Should Principals Have the Right to Confiscate Phones?
Recently there has been a lot of controversy around whether or not children should be allowed to bring cell phones to school or not. Parents argue that they want their children to carry cell phones to school with them for safety reasons. Educators argue that it hinders their teaching. The problem is that most teens do not wait to use their cell phone after or before school. Instead they are constantly sending text messages throughout the course of the day. This includes giving away test questions and answers via the cell phone. Also since most cell phones are so small it is very difficult for teachers to tell who is and who is not using one.
In some schools principals have decided to take charge of the situation and ban the use of cell phones in the school. What does this mean? Well it basically means that you are not even allowed to be seen with a cell phone on school property. If you are caught with one they usually will end up confiscating it, and who knows when you will get it back. But do principals and teachers really have the right to do this. Especially since this is not a toy or a gadget and since most parents are the one’s who are paying the bills for them. If it sits in a principals desk for a few months and the parents have a contract for the phone then they are losing money. But in their defense principals feel that it is their own fault if they are caught using it on school grounds.
I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with taking it away from them if they are found using it in school, but if that is going to be the policy then they should include that the parents be notified. This will allow the parents to come speak one on one with the principal and get the phone back. Then it will be up to the parents to make sure that their children follow the rules. Some principals feel that they have tried this and it has failed. Many educators feel that parents are failing the school system by not handling the cell phone situation at home.
It is very easy to tell when your child is using the phone just take the time to look at the bill and take the necessary precautions. According to principals if you did not know it there are phones that can be locked so that only certain numbers can be called. This would help to alleviate the problem, but unfortunately many parents are not willing to do this. This being the case what are principals supposed to do? It almost seems like they are left with no options. The bottom line is that until someone comes up with a better idea, more and more principals will probably have to take similar drastic measures.
