On Wednesday, School Board Member Tony Norman Announced his plan to ban cell phones for ALL Knox County Students.
In my opinion, it is a safety issue. When the school is placed on lockdown, it is safer for the school and community when students can text their parents to say, I am safe. Otherwise parents will be flooding onto the school property and the school demanding to know about their children. Potentially exposing the parents and students to harm if they are locked down for a threat on campus. Especially a potential active shooter.
What has happened to the Knox County School Board? They are limiting free speech and now potentially endangering students and communities.
Email addresses for the School Board Members are below
Chair Terry Hill terry.hill@knoxschools.org
Vice Chair Susan Horn susan.horn@knoxschools.org
Evetty Satterfield evetty.satterfield@knoxschools.org
Jennifer Owen
Tony Norman (NEW Email Address)
Virginia Babb
Patti Bounds
Mike McMillan
Kristi Kristy
Students do not need phones in school. Firstly, it is a horrible distraction,they text and message,photo etc. During an emergency,if students contact their parents, parents call and clog up phone lines,they will show up,and hinder emergency first responders,who do not need to try to weed through,God forbid, in a real emergency. I would plea,for the safety of the children to ban the phones in schools. Not to mention,the bullying and other distractions that cell phones bring during school.
The amount of time this NEW policy will put on teachers and principals in sending students to the office and discipline referrals for violating the policy, additionally I would contend that cell phones has helped to monitor bad behavior in school, when fights break out, there is video the Principal can see who started it and who threw the first punch
What about the children who walk home or ride a bus that need to check in when they leave school grounds. Cell phones are important in high school setting when there is alot going on it is a lot easier to get ahold of your child.
It would be a HUGE mistake asking us parents to trust these schools with our children and ban cell phones. I for 1 will not allow my child to go to school without one. My son’s high school doesnt tell the parents anything, until we find out about it on social media or from our kids. And then parents have to raise cane to get the school to respond to us. I will never trust Knox County Schools with my son’s safety. His high school has done absolutely nothing in light of the school shootings around the U.S. My son has even told me he does not feel safe at school. Think about that a moment people, MY SON CAME TO ME AND TOLD ME HE DOES NOT FEEL SAFE AT SCHOOL. My son is a good kid. He makes A’s and B’s , he isnt a weenie either. This is a kid that is very mature for his age. He respects firearms, as we target practice regularly. When my kid told me he doesnt feel safe at school, i assured him if a cell phone makes him feel a little better than so be it. He follows the rules, his phone is silent all day, and out of sight. I feel like most parents will agree, the cell phones need to be on our students persons like they are now. The thought of no cell phones in school is absolutely rediculous this day and time. Thanks for listening.
I am not sure how you believe this could possibly take any more time or how it in any way bans phones. The version Mr. Norman has suggested is actually MORE permissive than the current version.
The first version attached to the agenda, added a heading, to clarify the section concerning violations and made a slight semamtic change from “any other under age individual” to “any other individual, particularly underage”
Mr. Norman’s more permissive version makes these same changes, but also makes the policy the same for all students, rather than having three different expectations (one for Pre-K – 5th, grades 6-8, and for grades 9-12).
His version has only this, for all grades:
“Students may possess PCDs while on school property. The devices may be used before and after school. At all other times the PCD must be in the off mode. The principal or the principal’s designee may grant a student permission to use a PCD during class time for a specific academic purpose or at other times for other purposes that the principal deems appropriate.”
The full text of both suggested versions that are up for discussion can be found here:
http://agenda.knoxschools.org:8085/agenda_publish.cfm?id=&mt=ALL&get_month=5&get_year=2019&dsp=agm&seq=5789&rev=0&ag=509&ln=11901&nseq=5774&nrev=0&pseq=5792&prev=0
Mrs. Owen, I posted the three minute video of Norman’s explanation to the board last Wednesday. Words mean things. His stated intent is DISALLOW cell phones.
dis·al·low
verb
refuse to declare valid.
“the judge disallowed his evidence”