At least one Kansas district is projecting $150,000 to $180,000 just to equip secondary students with individual phone lockers, according to the Wichita Eagle. The state provided zero dedicated funding. Every dollar comes from local budgets.
Districts choosing fabric locking pouches — think Yondr, the magnetic-lock system concert venues use to keep audiences present — face an estimated $30 per unit. Statewide, the Kansas Division of the Budget put that figure at roughly $13.4 million if every student received one, according to the Lawrence KS Times. Lockers require a steeper upfront investment. Neither option came with a state check attached.
Legislators passed the policy. The price tag was someone else’s problem.
Notice how you had an IEP? Some students also have a 504. There are already systems in place to handle the issue you are describing. I have had 504 kids responsibly use their phones to do things like monitor insulin. Most students this does not apply to.
What do you think happens when 500 kids call the police station at once?
What do you think happens when the kids start talking on their phone during a lockdown?
Children do not need 24/7 access to phones.
I’m sorry, but if you have not run a lockdown drill, you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
Im from the time lockdown drills were invented. They were invented because of school shootings, but instead of actually addressing the issues that caused school shootings, we did shit like lockdown drills and active shooter simulations and whatever school district approved nonsense would appeal to parents.
My parents, being practical people, gave me a cell phone and a glass breaker. They showed me how to use the glass breaker and taught me when to use it. Im still showing them how phones work and when to trust them, but id consider it a good trade. You can train kids to hide like rabbits or you can give them the tools and knowledge they need to make a difference. I can guess where you fall on the spectrum.
Do you work with thirty children at a time? Are you aware of the fact that children in groups in public act differently from children in their home with their parent? You are totally going to be the “no, Johnny doesn’t throw things at home!” type aren’t you?
I have done lockdowns which weren’t school shooter related. It does not matter how well you “train” them. When there are 30+ kids, one of those phones is coming out to be a flashlight, another two are being used to livestream…
Also - school shooter situations are not every day situations. I can tell you in the everyday world, they are absolutely antithetical to any learning. Adults can’t keep off the fucking things at work trainings, why would you not flip through TikTok during math class? They all want to be streamers, so they will insanely stupid and harmful things to get it recorded. They will share awful pictures of each other and say awful things. They will take random phone calls, which are always “from their parents.”
Working with kids has never been easy. Im sorry you chose that for yourself, but sacrifices must be made for the corporate machine to turn out adequately educated fodder.
By the time I was getting through with school, I found myself in a facility specifically designed to accommodate and encourage kids with learning disabilities. Dysgraphia, dyslexia, speech impediments, attention disorders, you name it. If you think teaching baseline kids is tough, try teaching math where half the kids see 6s as 9s and the other half would do better on heiroglyphics than word problems. Then, add in a good third of those kids not just having cell phones, but a full MacBook pro sitting in front of them. Every class. Oh, and the headphones? Covered by the IEP. They’re not going anywhere.
And somehow, some way, despite every distraction and roadblock available to man, they got through it. You know when they say a student can always tell when a teacher really cares? We can.
We had a good group of them at that school, and they went above and beyond to make sure we succeeded as students. They didnt treat us like problems despite the fact that the system thought we were. Im struggling to understand why you think removing the phone is better than teaching them how to use it better. Do you think abstinence is a good sex ed methodology?
Mate, my first year teaching was the year after the district decided to combine several high school across multiple gang lines. Reality and Dangerous Minds have nothing in common, brw.
It’s nice that you got experience in a specialized setting with children from privileged backgrounds in a school designed to meet their needs (not as a teacher even? as a student?) That’s not what most schools like.
You do not understand anything about teaching in a public school. That’s okay. But you can’t pretend you know anything about it. My job is a profession and i am a professional with skills and expertise specific to this environment. Can you imagine someone with no training or experience telling you about how your job works? For lemmings - if someone with zero experience in sysadmin was telling you to just use simple blacklists?
Eat shit and die, please.
I “got” to experience my school because I was left neglected by a public school system for most of my life, to the point where the state had to intervene and force the school district to pay for private education until I aged out. I know exactly what’s its like to be subject to a failed system that would rather avoid problems instead of confronting them. My last year in the system was the first year we got two squad cars when school got out instead of just the one. I even got to be the one arrested once for talking back to an admin who (pattern here, try to recognize it) decided i didnt need my medication one day. I got to see just about the full classroom to prison pipeline before my parents managed to take out a loan to hire an attorney. Don’t tell me for a fucking instant that I dont know what public school is like.
You, on the other hand, see metal detectors in the halls and think it makes kids safer. You see squad cars outside and think they’re going to protect you. You get to work with the same cop that might kill the parent of one of your kids one day. And instead of finding a problem with that, you’re just happy the kids wont stream from your class anymore. Are you so broken that little victories are all you have left?
Now you are hallucinating. Where the fuck did I say any of that. Sorry you failed to make your argument, now you’re just spouting nonsense.
Time to admit that you have ZERO experience here and have to resort to non sequitors and straw men. (FYI - one of the papers I wrote in graduate school was a literature review on why metal detectors are ineffective. Maybe my dissertation will be about how cell phone bans are effective… I also fought cops in middle schools locally, so doubly fuck you by the way)
My only point was that schools cant be trusted to hear kids who need to be heard, therefore cell phones are necessary in case of an emergency. Your argument was that “streaming makes kids do dumb things” like we didnt have Jackass wannabes growing up as well. How dare children not be obedient when told to sit down and shut up? A flashlight when its dark?! The audacity.
Im sorry you clearly hate working with kids. Its so disappointing to see someone invest the time it takes to earn a masters degree only to hate the field they find themselves in. The fact is that children have always acted like children, regardless of the tech they happen to have. They want attention. They want recognition. They want to be seen. You clearly arent engaging them if they’re on tiktok or streaming their class to their friends. Again, why do you think taking away the phone is better than teaching them to use it? When is abstinence better than education?
How about this? Since you are the expert on teaching, why don’t you go sub and show everyone how it’s done?