Student suspended over call from mom in Iraq

[SunTzu]

And making him cut of the call would stop that how? Its redicilous to think that the possibilty of using a cell phone for an illigal purpose is enough to block their use.

I can understand it when schools ban cell phones bc they interfere with classes and such, but while on a break?

If anyone would have tried that in my school there would be a riot. I think its interesting to see how protecting americans seems to be of their freedoms, but not in cases like this.

[Deacon]

SunTzu, you live where? Sweden, right? Do they have a ghetto in Sweden? Do they have rules against the use of cell phones and pagers and their use on school grounds? I doubt it, but I ask because I don't know. With how cheaply and easily you can get a cell phone in the US, especially with drug sales bankrolling the purchases, they're damn near ubiquitous, and it can be a problem when their primary use is to coordinate drug deals.

[sergio]

Just assuming that a student using a cellphone at lunch to sell drugs is rotten. If you can't trust the students, there's something wrong with the whole system. And making this guy pay 10 days for being the only teenager in the world actually wanting to speak with mommy won't help his self esteem.

But I agree, cellphones aren't used to sell drugs here. Maybe pirate CDs, but never drugs

[Martin Blank]

Cell phones are a major disruption in US schools, both in the classroom as text messagers and phones, and outside of the classroom as ways of conducting illicit trade, and they are being banned on campus in some places, much like pagers were ten years ago. Parents may send their kids to school with them, but they are to be turned in on arrival to be answered by school staff if the parent needs to get in touch with the student. If one goes off in the classroom, or is used during the day in a way not sanctioned by the school administrators, then the phone is confiscated, parents called in, and detention or suspension is handed out.

Were I in charge, he'd probably get a day or two of on-campus suspension (basically all-day detention) for the backtalk, but this could definitely have been better handled by all involved.

[Zapper]

Maybe American society is in a bigger hole than I realised, if mobile phones are being banned because they might be involved in the drug trade.
I can understand the disruption complaint, but a decent student would have it on silent or off during class - I always did. My school had a mobile phone ban, but I took mine in I just had it on silent in my bag. I checked it at break times, and if there was a missed call I was able to call back and find out what i'd forgotten.

And when on a school trip to France someone had forgotten their passport, the teachers were very pleased to see I had my mobile as it meant he could call home and get his mum to bring it in.

Again it's the problem of banning something because it can be used for wrong doing. That doesn't mean that it will be used for wrong doing. I could have taken my pencil and shoved it right up my teacher's nose, which could have caused serious damage - do we ban pencils?
I was about to say I carry a bag which could have a weapon in it, then I remembered a lot of American schools now have bag checks and metal detectors...

[Nekra]

If you click the link at the bottom of the page he was let back in after 2 days, theres also a piture of a black man there, so my bet was the teacher saw a black boy using a mobile phone and assumed he was a drug dealer.

Seriously though banning the use of phone on school property just cause you might use it to set up a drug deal...thats quite frankly looney, that would be like banning the use of cars coz you might use it to drive to a drug deal. As for using them to cheat in tests, my school had a simple solution to that, phones are not allowed on your person during a test. they are in peoples bags against the wall.

[Rfairney]

This is just silly
I can understand if it interferes with classes and the such, needing to be off
but i cant understand about confiscating the phones everyday, just seems silly to me, I dont see any reason to ban them at break times, if they were going to do something illegal they could just go and meet up, or arrange it off-campus later, its really not going to have any noticable effect for the amount of hassle it causes

[Deacon]

Christ...the English are failing to grasp this concept.

[sergio]

The mexican (this mexican) fails to grasp it as well. Cellphones are ubiquitous, and they are but one tool to commit crimes. If I knew they are banned in my school, I wouldn't use them to sell drugs

Cheers on the guy coming back to school after 2 days.

[SunTzu]

Yes there are ghettoes in my area, and i even go to the school where the majority of the immigrants go (IE the ghetto school). Sure there are deals being made on school property, even deliverys.

But banning what is atleast over here considered a vital part of every kids everyday equipment would never roll. It has been tried before in the lower grades, but they've never even tried it in my states highschools.

Over here id say about 98% of the kids in my age has cellphones. Our teachers usually say put em on silent, and answer only if its important. If it is, leave the classroom while you talk. We might get one phonecall in 8 hours of teaching, and i wouldnt really call that a serious interupption.

[Deacon]

That doesn't seem to work over here. But then again, there are a large number of cultural differences between where you are and Georgia's ghettos that may explain it

[Arc Orion]

[quote="SunTzu";p="493241"]Our teachers usually say put em on silent, and answer only if its important.[/quote]THAT is the problem. It seems that most American students (or at least the ones I knew) who have cell phones are under the impression that any incoming call is more important than school. So they'll sit in the middle of class and try to answer a phone, disrupting other students, and giving flippant disregard for whatever the teacher is doing. This is worse, considering school policy where I went to school required that cell phones be turned off during class. It's not too bad when a single student might have an emergency call and have to take it outside. It's a totally different thing when cell phones go off regularly and the students who have them decide that talking to some friend about whatever inane thing they want, in the middle of class, is more important than learning what is being taught.

[SunTzu]

[quote="Deacon";p="493247"]That doesn't seem to work over here. But then again, there are a large number of cultural differences between where you are and Georgia's ghettos that may explain it [/quote]

I doubt theres that much difference, they all seem to take all the know from the hip-hop vids on MTV

As i said, i dont live in a real ghetto, but my school is very close to one, and all those kids go to my school. About 50% blacks in a country where blacks are what, 5% of the population?

And if they can take the cellphones, why cant they enforce the "only talk if its important"? I mean, we dont mind it if someone lifts a phone and whispers "Call you back in 30". Do you?

[Deacon]

SunTzu, how many kids are in your average class?

[sergio]

Why 50% of black people means ghetto? I don't know, so please enlighten me :]