Written by Michael Thervil
High school students at Houston Independent School District (HISD) Madison High School are protesting the schools new “no cell phone policy” via walking out for 2 days straight which started Monday morning. The question of the day is: “Who’s fault is it?”. Quite frankly it’s the parents’ fault. The reason for this is because there is no good reason on God's green earth for a child or teenager in this case to have a $1,000 cell phone (or a $1,000 anything for that matter). The reason why the school decided to adopt and implement a no cell phone policy is because students were not only being distracted by their phones with all the social media notifications and the taking of selfie’s; but the students’ grades were and still are being negatively impacted by the distractions of cell phone use in school. Moreover, it was also reported by school Principal Edgar Contreras, that “cellphone video has been at the center of multiple recent fights on campus."
On Monday when the students came to school, the school had set up plastic bins for the students to place their phones in before they entered their classrooms. The students were also informed that the school would safely store their phones and that they could pick up their phones after the school day ended. Teachers and staff were not only met with resistance, which was something that they expected, but several teachers and staff were met with outbursts of physical violence. When this occurred, it prompted the school Principal to initiate the school lockdown protocol.
Now if you don’t know what a school lock down protocol is, a school lock down protocol is notoriously known to be activated when there’s a mass shooter present on the school campus or if there some kind of other danger that have been identified that places the lives of children in danger. The newly implemented no cell phone policy at Madison High School has even got some people making the claim that the students 4th Amendment Rights have been violated. The 4th Amendment in America prevents its citizens from unreasonable search and seizure. In addition, one of the students, Stephanie Martinez stated the reason why she needs her cell phone with her was “just in case my mom calls”.
When this school year started for Madison High School, the students were duly informed about the cell phone free policy and even sent out mass information to parents about its new no cell phone policy. Within that mass information memo sent out to the students’ parents that also stated that students who got caught using a cell phone would first be issued a warning, and the second time they got caught using a phone the phone would be confiscated and they would have to pay a $15 administration fee. The administration at Madison High School discovered that the warning letter sent home to the students’ parents has failed to stop or at least slow down the issue the school was having with the student’s cell phone use, which in turn led to fighting and other forms of violence.
You know, there was a time when nobody in this country had cell phones and 100% of students were sent to school without one. The claim that a student’s mother might have to contact them is nothing more than a bullshit excuse coming from both the student and the parent. There were some students saying they needed their cell phone for safety reasons. Which again is bullshit because when mass shootings happen - no parents are allowed to go into the school until the police say they can. So, what was the point of having a cell phone? Even more than that, it can be argued that more schools in America should adopt a no cell phone policy so that the distractions caused by cell phones no longer remain a threat to the learning experience of the students. Parents must also take responsibility for being so damn weak when it comes to setting not only boundaries in their homes but in teaching their children that there are also rules and regulations that must be adhered to when they go out into the world, or their children will have to face the consequences.
When students walk out of classrooms, it doesn’t affect the teachers or the staff. They “got theirs” and they’ll get paid whether your child comes to class or not. In fact, if the teachers and staff perceive that they have lost control of the learning environment and they decide to walk out, the only losers will be the parents and the students. Parents will suffer an economic blow because somebody has to watch, feed, and supervise their kids; hopefully the police won’t have to. But the students will suffer as well because every day that the teachers and staff don’t come to school – the children will become even dumber and dumber than they already are. Food for thought.
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