Middle school removes bathroom mirrors to stop kids from making TikToks
Middle school removes bathroom mirrors to stop kids from making TikToks
Southern Alamance Middle School in Graham, North Carolina has taken drastic steps to reduce the time kids spend outside of class.
Middle school removes bathroom mirrors to stop kids from making TikToks::Southern Alamance Middle School in Graham, North Carolina has taken drastic steps to reduce the time kids spend outside of class.
Yep this will stop them making tiktoks alright
154The article is about them leaving class to go make tiktoks in the bathroom, and in the article the admin claims that it has lead to "Not as many visits to the bathroom, not staying as long" so it's working, apparently. Nothing do with attempting to stop them outright from making videos.
32
Why not just ban smartphones in school? There's ample research now that they're harmful to teen mental health
92these are U.S. schools - how will you call your parents goodbye before you get shot?
145I know a few schools in my area tried to institute zero tolerance no phones rule and the screaming from parents was loud enough that they gave up. One of the big sticking points was because of school shootings. Another was that schools have been bad about getting kids on the bus, that kids are getting lost or even ending up in bus depots at the end of the day.
48There are better tools these days than blanket prohibition.
The signals that voice and data go over are different from each other, so not all modern cellphone jammers jam the entire spectrum. Some can be set up to allow voice calls over the traditional channels while jamming data. This forces students to use the school’s wifi network for any Internet connectivity, whereupon their connectivity to apps and services can be whitelisted/blacklisted as deemed necessary by system admins.
Ergo, a system that keeps students off of their smartphones while allowing parental connectivity.
-4
You can’t take them, because the district is worried they’ll get sued if one breaks. Your option is to tell the parent, and the parent will 80% come up with some bullshit excuse or accuse you of targeting their child. I worked one district that had a form we could fill out - after getting caught three times they were supposed to turn the phone in. Never happened.
Please. Do. Not. Send. Your. Child. To. School. With. A. Smartphone. DONT.
They are addicted. We’ve given them tech that adults can’t even manage to responsibly use. They don’t know how to be bored or curious. The behavior is just strange - when I’ve been fuck it and just taken a phone - they regress. 15 year olds babbling and throwing tantrums like toddlers.
17Id feel safer sending my kid to school without a smartphone if I wasn't scared there would be a school shooting or some other reason my kid would need to call me for help. I get the sense a lot of other parents feel that way too.
My kids are still too young for that but when they are in high school and maybe depending on the middle school I'll probably start thinking about a phone of some kind.
Also my kids are bored all the time haha. Taking away their tablet or games is the best punishment most of the time when they argue. We are big on drawing over here though. Hard to stop a kid from drawing lol.
6
Good luck banning them from schools
14I spent 12 years in American public school during which greater than 70% of the student body had cell or smart phones and 100% of them were successfully banned. If the phone is visible during the school day and you aren't currently receiving a phone call from the President or from your parents on their way to the hospital, phone goes in the teacher's desk. You get it back at the end of the day.
Its not that difficult at all.
19they kinda are Ireland, in primary school mostly but even in secondary school teachers are allowed to take your phone for 3 days if they see you on it
8What's the difficulty? If they're being used they're out in the open, and if they're out in the open they can be confiscated.
3
Is there research consensus on when children should be given phones? I would personally be very conservative about it, honestly.
3I agree! There's a campaign pushing to avoid giving kids phones until 8th grade, but I think even that seems a bit too young
8
Good luck with that, the highschool I went to had a hard enough time getting students to stop vaping at school and during class, smartphones would be a much bigger battle. I graduated in 2019 and I still remember when they would try to crack down on cell phone use, never really affected me that much cause I only ever used my phone during class if I was done with everything but I still saw it go the same way every time. It would always only ever last for a month or two before the teachers just gave up because in the end if someone doesn't wanna pay attention during class taking away their distraction isn't gonna make them. They'll just find some other distraction like talking to people or just zoning out. The problem is school just isn't engaging and sure you can blame cell phones and social media for making it harder for people to pay attention to things that they don't wanna do. But that doesn't mean the solution is to not allow them during school, cause I've seen from experience that doesn't help even if you manage to take away the phones, which already is really hard without impacting students who are following the rules negatively.
1If I had a kid I'd straight up tell them do not listen to anyone who tells you you cant keep your phone on you, get in trouble if you must and I'll take care of the rest. If it becomes a distraction Ill deal with it as a parent, but the last thing I want is a kid caught in any kind of emergency without even a chance to phone help.
"But the teacher has a phone"
Okay I dont care. What if the teacher becomes the emergency? What if the teacher steps outside to see what that noise is and doesn't come back? Not leaving the safety of someone im responsible for in someone elses hands.
I can teach a kid anything they miss in elementary school. I can't re-alive the dead.
-14Is your kid going to save the day with a cell phone? Do you think in that situation there is not going to be another adult who can call 911?
When you tell your child “just get in trouble and I’ll take care of the rest” you are telling the child that they don’t have to respect school rules. And having dealt with parents like you, your children turn out to be absolute terrors. (“Im texting my mom!” as you hear the fucking Rizzler song for the sixth time)
As part of my teaching training, I was in a program where I was not allowed to have my cell phone on me at all. 6 am to 9 pm, for almost two weeks. I survived.
1
So now they need to pull their phones out to see themselves. That’s totally logical.
32Middle school removes mirrors so as to not distress vampires.
32And why can't we get blood on the lunch menu, huh?
6L😂
2
It's funny how this repeats every generation.
20 years back, my school removed mirrors in both the men's and women's washrooms, girls kept leaving lipstick on the mirrors, and the guys kept drawing on them with Sharpies.
They even removed toilet paper and hand towels because kids kept soaking it in water and throwing it up on the ceiling.
After that they even removed all the doors to the stalls in the men's because kids kept leaving black marker "doodles" on them (ie. graffiti).
On my third year they ended up painting everything a very dark green colour. This included the walls, stalls and the ceiling to cover up all the black marker. The green made it almost impossible to make our any new graffiti added in black marker.
28Was anyone else here brave enough to shit without a stall door? I had so much anxiety as a kid, but when u gotta go u gotta go.
Some kids tried to bully me and I was just like... I'm taking a shit, we all do it so fuck off. Still nerve wracking tho
19I did it a couple times when I really had to go. I usually waited as along as I could after class started so no one was randomly in the bathroom in between classes.
3If I were a school bully, I'd be concerned about the readily-available projectile that could emerge in this scenario. Only one type of asshole should be doing its job in there.
1Most buildings or schools will have a barrier free washroom. If you find the school you are in removed the doors in the men's and women's the barrier free washrooms may be a good stop gap for privacy. Or try and find the faculty washrooms if you can sneak in. Another option is the gym/athletic change rooms, most times these get overlooked.
Edit: seems people do not know what a barrier free washroom is and assume it's a washroom with no door.
Ie. Barrier free is a wheelchair accessible washroom commonly referred to as a handicapped washroom. This is a large single room washrooms usually located between the men's and women's washroom or off to the side. The washroom is self contained with a door toilet and sink. These washroom are unisex.
-9
Given that mirrors have never been an issue before TikTok, maybe, just maybe, the problem is elsewhere?
615-18 years ago when camera phones became commonly available for teenagers, but before front-facing cameras were built-in, we took selfies in the mirrors all day, most often to then upload them on our local pre-fb social media site for young people... I refuse to believe we were the only ones doing that.
However, I agree, that doesn't mean the mirrors are the "problem". Rather, there seem to be misaligned interests between the kids (some more interested in socializing, attention-seeking, being popular etc.) and the State-owned public schools (probably more interested in turning the kids into obedient "valuable citizens"). I think it's better to reform the system than trying to deform the kids, but removing the mirrors doesn't seem like the needed change...
5
How do they do that? IIRC, mirrors are required per building codes?
3That's a surprising inclusion in a building code. Do you have a reference for it?
21
A good move by the school.
-1Or how about you give the kids extra space to let them practice their creativity?
-6Or how about those kids get back to class since they're at school.
47The school could provide a time and space for learning how to make better videos. It doesn't have to be a fuck off and make tiktoks in lieu of going to curriculum classes. Make it something akin to a vocational class, even if an extra-curricular. Less a space for kids to fuck off during the day to make lame tiktoks and more of a means of teaching video production and the things that go into it. Photography, editing software, basic equipment operation, how to properly record audio, lighting, all of that type off thing.
This may sound ridiculously expensive, but I have seen schools have classes, and clubs, that do just this for just over two thousand dollars. This won't stop kids from being disruptive with whatever bullshit is popular at the time, nothing will, but it can enrich those that do these things with actual interest in the craft.
14
Well, sure, but not the bathroom. I don't need my bathroom activities accidentally included, visually or acoustically, in someone's TikTok
16They do. It's called art class.
10So many people always seem determined to completely suck the joy out of schools, like it's the 1950s again. Everything is so strict and anti-fun.
TikTok and social media in general are popular amongst kids today. That's just how it is. I think schools should try to embrace youth trends and find creative ways to incorporate them into the learning environment.
2