I am outraged that Montgomery County Public Schools is even considering changing its cellphone policy to allow elementary school children to carry them
to school and use them on the bus. Young students can’t bring stuffed
animals or Pokémon trading cards, but they can bring cellphones, some
worth hundreds of dollars?
I don’t think the superintendent
understands the reality of children bringing phones to school. Middle
school students are watching pornography on their phones. Children are
cyberbullying each other via text. And some children have an application
installed on their phones to get around a school’s “secure” server. The
school board should do its homework.
How would allowing
elementary school children to bring cellphones to school lower costs,
close the achievement gap or help kids focus? The teachers would have
one more distraction to deal with. Who asked for this?
I want proof that this is a good idea before it is implemented.
I
have been serving my school as a PTA member, board member and volunteer
for years. I am discouraged that MCPS does not get the message that
devices at school are a social and potential health problem, not to
mention a privilege that not all can afford.
I urge MCPS leadership to include parents in decisions that so plainly involve us.
Lisa Cline, Gaithersburg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dont-let-children-take-cellphones-to-school/2016/12/01/9b35e31e-b73d-11e6-939c-91749443c5e5_story.html?utm_term=.c433c6c0a0c3
Why this would upset the minions who dream up new virtual markets for high tech gadgets that the youth gets hooked on and the parents work two jobs in order to afford the service.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, if something horrid were to happen at school, I'd want my son to have his phone to call me. I don't leave my child's security and protection up to MCPS. If my son had NOT had his phone when an MCPS bus driver failed to drop him off at his bus stop...and went off route, then failed to tell him or me where he was going when my son called me scared out of mind. He was the last kid on the bus. He was able to communicate to the driver that I was calling the police. That was how I got my son back, unharmed.
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