Imagine being a first year teacher and being called to the supervisor’s office, where you are clued-up that a student has taken a picture with her cell phone while you were writing on the board. The picture is of your far-from-tiny butt, and this pupil has sent it to all of her mates. After her mates got it, a text message was attached, with your name, where you work, annotations about the size of your butt, and a chain letter stating that you will rape any person who does not send this image to five mates. I experienced this last year.
Circumstances such as this are not rare. In a neighbouring town, a cell phone image was taken of a girl as she was changing in the locker room, and it was transferred to a large figure of students. Schools have a liability to protect their students from such occasions of cruelty and to educate their pupils that this behaviour is not up to standard.
On the other hand, cell phones are not only a problem in regards to inappropriate and disrespectful photographs. Last month, during finals, I had a student whose cell phone went off. Unnecessary to mention, it broke deliberation. Students are also more talented of hiding cell phones than I care to acknowledge, which makes it easy for them to send text messages during class. They secrete cell phones in their pockets, bags, and hoodies, thinking that a educator won't become aware that they are holding their hands in their bags for long periods of time (our school now has a policy that bags should be kept on the floor). Texting makes deception much well-located for today's pupils. Unsure or don't know an answer? Just text the kid next to you, and you can silently swap answers devoid of the teacher's awareness.
Parents must also be held responsible for student cell phone usage. They must be obliged to teach their children the value of an education, and to avoid distractions such as cell phones in this classroom. However, our school has discovered that many of the phone calls that students receive in class come from parents. These calls are not about family urgent situations, but more frequently they are to ask if a child knows where something is placed, to ask what time someone must be picked up (an issue which should be negotiated prior to school), and other pointless calls. Because parents are frequently to hold responsible as much as the students, our school will no longer give back a phone until his or her parents come to pick the phone up. This holds both the student and parents responsible, meaning that parents will be less likely to give confidence students to bring their phones to the classroom.