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Teachers call for ban on mobiles to curb bullying
Dominic Hayes, Education Correspondent25.03.08
Mobile phones brought into schools by children should be treated as "potentially offensive weapons" and banned from being used in the classroom, teachers said today.
Many schools have bowed to parental pressure for children to keep their mobiles on them in case of an emergency, despite mounting concern some pupils use them in class.
But the NASUWT teachers' union was today expected to demand that pupils be forced to hand them over to staff at the start of the day, for collection when they go home, even if that left parents infuriated.
The union believes drastic action is necessary to combat the "significant and growing" menace of " cyberbullying" of teachers by pupils.
Teachers are particularly concerned that footage taken on mobile phone cameras of teachers in class is being posted on websites such as Bebo by their pupils.
Graham Cluer, the NASUWT's national executive member for Croydon, said: "It can be really, really distressing for someone who finds themselves in this situation as there are so many ways it can happen."
In some cases, videos have surfaced on sites such as YouTube of teachers being verbally, even physically, abused by children, he said.
At one school, which the union refused to name, the NASUWT went as far as balloting members over industrial action because governors overturned the head's decision to expel a pupil who "bullied a teacher via email and internet".
The NASUWT wants ministers to agree to a change in the law to make it much more difficult to show footage of teachers being abused by their pupils, by imposing heavy fines on websites for allowing offensive clips.
The Government has so far refused but the NASUWT has vowed to maintain the campaign, after an online survey to gauge the problem sparked almost 100 responses in just five days.
Last year, the Government gave teachers the power to discipline their pupils offsite, as well as on the premises, if their actions threatened the school ' s reputat ion. The NASUWT's annual report for 2008 made clear the union's view that this power also applied in cyberspace.
Reader views (6)
They should be aloud when people are getting picked up by there parents or being bullied they can call there parents and tell someone.
- Emily Watkinson, Ilkeston
In response to Dr Finlays Casebook. I'm 17 and already I have encountered a huge number of emergencies/disasters. I've been hospitalized twice for asthma, I was a victim of 9/11, I've witnessed many car accidents, I've been IN a car accident, there have been three... THREE fires within two blocks of my home... and the list goes on. Bottom line is, emergencies are very real and do happen, more often than you think.
Yes, people can survive emergencies without a cell phone (I did too on 9/11), but had I had a cell phone then, my experiences on that day would have been much less traumatic. Also, there are emergencies in which a cell phone is absolutely necessary, such as a Columbine like incident, subway/bus route changes, etc... In fact, I have used my cell phone not only to tell my mom that I will be coming home late (all good parents get worried when their child hasn't come home by 10pm) but to call the police as well.
So before you go around fully supporting cell phone bans, realize that there are extremely good reasons as to why many people are against such bans.
- Tara, New York USA
At the start of each school year, parents, students and the school's staff should sign a contract together that sets out an agreed code of conduct for ALL parties to it: the contract would include handing cellphones in to the school office at the start of each school day and the children collecting them as they go home. Cellphones can be used to completely demoralise both teaching staff and students through bullying, leading to poor student behaviour in schools which is the single biggest barrier to success in class, particularly for the kids who struggle to keep up with their peers and behaviour in many UK state schools student behaviour is beyond merely disruptive - it is often thuggish and even supported by parents who have little English or even understanding of what should actually happen in a school.
- Kiwi Expat, London, UK
What I don't understand with parents, children and phones, is these emergencies that people are always going on about. I am 42 years old and have never encountered a real emergency in my life and I don't know anyone else who has. It really is a one in a billion thing that you would need a phone in a school for an emergency. It is the same thing with smoke alarms, I believe that the government and fire service are being paid off by the alarm manufacturers to whip up panic about the need for home smoke alarms, yet again in all my years I have never had a fire and don't know anyone else who has (I know people do have fires and people die in fires) so do we really need such a heavy handed promotion of something that wasn't that serious to start out with.
- Dr Finlays Casebook, London, UK
Older generations including mine managed fine without a mobile phone even in the case of an emergency. I am fed up to notice that children can do what they want and get away with it and you cannot even give them a good slap for the fear of being done by the law. It needs to be changed or before you know those kids will put a knife under their parent's throat in order to get what they want. Adouls Huxley must be turning in his grave!
- Sylvain Berger, Acton, London
Considering they are supposed to be at school surely parents can send messages to their child via the school. It has always worked in the past (pre-mobiles we did manage to get through life). This government really needs to give power back to the teachers. Its getting ridiculous.
- Charlie, London
