My daughter attends Jefferson Jr. High in Woodridge. Recently, one of her friends was communicating by text with her Dad in the hallway between classes when a teacher took her Apple iPhone from her. The teacher turned it over to the school office but sometime before doing that she dropped it breaking both the case and fracturing the screen. This is the second incident with the same teacher breaking a students phone I am told. The office returned the phone to her friend simply saying "We're Sorry".
The District 68 information handbook states:
ELECTRONIC DEVICES The possession and use of cell phones and other electronic devices, other than paging devices and two-way radios, are subject to the following rules:They must be kept out of sight and in an inconspicuous location, such as a backpack, purse, or locker. They must be turned off during the regular school day. They may not be used in any manner that will cause disruption to the educational environment or will otherwise violate student conduct rules.
There is nothing in their handbook that indicates a phone will be removed from the students. Most of our children have smart phones now. My daughters phone cost $799 without a contract and it is only the base model iPhone5 16GB. District 68 may have the right to restrict the use of electronic devices but they should not be taking phones away from students if they are not assuming liability while it is in their care, custody and control. If my daughter damages a textbook, she is responsible for the cost. To quote the handbook again: "Pupils are responsible for the care of all textbooks. Fines are assessed by the principals for those books which are damaged". Why is District 68 not responsible for damage when the situtation is reversed?
When my daughter was attending Meadowview, her Firefly phone was taken from her when it fell out of her pocket one day. She was not using it. To get it back I had to go into the school office and ask for it. I happened to be running late that day and was unable to communicate with my daughter so she stood outside the school wondering what to do. In today's world where an individual attempted to abduct a child just last week around Edgewood School, this further cements that a phone should never be taken away from a child. Find another way of dealing with any abuse.
Doubly true if they are going to break the rules with it (since you quote the rule book which says "phones must be off during the day" and need to be in an "inconspicuous" location -- neither of which, it sounds, were followed).
My whole point is it doesn't matter if it is a $25 flip phone or a $799 smartphone. If students are caught using a phone when not allowed, send them to the principals office, give them a detention slip, etc. but never take the phone away from students for the safety reasons noted above. And the school district should assume liability for any damage while the phone is in their care, custody and control.
It also appears you did not read the entire blog. It was not my daughter but instead her friend Lastly, if you worked at Jefferson this year you would know students were allowed to use their phones during lunch if they did not make any noise prior to the winter break And some teachers allow students to use phones for during class as a learning tool.
I bet you still rely on a stamp to pay your bills when you could use a computer.
Thanks for responding. I was starting to get frustrated until I saw your comments. You appear to be the only one who gets the safety issue. I don't know why your comments were only received by me as an email instead of posting to the Patch website so I copied them and re-posted them above so I could at least show one person out there agrees with me as far as a phone being a tool for safety purposes. I couldn't agree with you more strongly about how it is more important for a child to have a phone for communicating regardless of school rules.
Finally, I suspect you are either an employee of the school district, have been one in the past or have friends or family employed by them because you have continually defended their rules here. Maybe you are the teacher who broke the phones. This is not a set up by anyone. Yes the school district needs rules. But today's world is not the same as it was twenty years ago, ten or even five years ago. Parents expect to be able to communicate with their children even during the school day. The rules should allow us at least a five minute window when we can do just that if needed. I often travel for work and can be sometimes over 120 miles away. If I encounter an accident/inclement weather, I may not make it back in time to pick up my child. I may need to tell my daughter to go home with someone else's parent or that my Dad is coming that day. I could call the office to convey this but do not feel as confident compared to communicating directly with my daughter.
I too have a daughter at Jefferson, who was given a phone based upon her continued academic excellence in the 750 level courses. I am not a district employee, or school employee anywhere. She uses her phone to text me between classes, asking for a ride or alerting me to after school events, e.g. Student Council, Scholastic Bowl, Volleyball, etc. However, I told her that if she is caught using it and it is confiscated she will bear the burden of replacing if it is broken while in school custody. She is using it knowing it is not quite within the rules, knowing there is risk involved and knowing she will be responsible if anything happens to it. I do not think the district is responsible if a confiscated item is broken. It was confiscated being used when and/or where it shouldn't have been. Risks are involved, responsibility must be taken by the perpetrator.