A teenage girl in Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to 90 lashes and two months in prison for taking a cell phone to school, the U.K.'s Daily Mail reported Wednesday.
The 13-year-old's punishment, harsher than that given to some robbers and looters, requires her to be flogged in front of her classmates, the Daily Mail quoted Saudi newspaper Al-Watan.
She was reportedly hiding a cell phone in class, breaking strict Saudi regulations banning their use in girls' schools.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Strong Policy Against Cell Phone Use In Schools
Some people really enforce rules in school:
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7 comments:
It may be that I'm whacked out from the daily classroom teacher/student cell phone battle but I am of the opinion that cell phones are a major obstacle to education.
And I say that even though I think my school has an excellent cell phone policy and system for its enforcement.
It still all comes down to me "catching" my students using their phone and the students trying to "sneak" them discretely.
It is what it is: a game of cat and mouse, and it is a distraction.
It doesn't seem to be as big a problem in my honors classes though.
Wow, I wonder what they do to students who are texting during class?!
What about sexting!???
At least she wasn't murdered by her father for using Facebook.
It's a thoughtful offer Darren but no.
"It still all comes down to me 'catching' my students using their phone and the students trying to 'sneak' them discretely.
It is what it is: a game of cat and mouse, and it is a distraction."
You *can* (probably) make the cell phones not work in your classroom with a bit of time and effort.
Read up on Faraday Cages and then consider the cost of a bunch of rolls of aluminum foil (cover the walls and ceiling, then cover the foil with something that looks nice ... plywood maybe ... or hang curtains from the ceiling) plus covering material.
Or you can try paint that claims to do the same thing. here (NOTE: I've never used this, so I don't know if it works ... it might).
These approaches won't prevent the kids from using their cell phones as MP3 players, but should prevent the kids from using them as phones.
I'm a big fan of "solving" problems like this by *preventing* the bad behavior, rather than engaging in an on-going battle to detect it.
-Mark Roulo
Today there was a news story that teens are connected to some sort of device 7.5 hours a day on average. While of course lashing a child half to death is ridiculous overreaction, the invasion of electronic devices in our classrooms have created more problems than they have solved. Sexting would not exist had not cameras for some reason seemed a reasonable addition to a phone. Likewise cameras combined with text capability opened up a wide new world of cheating and mischief. What is sadder still is that parents often buy elementary age children phones in the mistaken impression that it provides security. Nothing could be further from the truth. Any parent who doesn't regularly check their child's phone for photos, messages and such is opening up their child to abuse on a scale my generation never even envisioned.
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