Thursday, March 10, 2016

Hiding in the Bathroom


I think that many of the students at the continuation high school have a serious cell phone addiction. Well, it's either that or they just don't care to make even a pretense of abiding by the school rules. Perhaps it's both.

I was in the math class. One boy had his cell phone out, texting or something rather than doing the assigned work. So, I told him to put the cell phone away.

A few minutes later, I returned to him, and his cell phone was out again. I thought my warning was pretty clear--put the phone away and get to work. Apparently not. So, this time I made my warning abundantly clear. The next time I saw his cell phone, he was going to turn it into the office.

Sure enough, a few minutes after that, he was on his phone again. He'd been warned.

But no. Now he was going to "be good". He finally headed for his computer. He'd keep the phone put away.

Um, right. Sure. Because my previous two warnings were so well heeded.

We did the usual dance, with me informing him that he could take the phone to the office or I could call the office to come and get it. He finally left.

At one point, I had glanced down at the paper he'd been working on, so when I called the office to inform them that he was on his way, I gave that name. And was promptly informed by the class at large that that was not the boy's name. The boy I named was sitting right there.

So, what was his name? No one seemed to know.

I called the office back. The secretary told me that two boys had just diverted into the bathroom.

After a bunch of back and forth, we finally figured out the name of the boy I'd sent. But he still hadn't come out of the bathroom. The secretary sent someone in to get him. (This boy had just come out of the bathroom. He claimed that he had no idea if anyone else was in there.)

The boy had planned to hide in the bathroom, either for the rest of the period or until he figured he'd been in there long enough to convince me that he had given up his cell phone. Because that is what they do now. (Which is why we call the office to tell them that someone is coming to turn in a cell phone.)

If only they put this kind of effort into their schoolwork. See why I think some of them have a real addiction problem?

18 comments:

  1. I think it is for this reason he is in the continuation high school; can't quite follow the rules and definitely does have an addiction to cell phone indeed. Thing is they are usually always going to be found out, so why do they even think they can get away from something?

    betty

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup. The CHS has a huge cell phone problem that just doesn't happen at the other schools.

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  2. He thought he was so clever.
    If I had kids, unless they were working a job, they wouldn't get a cell phone at all. Yeah, I'm mean that way.

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  3. And not following the rules is why so many of these kids are on the paths to become criminals. I agree that so many have cell phone addictions. But, so do their parents!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not all of them are headed for jail. A few of them, sure. But some of them do get their act together and make something of themselves.

      Delete
  4. Some people are always going to try to get out of trouble. Luckily you're too clever for them.

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  5. There is no reason these kids need a cell phone at that young age. When they are 16, then they can have a pay as you go and that is it!it would be much easier for teachers and less expensive for the parents.

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  6. Well it's a good thing I never had any kids because they wouldn't get a call phone until they turned 18. That's simply ridiculous! We all survived without them growing up. The kids these days are on them all the time. I think that's why they never learn anything. And they don't care about learning and think they can get away with breaking the rules. There should be a basket and a teacher at the school door and make every student put their phones in there before taking a seat in class. Period! They don't get the phones back until the end of the day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Most students do a pretty good job of handling their phones. And most of the students got them so their parents could keep track of them. If I didn't get the odd student who has a problem, I'd never have any good stories for the blog.

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  7. This cell phone business seems to be a real problem in schools. I can't understand why they are allowed at all.
    But, kids are not unique in an addiction to their phones.

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  8. The phones are such a part of the everyday now. I worked in a call centre a couple of years ago and was friendly with a 20 yr old. She could sell anything to anyone and all the while was on facebook and txt and email. The manager would be up her all the time, but her results were so good that in the end they just let her be. Seems multi tasking my be the new generational skill.

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    Replies
    1. Some can manage it. Unfortunately, most think they can, but can't really.

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  9. I'm always astonished at how adept young people are with their phones! They can do in a few seconds what takes me 10 minutes!

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  10. I still can't believe schools allow kids to use their cell phones during class at all! If I was running the show cell phones would have to be left in a locker or put on the teacher's desk until the end of class. No exceptions.

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  11. I'm with Marcy above, I'd ban all technology being brought into school by students :)

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  12. Wow! I guess he didn't want mom knowing he got in trouble with his cell phone. :-/ He probably should have thought about that the first time you told him to put it away though!

    It is weird/odd that none of the other kids knew his name. Did they just not want to rat him out?

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    Replies
    1. They knew his name. They just didn't want to rat him out. I growl every time, but someone says, "Snitches get stitches..." Every. Single. Time.

      Delete

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