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Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

washingtonpost.com

131–140 of 252 posts

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is a red herring and justification for helicopter parents to normalize their micromanaging. We live in Plano, TX, just a few minutes south of the Allen Outlet massacre. Yesterday my son texted me at noon "Shooting threat at school" and "It’s a rumor though but a lot of people are leaving anyway". You can bet your life I was in my car and speeding down the street to get him out ASAP within 60 seconds of receiving th…

Here’s why I downvoted: It actually would have been better if neither your son nor you knew about nearby shooting. It had nothing to do with the school your son was attending. That you responded in a panic is due to a common pattern of miscommunication during an emergency. The least effective response to an emergency is everyone panicking and operating independently of each other and ignorant of the ground truth. How…

Speak of the devil... I just checked my messages and saw this from my wife an hour ago: "ACC north ridge has an armed person on campus. Don’t go out"

I checked the news just now and found this out: "AUSTIN (KXAN) — A shelter-in-place order was lifted for the Austin Community College Northridge Campus.

The campus issued the order at 8:50 a.m. amid reports of a possible armed person nearby. Police investigated the reports and issued an all-clear.

The shelter-in-place was lifted at 10:20 a.m., and the campus returned to normal operations."

So literally by just spending my time being nerd sniped on the internet and tweaking a Dockerfile I missed the entirety of this nothingness.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#132
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(4) preventing crazy people from acquiring firearms in the first place.

Never going to happen in the US, because it's antithetical to the current interpretation of the Constitution and because half the country doesn't trust the government to define "crazy" (or uses distrust as an excuse because they actually don't care / NRA). Sadly, I think statistically it would help a lot. Obviously wouldn't completely solve the problem, but you have to have something pretty wrong with you to want to…

Of note, the current interpretation of gun rights (the individual right to own) is a relatively new construct largely created by the gun lobby (roughly 1977, when there was an internal rebellion in NRA leadership) and a conservative court (Heller, 2008).

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/how-...

And FWIW, I'm in the camp that we can't define "crazy" adequately. So, I'm all for limiting access to all semi-automatic firearms. Regulate them all similarly to automatics and other "NFA" weapons.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is American, so presumably school shootings. We should probably solve the root cause, but the 2A death cult does a fabulous job keeping people convinced that MORE guns is the solution, completely ignoring damn near every statistic shows more guns lead to worse outcomes.

I don't understand how students having a phone helps in the case of school shootings. The school will call the police and any parents of students injured/killed will also be contacted by the school.

Students often have information the school doesn't have in emergencies like where kids are trapped or sheltering and in need of medical assistance.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eldest is 10. No phones yet. We're getting them a dumb phone to share for certain situations, soon. They can get a smartphone when they can buy it and pay for the plan on their own. No taking it to school. [EDIT] My main concern over the next few years is social pressure of the "you have no phone, so your family must be poor" sort. We've had a 2nd grader teased for being poor because she "only has one backpack". LOL.…

Yes, I think that will be a challenging approach to take :) I do wish more people were as thoughtful about it as you are. Setting good phone & Internet habits is really, really hard for everybody, students & adults included. Hopefully setting some good examples early will help them with that later.

Heh, well, yeah, that's the plan anyway. We'll see if it survives "contact with the enemy", as the saying goes. I think years 12-15 are gonna be rough, but after that, like... if it matters that much to you, go get a job and pay for it? That seems totally reasonable to me. If they don't, guess it didn't matter that much after all. I figure if they're responsible enough to plan and get a job and save, they're ready for the phone—if not, they'd better grow in those ways, if they want one. I'm hoping this ends up being one of those Pro Gamer Moves where I force them to improve and learn something to get what they want, but who knows, may not work out.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't get my first real phone until after high school, while everyone else had one. I graduated salutatorian. I was able to focus on my homework after school for hours without distractions. I had a computer at home, but it was pretty crappy.

Sure you're able to complete school work without a phone. You're not able to have a normal social life though and for many parents that is more important than academic success.

This statement makes me question what a normal social life is, or isn’t.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#136

Schools need to ban phones entirely, and probably parents should be strongly encouraged to not give them phones. Realistically it should be banned before 18 except basic calling. >But many students — who use their phones for listening to music, arranging rides home, checking on grades or assignments — are unhappy with the crackdowns. Some check in with parents or coaches by text. Some think the decision should be the…

Just because students don’t need something doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be allowed. That’s quite a weak argument.

giving children a source of constant distraction, full of apps made by billion dollar corps whose sole goal is taking their attention and money, while in an educational environment, is not a good idea period.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You can bet your life I was in my car and speeding down the street to get him out ASAP within 60 seconds of receiving the text. There are multiple layers of “bad” with this. If there is a threat, you’re hindering emergency response. Regardless, you’re putting everyone at risk by “speeding down the street.”

I know the general consensus is that I did a bad thing with my reaction. I get it. I don't trust law enforcement to do the right thing. I don't trust that grown adults sworn to serve and protect would act quickly to neutralize a threat that's not against themselves or their loved ones. I see Uvalde playing out more than once in the future.

How would you take down an armed assailant yourself? In this hypothetical scenario where you are rushing to the school, are you carrying a firearm as well?

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#139
post #17

Why do parents need to "check-in" on their kids during school hours? The fact that some parent are calling students in the middle of class is particularly egregious.

Because it's hard to trust that the kids won't be put in a dangerous situation by way of an active shooter. And with some of the incident within the last year it's been clear the school may not notify anyone until hours later.

Parents can be histrionic. Thats good, your kids are important. Doesn't mean the administration cant decide phones are almost entirely a net negative.

Re: Students can’t get off their phones. Schools have had enough

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my son's school, they all have to put the phones in the 'phone hotel' at the beginning of the day and pick them up at the end. Sorta worked, until the kids all just started bringing in old phones to drop in the phone hotel and keep their actual phones with them. That and the Apple watches and chromebooks mean pretty much no kid has any trouble doing whatever they want even without their phones.

What could you actually do with an Apple Watch though? Sounds like a better solution if you really need a communication link that isn’t as distracting as a smart phone. Texting is still possible, just not very convenient.

Yes, texting. They text amongst their friends who are in different classes.
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