aid and potato chips. See, the schools would be eroding the family if this happened. I find this like a obstacle course with hurdles that you can’t jump over. The school board need to take that into consideration when happening.
Honestly, have you seen ANYwhere that cell phones have been banned and/or required to be shut off where SOMEbody doesn’t have a good enough excuse that “they need one?” And look at post 16. one family, one theoretical day: No milk, no clubbing for a teacher, no chips or kool aid. Multiply that by the number of families in the district, in the nation. Our cell phone needs are greater than any ban. Cell on.
In “good enough reasons” not to ban cell phones, needing to contact a teacher to go out clubbing, or contact a child to pick up koolaid and chips on the way home from school does not compute. It doesn’t even register in the book of libtards.
I’m not sure too many realize the extent to which cell phones have infiltrated every facet of most kid’s lives today. It’s become an electronic version of meth to such an extent that many teens literally can’t function without their texting “fix”. Just try to count all the mall zombies some weekend, staring at their screens, wandering aimlessly down the hall (or wandering aimlessly all over the damn road!), completely zoned out and oblivious to everything around them (except catchy ring tones from some else’s phone). For that reason alone I would support a school ban to bring back a little FOCUS to the business at hand – namely learning something useful during their 12 year tenure as a student. There is very little that can’t wait until break time to text or talk about. If it’s truly an emergency then the school staff can get off their own butts and call the kid out of class. This concept isn’t rocket science.
Did it occur to anyone that civilization actually functioned pretty damn well BEFORE cell phones? And it taught us some even more powerful mojo than cellular texting: It’s a little secret called COMMON SENSE! and CRITICAL THINKING! Which means we know how and where to draw the lines that they don’t appear to grasp. So it’s up to us adults to lay down the law and keep cell phones out of the classroom.
guys, I am pretty sure #16 was meant to be sarcastic. . .very witty! love the “kool aid” reference, too. . . .
Absolutely, easterner #20…even I understood that!
And yet supposedly, (per Wendyjo), I’m a “libtard”…such a clever word, coined by such clever people, to help further the cause of democracy and open dialogue, and a free exchange of meaningful ideas.
I hear much to often parents complaining that there son or daughter is ‘always on the phone’ or ‘texting to much’ or was caught with their cell in class.
Don’t these parents know that they are to blame. With the exception of Trac phone, minors can’t get there own phone withour parent permission. So who is giving these kids cell phones?
It sure is amazing that America survived without cell phones for many, many years, yet justify giving a 10 year old a cell phone for emergencies. Please, thats just a cop out.
I agree with the schools, NO CELL PHONES ALLOWED.
Hi nemesis….I didn’t catch the “libtard” but that is pretty silly.
I do think it is equally silly for people to uniformly refer to “right wing nutjobs”. Why is that a phrase? Can’t someone be “right wing” and not a “nut job”? Or, even better, a “nut job” and not right wing?
I know you haven’t used that term. . . I am just saying we should all avoid stereotypes and name-calling. I don’t belong to either side and I am still offended by both terms. . .
You know what, easterner, I’m sure I have used that nutjob term in other settings, without thinking that some right wing folks out there may not necessarily fit that description. I hope to be more mindful in the future.
I guess it’s a lesson in humility that I need to remember, there’s a genuine extreme block in both parties, but most folks tend to be more centrist.
So thanks again for the lesson!
In my last sentence I meant to say voting. I am sorry about my error and I hope you everyone will forgive me.
No, nemesis, you are incorrect (how unsurprising), I did not call you or any individual here a libtard.
Wendy, can I marry you? lol
(Okay, I was just mimicking the cheerleaders on this site that tell their fellow poster to “go girl” when they agree with what they just said. Why not just say “ditto” and leave the cheerleading out of it? Or would that be too politically correct to expect substance vs. “I agree with you too….great job, keep on commenting” mentality, Perhaps I missed something and this is a popularity contest or these types of comments further the cause of democracy Nemesis mentioned in Post #21. Oh well, I just blindly agree with Wendy and Easterner. Hope that is okay with everyone………………….
Ditto Bundy!!
Ditto? Where have I heard that term before?
I had to think about it for a second and then I remembered………..why, it was Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads.
membered………..why, it was Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads.