Student Behavior: Cell Phone Policy Enforcement

Conversations about student behavior and cell phone policies engulfed teachers’ timelines following a viral video of a student pepper spraying a teacher in retaliation for taking their cell phone.

  • “I’m troubled by the pepper spray video for many reasons. Perhaps near the top, the need to talk about phone addiction.The students’ outsized response to a seemingly simple request (don’t have your phone out during a test) feels like an indication of something larger.” —High School Teacher in Vermont 
    • “Though it was not clear to me from the video if the teacher physically took the phone from the student, as opposed to asking her to give it to him. Taking it is not the way to go. If u don’t have the relationship that let’s them give it to u, have admin deal with it” —High School ELA Teacher in California
  • “‘Is the child wrong for pepper spraying her teacher’ is a wild question considering she wasn’t being assaulted. I don’t do phone removal, but the idea that someone should be pepper sprayed for doing a job is one reason teachers are done.” —High School ELA Teacher in Texas
    • “As someone in solidarity with kids, I’m not as concerned with her reaction as I am with this teacher’s documented pattern of behavior violating children’s rights. how should a young Black girl properly respond to a white man doing this to her? it reads to me like a trauma response.” —Elementary Educator, N/A
  • “The thing I find most interesting about the teacher vs phone conversation is how many times I’ve read some version ‘just make the student leave the class.’ Kicking kids out of class is socially acceptable?” —Educator in Michigan
    • “Absolutely the hell not. If the point of curbing cellphone use in the classroom is to get students to pay attention and learn, kicking them out is counterproductive and solidifies that no learning will occur.” —High School ELA Teacher in Texas
    • “Being a teacher is saying ‘please put your phone away’ multiple times a day for the remainder of our careers.” —STEM Teacher, N/A