Posted on 09/21/2010 12:04:09 PM PDT by Inappropriate Laughter
I believe that there are other options available to teachers other than the confiscation of private property. Such as:
- giving a zero grade for the test
- kicking the student out of class and send them to the office for disruptive behaviour. This should happen regardless of the cause. Bet it iPods or gameboys or toys or any other distraction.
Continued disrutptive behaviour should be met with letters to the parents, dententions, being sent home and expulsions. Note that not a single one of those actions have the school seizing private property and certainly not searching that property.
Allowing or requiring the teacher to take possession of a disruptive thing teaches the kids the wrong message. Instead of teaching them that they are responsible for their actions regardless of the temptation, it teaches them that as long as the teacher lets them get away with it, it is ok.
It also teaches them that private property is not really private property - just like when they are asked to buy school supplies and told to hand over their personal property to the state.
As for the right to have a phone ... what right has been placed in the Constitution to allow any agent of the state to seize private property?
there is a difference between the age of consent and the age of people to be photographed naked..
The article says "naked".
"I was absolutely horrified and humiliated to learn that school officials, men in [the] DA's office and police had seen naked pictures of me," N.N., who graduated from the school in 2009, said in a statement released when the lawsuit was filed last year.
Bottom line.....cell phones should not be with a student during the school day. They can get lost, stolen and are distracting. The best case scenario is that parents and schools could work together; when a student is in trouble for cell phone usage, it would be helpful if the parents would back up the school by restricting cell phones and yes, taking them away as a punishment. If schools cannot do this, then certainly parents can. Unfortunately, the usual response is “what’s the big deal” since many parents are just as inconsiderate and call students during the school day for non-emergency contact. I certainly agree that schools have no right to search a phone, but what would be the case if the girl in question were showing pictures of herself (on the cell phone) in the nude and this was witnessed by a teacher? Truly, what would be the right approach since this is all very new territory?
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