this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2024
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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Great,I fully support this

Schools should be places to learn, not to be distracted by continuous alerts from phone addicted children

[–] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I fully support this as long as they put the pay phones back in the schools so kids can call their parents when they need to

[–] fiercekitten@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A school shouldn't make kids pay to call their legal guardian. Make phone calls free.

[–] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Either way, there should some way to do it without having to go to the main office and ask to use their phone or something. When I was a kid we had payphones, back when it cost a dime.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry but just wondering here... Why would you need to phone home up to the point where you can't be without a phone? I didn't have phones in my school, never needed them either. A lot of people are acting as if not having phones will kill them where in reality, everyone will be just fine.

[–] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Like when my kid is finished with his club after school and it’s raining and he’d like me to pick him up. Or he’s at school and realizes he forgot to take his medication. One time his bike was broken and he couldn’t ride it.

I’m glad for you that you never once had a need to call home. I congratulate you. Some people do need to, and I just hope they have a way.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 months ago

You do understand that the entire world had those "problems" since forever until just only about 10 years ago or so? It wasn't a life or death back then, it isn't now.

Sure, there are some limited life or death situations where a mobile phone is critical, none of what you describe is.

Also I was talking about mobile phones in school. They are a deterrent to learning and must go, period. You don't NEED a mobile phone at school. You take it with you? Put it in your locker.

Kids having a medical emergency at school don't need a mobile phone, they need teachers and school employees making sure an ambulance is on the way.

Its Raining at a club? Well, I drive my bike home and get wet. I'm sorry but that isn't going to kill you.

Seriously, whats up with this generation to think that all these new shiny gadgets that they have are critical to life? They're not. Never were.

And no, I'm not some anti tech genezer. I grew up with computers, I was almost always ahead of everyone in tech, and now work as a CTO. I simply understand that people get way too worked up about their tech gadgets and moreover, I see the hurt mobile phones do to children, which is far greater than the imagined issues people come upmwith if they were without their phone

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Why would even that be necessary? It's school, not jail or drug den...

Kids survived fine without phones for millenia, I'm sure they can survive now. If there is a real emergency, then I'm sure some supervisor can make a call...

[–] CoggyMcFee@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 months ago

Nothing.

Im a normal person who grew up during the time that there were no mobile phones, and we got by just fine. Anyone arguing that its torture or dangerous to remove mobile.phones from school really need to calm down. It literally NEVER was an issue until literally the last 10 years of this worlds existence, you cannot come up with any argument that requires kids to have one.

I can come up with a shit tonne of arguments why they shouldn't have one, though

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago (14 children)

I very much think smartphones do not belong in the classroom.

That said, I also very much think that assault rifles don't belong in schools. And until we can prevent that, we can't really take away the only way for parents to figure out if their kid is dead or just traumatized.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

This wasn't possible 10 years ago so why does it matter today?

Besides, the cops are just going to arrest you if you try to go in, they have to stand outside and let the shooter play themselves out shooting your kids before they'll let anyone in.

[–] datavoid@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You know there were smart phones in 2014 right?

[–] Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Im 36 and i often forget that the 90s were about 20-30 years ago. I forget im not 20 sometimes, until i throw my back out.

If I had to guess, they meant to say something like 25 years ago.

Or not. Im not them, i dont know.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

The 90's were just last decade and there's this exciting new politician running for president called Obama.

[–] iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

You understand that a lot of communication in that scenario can, at worst, lead to crucial misinformation about what's going on and, at best, is unnecessary, don't you?

Obviously, these shootings happen, but the solution is not to arm each student with a cell phone, just as it sure as hell isn't to arm each teacher with a firearm.

The detrimental effects of cell phone usage in the classroom are well documented and plain as day if you just walk into a high school or middle school lesson. Even with highly engaging teachers and lessons, there are kids who slip through the cracks because nobody can compete with the newest fad app designed to melt a child's brain and possibly drain their parent's bank accounts.

This move addresses a significant issue within our school system. Addressing gun violence in the US is a very complex issue that needs to be tackled through a lot of different fronts. Kids having smart phones in school will not address that issue.

[–] wagoner@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Would you allow the children to have a cell phone in school so they can say goodbye to their parents before they are shot to death? Seems a fair concession vs the apparent need to prevent the kids from spreading misinformation about a gunman roaming the school.

[–] iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What's with the fetishization of school shootings in this thread?

This whole argument is weird. Kids don't need smart phones in school. Is your argument that we should let kids have smart phones so they can call their parents if there is ever a school shooting? Do you think every kid should be prepared for imminent death at all times in the classroom? What's the actual argument?

I'm stating that smart phones are a net negative to any learning environment and there are already effective modes of communication within schools.

[–] wagoner@infosec.pub 1 points 3 months ago

I was responding to the point being made that smartphones are a detriment during a school shooting due to students sharing misinformation.

[–] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Obviously, these shootings happen, but the solution is not to arm each student with a cell phone, just as it sure as hell isn’t to arm each teacher with a firearm.

You're right. The solution is fucking gun control. Not isolating those kids out of fear that they might give the cops misinformation and there won't e a safe space to play flappy bird while children are being executed.

So how about you shut the fuck up about how it is more important to isolate the kids than to protect them? Hmm?

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[–] admin@lemmy.my-box.dev 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If you're more worried about your kid at school getting shot than them getting distracted during their education, You might be the one living in a shit hole country.

[–] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I believe in educating kids to know how to ignore distractions. The phone will be there in every work/life situation and will be a tool used to get them further in their careers and life in general. It's stupid to let them use them openly during class... It's also stupid to make legislation about them. Notice we don't have country wide dress codes for schools. Just legislation that says when such codes have gone to far. Banning students from having items they carry daily is just a stupid over abuse of power being instated for what reason? Failed parenting and failed educators?

You text during class you get told to stop, happens again you get detention/thrown out of class/sent to the dean and eventually thrown out of the school. Always was that way. No need for laws around it.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You text during class you get told to stop, happens again you get detention/thrown out of class/sent to the dean and eventually thrown out of the school. Always was that way. No need for laws around it.

It's more complicated. Teachers can't take away the phone because it's an expensive piece of property and it opens all kinds of doors for the school being liable if it goes missing or gets broken. Not to mention if something does happen, the parents might sue the school.

And we aren't talking about mere distractions, but things designed to keep kids addicted to them. You're pitting school teachers and admins trying to get kids to pay attention to something often found as boring, against billion dollar businesses pushing punping money into keeping and grabbing kid's attention. Plus having kids miss school because of a cell phone just doesn't make sense, especially if the parents are pushing the kid to bring it.

The law just makes it clear and reduces liability for the school, and it's better for kids.

I wish the world were the way our describe it, and that would work. But it doesn't.

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[–] yildolw@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Ontario has now passed two different bills banning cell phones in school. It's a great distraction from actual problems. I fully expect we'll pass a third in a few years if our provincial government is re-elected

Teachers don't need a sheet of paper at a legislature somewhere to take away cellphones. They can do that already, and if the kids disobey a legislature won't help. I assume no one is expecting kids to go to prison for having a cellphone

[–] z00s@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The key thing is that teachers can ban phones in their individual classrooms if the school permits it.

There are many schools in which the senior admin don't institute phone bans (you'd be surprised how common this is).

Legislating it helps maintain consistency and parity between schools nation wide, which is important as it's a quality of education issue, so the policy should be consistent across all schools.

I'm not from North America, but the situation is similar across most western democracies.

[–] HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone 1 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This sucks, because smartphones could be such fantastic tools in a classroom. Not that I'm under the illusion that they're being used in any sort of productive way (or even would be), I was once a kid scrolling through shitposts and memes in class. But having all of the textbooks in one place, the ability to record lectures and whiteboards for later review, and automated schedule management would've definitely made my high school education a lot smoother.

[–] TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

When using the right tools, phones are already incredibly powerful in an educational environment. There's a reason why Kahoot achieved meme status: it's because students love it.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

The other side of the coin on this. Cell phones as day planners are invaluable. So kids who have spent their lives organizing their schedules on digital calendars are being told "Oops! Sorry. You can't use that anymore. We caught someone else using it incorrectly."

Incidentally, I'm old enough to remember how every graphing calculator in the school had video games installed on them and half my class carried a gameboy someone on their persons. This is going to be pure wack-a-mole as a policy. Selectively enforced, with lots of high profile punishments for minor infractions and inevitably highly intrusive misconduct by individual teachers and principles. Richer, whiter students will almost certainly be exempted from the policy through loopholes. Poorer, blacker students will be shoved even more forcefully through the School To Prison Pipeline. Cops will inevitably get involved in the worst possible way.

And all of this will be sold as a means of "reducing distractions".

[–] scottywh@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand how a state governor can "introduce" a bill.

Isn't that the legislature's job?

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 1 points 3 months ago

Anyone can introduce a bill, including you. Only the legislature's vote on it counts.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 1 points 3 months ago

A lot of public school districts now provide laptops or Chromebooks to the students to use during class while doing... let's say...minimal oversight at best.

So most of the same inappropriate garbage behaviors and distractions will just be offloaded from the personal phone to the school device.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 3 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.

The smartphone-ban bill will follow two others Hochul is pushing that outline measures to safeguard children’s privacy online and limit their access to certain features of social networks.

In New York, the bills have faced pushback from big tech, trade groups and other companies, which collectively spent more than $800,000 between October and March lobbying against one or both of them, according to public disclosure records.

This differs from other state-level bills across the country, which place some reliance on self-policing by tech companies to decide which features could be harmful by completing assessments of whether products are “reasonably likely” to be accessed by children.

“Meta itself admits its own parental controls aren’t widely used – they’re often confusing and frequently fail to work as intended,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, a policy advocacy organization.

The major social media firms have faced increasing scrutiny over harms against children, including sextortion scams, grooming by predators and worsening mental health.


The original article contains 922 words, the summary contains 199 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Is she going to ban hats next? Put in a law telling students exactly how they can decorate their lockers?

Surely there are more pressing things to be legislated?

[–] Soulcreator@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As someone who went through the NY public school system many years ago, I can confirm hats were/are hard banned. Like unless it was for religious reasons you really couldn't even think about putting something on your head.

Cell phones were also banned in my youth but I guess times have changed?

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Oh yes, but by the school. Not the law. We have elected positions specifically for figuring out how schools should teach children. Also top down negative mandates about clothes are already borderline abuses of power. We want laws preventing admins from going overboard, not mega bans in state law.

[–] meliaesc@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual's opinion. This has nothing to do with fashion and can't be compared to hats or locker decorations.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's no different than sleeping through class or just doodling and ignoring the teacher. If the kid can't not have their phone out then they get banished to the back of the class. If they play noise they get sent to the office, just like disruptive kids in every generation.

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It’s no different than sleeping through class or just doodling and ignoring the teacher.

And there you have it folks, doodling is the same as these social media apps designed to be addictive that also lead to all kinds of bullying and social anxieties and harassment.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, you think banning smartphones at school is going to stop cyber bullying? Because bullies infamously follow the rules and kids are at school 24/7?

[–] EatATaco@lemm.ee 0 points 3 months ago

You said it was the same as doodling. I responded to that. All that other stuff you added was just fabricated in your own head.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The research showing the impact of cellphones during class outweighs an individual’s opinion.

More broadly, any kind of in-class interruption can hurt academic performance. This same logic has been applied to dress codes, speech constraints (most famously Bong Hits for Jesus), and behavioral edicts.

But this wack-a-mole strategy of prohibitions isn't championed because it is particularly effective. There's always some new distraction in the classroom you can chase after next. The strategy is championed because its cheap. Banning cell phones has very little budgeted cost as a public policy. By contrast, reducing class sizes and providing more hands-on learning opportunities and hiring/retaining highly educated teachers has an enormous price tag.

Nevermind which strategy has a proven history of increased student performance. We just need to keep locking enormous pools of children in tiny windowless classrooms and throwing increasingly byzantine standardized tests at them, then chasing any student who produces a "distraction" from this mind-numbing educational policy.

[–] RiikkaTheIcePrincess@pawb.social 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Gross! Couldn't even let schools decide, somehow it's important to ban them state-wide? Piss off.

[–] QuarterSwede@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago (5 children)

The state is responsible for the education of children. This absolutely falls within their scope.

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