Privacy in Schools

[Zack Alklazaris]

I challenge your accusation. Taking away your phones is just a way of life. Everyone has one and wont turn them off. Its just when your in the teachers can take them away. However it IS an invade of privacy to look in your phone.

They can search your desks and lockers are random because they own them. Its their property. However, your cell phone is your property. They have no right to search its contents.

 

[Kriptonite]

How about you don't take your phones to school or leave them in your locker? Seems like that would solve all the problems, and yes, I do mean both from the teacher's and student's perspectives.

 

[Jonluw]

Wow. That's pretty strict.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't illegal to go through your private material though.

I'm glad my school isn't that strict. The standard response to a ringing phone around here is to laugh at the person for forgetting to set it to vibrate.

At my old school, you had to bring cake the next day if your phone went off in class, but most of us just walked out of the class room and took the call

Hm.
People rarely take the calls here, but when they do, it's not all that common to leave the classroom to do so. Unless it's an important call, that is.

In fact, the guy sitting next to me took a call in class this very day. He had it set to vibrate though, so he didn't really disrupt class.

 

[Rhaff]

Wow. That's pretty strict.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't illegal to go through your private material though.

I'm glad my school isn't that strict. The standard response to a ringing phone around here is to laugh at the person for forgetting to set it to vibrate.

At my old school, you had to bring cake the next day if your phone went off in class, but most of us just walked out of the class room and took the call

Hm.
People rarely take the calls here, but when they do, it's not all that common to leave the classroom to do so. Unless it's an important call, that is.

In fact, the guy sitting next to me took a call in class this very day. He had it set to vibrate though, so he didn't really disrupt class.

Well the thing was that schools in Denmark are generally not that uptight about various stuff, with some exceptions of course. My old school especially which is equivalent to end of high school, start of college, had very loose rules about phones and personal devices in general. If your phone starts ringing, and its set on vibrate, you could just get up and walk out, and the teacher wouldn't think twice of it. If it starts ringing and its not on vibrate, then you could still just get up and take the call outside, but you had to bring cake the next time you had that teacher. The school even embraced facebook as a medium, where we made groups for the individual classes, and the teachers could get a hold of us through there. The school even paid for all students to go see The Social Network at the cinema during school hours.

 

[Jonluw]

Wow. That's pretty strict.
I'd be surprised if it wasn't illegal to go through your private material though.

I'm glad my school isn't that strict. The standard response to a ringing phone around here is to laugh at the person for forgetting to set it to vibrate.

At my old school, you had to bring cake the next day if your phone went off in class, but most of us just walked out of the class room and took the call

Hm.
People rarely take the calls here, but when they do, it's not all that common to leave the classroom to do so. Unless it's an important call, that is.

In fact, the guy sitting next to me took a call in class this very day. He had it set to vibrate though, so he didn't really disrupt class.

Well the thing was that schools in Denmark are generally not that uptight about various stuff, with some exceptions of course. My old school especially which is equivalent to end of high school, start of college, had very loose rules about phones and personal devices in general. If your phone starts ringing, and its set on vibrate, you could just get up and walk out, and the teacher wouldn't think twice of it. If it starts ringing and its not on vibrate, then you could still just get up and take the call outside, but you had to bring cake the next time you had that teacher. The school even embraced facebook as a medium, where we made groups for the individual classes, and the teachers could get a hold of us through there. The school even paid for all students to go see The Social Network at the cinema during school hours.

Sounds a lot like up here.

 

[senordesol]

I remember my phone got confiscated once. I removed the battery before handing it over. Later my teacher asked why I took the battery out, I asked why it would make a difference.

We were friends after that.

 

[LadyDeadly]

I'm pretty sure its illegal for some stupid assistant or principal to go through your messages without a viable reason.

I'd would've raised heck about it, theres no way in hades thats legal

what about a smart assistant or principal?

I meant that statement to apply to any person really. Ive never met said assistant or principal but i made the assumption they were stupid because they clearly thought that taking someone else's property and going through their personal informations i.e. texts and phone calls such, they would have to be stupid to think that is appropriate.

 

[Erana]

The thing about this is that such strict policy does nothing to promote a good educational environment. In college, if you get a ring, its taken as rude and reflects upon your integrity if you let it happen repeatedly, but a good professor will simply continue with doing their job.
Taking away phones over such a small offense turns the environment into a power struggle, and that effects all the students, and I'd easily bet that it does more damage than dealing with a small handful of students making poor choices by texting instead of paying attention.

The degree to which the staff of this school seem to have lost sight of the point of education is saddening.

 

[Giftfromme]

The thing about this is that such strict policy does nothing to promote a good educational environment. In college, if you get a ring, its taken as rude and reflects upon your integrity if you let it happen repeatedly, but a good professor will simply continue with doing their job.
Taking away phones over such a small offense turns the environment into a power struggle, and that effects all the students, and I'd easily bet that it does more damage than dealing with a small handful of students making poor choices by texting instead of paying attention.

The degree to which the staff of this school seem to have lost sight of the point of education is saddening.

Utter nonsense. It's stupidly annoying and why should one person's phone going off be allowed to distract the class? Just turn the damn thing off. He is in high school, not a CEO or an executive who might need information ASAP. Why should the lecturer or teacher have to ignore a ringing phone in class? They already have to deal with annoying and obnoxious teenagers, now you say they should add phones to that list?

Turn off your damn phone in class and make it easier on everyone. Such a simple act.

Kheapathic has it 100% correct.

 

[Simalacrum]

You should take that up with the teachers; I don't know about laws, but it IS a clear violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and while it isn't technically law, people shouldn't really go breaking it willy nilly (even if they do).

Still, that does seem pretty damn illegal? consult a professional or someone about it, I dunno.

edit: I should point out this is less the confiscation of the phone (which is eh, whatever, should've turned off the phone), its more the going through all your information part of it; now that REALLY isn't on. Also, how the hell do they get past the passwords? What kind of school has people/devices capable of that?

 

[Erana]

The thing about this is that such strict policy does nothing to promote a good educational environment. In college, if you get a ring, its taken as rude and reflects upon your integrity if you let it happen repeatedly, but a good professor will simply continue with doing their job.
Taking away phones over such a small offense turns the environment into a power struggle, and that effects all the students, and I'd easily bet that it does more damage than dealing with a small handful of students making poor choices by texting instead of paying attention.

The degree to which the staff of this school seem to have lost sight of the point of education is saddening.

Utter nonsense. It's stupidly annoying and why should one person's phone going off be allowed to distract the class? Just turn the damn thing off. He is in high school, not a CEO or an executive who might need information ASAP. Why should the lecturer or teacher have to ignore a ringing phone in class? They already have to deal with annoying and obnoxious teenagers, now you say they should add phones to that list?

Turn off your damn phone in class and make it easier on everyone. Such a simple act.

Kheapathic has it 100% correct.

I never said that someone should not turn their phone off in class. Don't put words in my mouth, I hate that!

What I was talking about is how its handled. A school should be an environment in which students should have enough discipline to not let their phones go off, and if it does happen, they should have enough respect for their teacher that their shame in such an event be enough punishment.
What I'm talking about is striving for an environment of mutual trust and respect, where you don't have to stop the education, the entire point of highschool, to discipline a student or students. How fucking hard is it to know when you've wronged your teacher?
Of course, by your calling students, "Annoying and obnoxious teenagers," you demonstrate your complete lack of faith in highschoolers, so my arguing my point is probably moot.

But yet again on the Escapist, I have to respond to posts by spelling out what I said in the first place, rather than having an actual discussion... I'm a bit disappoint.

 

[Giftfromme]

The thing about this is that such strict policy does nothing to promote a good educational environment. In college, if you get a ring, its taken as rude and reflects upon your integrity if you let it happen repeatedly, but a good professor will simply continue with doing their job.
Taking away phones over such a small offense turns the environment into a power struggle, and that effects all the students, and I'd easily bet that it does more damage than dealing with a small handful of students making poor choices by texting instead of paying attention.

The degree to which the staff of this school seem to have lost sight of the point of education is saddening.

Utter nonsense. It's stupidly annoying and why should one person's phone going off be allowed to distract the class? Just turn the damn thing off. He is in high school, not a CEO or an executive who might need information ASAP. Why should the lecturer or teacher have to ignore a ringing phone in class? They already have to deal with annoying and obnoxious teenagers, now you say they should add phones to that list?

Turn off your damn phone in class and make it easier on everyone. Such a simple act.

Kheapathic has it 100% correct.

I never said that someone should not turn their phone off in class. Don't put words in my mouth, I hate that!

What I was talking about is how its handled. A school should be an environment in which students should have enough discipline to not let their phones go off, and if it does happen, they should have enough respect for their teacher that their shame in such an event be enough punishment.
What I'm talking about is striving for an environment of mutual trust and respect, where you don't have to stop the education, the entire point of highschool, to discipline a student or students. How fucking hard is it to know when you've wronged your teacher?
Of course, by your calling students, "Annoying and obnoxious teenagers," you demonstrate your complete lack of faith in highschoolers, so my arguing my point is probably moot.

But yet again on the Escapist, I have to respond to posts by spelling out what I said in the first place, rather than having an actual discussion... I'm a bit disappoint.

Of course I called them annoying and obnoxious, I went through high school and saw all the shit. Do you want to know who had the best classes and who held the most respect? The teachers who were strict and fair. People may grumble, but ultimately they respected the fact that the teacher didn't take shit from the students. That included retarded things like mobiles in class.

Merely saying "students should have respect for their teachers etc" doesn't actually make it so. The only teachers that got respect in my high school were the ones that showed they took no shit from their students and expected them to act like adults. They didn't just expect all this respect etc, they demanded it and it showed in their teaching and discipline style. And yes that included holding the whole class back if someone was being a ***** and didn't own up to something particularly bad they had done in class. Worked every time.

 

[Durgiun]

My opinion: they try to take away your phone and fiddle through it? Tell 'em to ''piss off, would you kindly?''

 

[MrTub]

Im quite certain that is illegal, at least where I live, but phones isnt really the biggest problem where I study since everyone has a laptop and you are allowed to use your phone as long as you go out, so you do not disturb the rest of the class.

 

[FalloutJack]

I've always been okay with my school being allowed to take phones and such, seeing as it was against the rules. But today that has all changed.

I was sitting in a class, and we hear a phone go off. No one confesses to it, so the principal decides to take EVERYONE'S phone in the class. Not only did they take our phone, but they go through your messages, your Facebook and anything else they feel like doing. It just doesn't seem right, and there has to be SOME other way to avoid what they do now.

So I ask you Escapist, how do you feel about school privacy?

EDIT: They can get pass our passwords which is what brought this whole incident up.

Nope, that's fucked up.

Asking or in fact telling you to shut your phone off during class is reasonable.

Confiuscating it from someone who will not do this considerate thing is reasonable.

Taking any phone from anyone for any other reason is NOT.

Taking ALL phones from ANY person who is NOT guilty of thing one and breaking into them for GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT is NOT FUCKING REASONABLE.

Class action lawsuit. Now.

 

[FalloutJack]

*Sigh*

You're not one to say. It wasn't your phone. My post is based upon the notion that if true, and it seems that way, do NOT let it slide. If it's false, then it's false. If it's true, then teachers are assholes. Now, let's have you put a hold on the second-guessing. It does nothing.