At least one Kansas district is projecting $150,000 to $180,000 just to equip secondary students with individual phone lockers, according to the Wichita Eagle. The state provided zero dedicated funding. Every dollar comes from local budgets.
Districts choosing fabric locking pouches — think Yondr, the magnetic-lock system concert venues use to keep audiences present — face an estimated $30 per unit. Statewide, the Kansas Division of the Budget put that figure at roughly $13.4 million if every student received one, according to the Lawrence KS Times. Lockers require a steeper upfront investment. Neither option came with a state check attached.
Legislators passed the policy. The price tag was someone else’s problem.
I’m seeing alot of comments about how this will or won’t work for how much the price is, but this made me think of something else.
Don’t we give kids chromebooks/devices anyway. I assume the point of these lockers is to force kids to pay attention, but chromebooks are waaaaaay worst than any phone a parent gave them.
You can threaten a kid to take their phone away, but you can almost argue you can’t take the chromebook away because that’s where all their assignments, tasks, books, notes, etc are all stored. And from my experience, people were always goofing off on other sites or playing games. Unless the school is able to monitor and lock down those chromebooks (which if we’re being honest, have the bare minimum of parental controls), then this is just throwing money at a fire instead of, I dunno, paying teachers better to actually help kids learn instead of moderating their tiktok addictions
There are webfilters for all edu devices… Except Windows 11 SE and that’s because the hardware can’t even run the OS.
But fr… At least Chromebooks are easy to lock down if gadmin and 3rd party filters are set up.
Fantastic news, I’m glad they’re proactively seeking solutions
This is just to promote Musk Neurolink.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper if they have them magnet pouches
Decoy phone lol
Don’t say that. Then they’ll buy another safe for the decoy phones.
Bring two phones. Problem solved.
The problem of being distracted in class can be solved by having two phones? Weird!
Freedom or fascism.
I don’t know if I am supposed to be angry about this or not. Someone tell me if I’m supposed to be angry!
Seems like a straightforward solution to a simple problem. Pretty direct correlation with kids having access to smartphones vs declining grades and attention spans.
In schools that have started simply not allowing phones in class, grades have improved. This seems like the next logical step. Its basically just returning to pre-smartphone days. Schools used to confiscate phones if you had them out at all during school hours.
People will disagree with simple solutions, but those are often the ones that works. Phones cause problems, get rid of phones. Simple and direct.
Are there any studies that link phone use inside schools to those issues? Because I can easily believe that declining grades could be attributed towards the use of tablets and laptops being used in classrooms as well which many schools are encouraging or increasing the use of.
As for attention spans I would believe it’s for the use of phones/tablets/electronics from a young age rather than the use of them inside of a school itself.
Schools are scared to death of kids recording their staff being stupid, and each other. Legal liability/parental outrage. They block both phones and smart watches. If it were just a usage problem, they could have done what we always do and only take things away when they’re an issue.
Since the advent of phones, this hasn’t been a real problem.
My son’s school collects them at the classroom door if they have them out, or ignores it if they’re in their bag as long as they don’t make noise. - free
Kansas, who is already horrible at maintaining educational budgets to a self-destructive degree wants to spend 150k of (likely unwilling) taxpayer money to provide fancy lockers for phones that could be solved by leave it in your bag and off, if we find it on or it makes noise, you get detention.
It’s a stupid waste or resources and time.
if 0 is the Byrds Turn Turn Turn and 10 is RaTM bulls on parade, maybe go 6 or 7
It’s likely also plain corruption, just lawmakers creating ways for their friends to siphon money from government budgets with useless gadgets like this.
150k is for a single district, statewide they plan to waste millions on this
Internet rage confusion :D
The withdrawal symptoms would be interesting to observe.
Yes, let’s take away student’s ability to call for help during a way too common American emergency event. What could go wrong?
Yes, and let’s never address the problems that cause so many school shootings.
We should only ever apply band-aids to wounds.
Taking a away the phone during school hours is another band aid.
Practicality, there isn’t a single solution that will stop the shootings, a dozen band aids is better than doing nothing. You can get rid of the phones, could invest that 150k into to the salary of a school therapist, pay teachers more so they aren’t all depressed and overworked. Hire more teachers so classes aren’t 30+, maybe they’d be able to focus on a kid for more than 3 minutes a day. In other words actually fund education.
But sense that none of that is likely to happen this decade,
I don’t like the idea of taking away kids ability to call 911 in an emergency. This isn’t 1980. Classroom phones are an option, but many have switched to voip and rely on some major internet service not being randomly down that day. Supposedly they’d work with 911 no matter what, but I wouldn’t rely on that.
Could switch to dumb phone or set up parental controls to block internet access, and various apps, during school hours, while still allowing phone calls.
Taking away phones is the adult thing to do, I don’t know how many kids you’ve interacted with lately, but trust me, they’re dumber than dogshit.
I’m pretty schools have enough phones and adults to have calling 911 covered many times over, with nary a student having a cell phone.
I know, I went to school before they existed. We did fine.
Great so they can’t contact their parents during next school shooting.
Edit: guess ya’ll didn’t get the broader point of my sarcastic comment which was that US will implement cell phone control before it implements gun control.
Why do people say this?
You WOULD NOT WANT CHILDREN TO HAVE THEIR PHONES DURING A SCHOOL SHOOTING. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ANYONE WHO SAYS THIS UNDERSTANDS ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING ABOUT CHILDREN.
School classrooms have phones if you need to call the police. Multiple children calling is not good and would tie up the line. Children talking on the phone to their parents while they need to be huddled up in a silent and dark classroom is the most obvious fucking problem that anyone who says this shit must have a room temperature IQ.
Not to mention how many of them would be live-streaming it.
Since my state banned cell phones, it has been night and day with behavior. They aren’t recording each other in classrooms, they aren’t blasting TikTok’s while I’m trying to teach. There’s no reason for children to have 24/7 access to the instant dopamine and bullying machine.
We say it because it is true in the country where this keeps fucking happening. How about a less extreme example?
I was a kid in the late 90s in public school, and I had both an IEP and medications to take. The IEP specified exactly which medicines to take and when. One day, the nurse on duty decided I didnt need those meds that day because everything was fine and they were busy. So they sent me back to class. I called my parents on the way and let them know what happened. By the time my parents drove to the school to collect the head of the nurse, I was passing out in the classroom. I was actually unconscious by the time they made it through the “check in” process at the office. My teacher thought I was sleeping in class and just ignored me.
Without that phone call, I might have died. Thats an extreme “what if”, but the possibility was there.
You are expecting a school that is a safe and concerned environment, ans that’s just not the reality in this country. Teachers have 40+ students per class and between 6 and 8 classes in a day. Kids need a way to be heard that isnt another burden on an overworked system. Don’t even get me started about kids who speak up about bullying and get ignored for years. The idea of “lines getting tied up” during a school shooting is laughable in the digital age.
Notice how you had an IEP? Some students also have a 504. There are already systems in place to handle the issue you are describing. I have had 504 kids responsibly use their phones to do things like monitor insulin. Most students this does not apply to.
What do you think happens when 500 kids call the police station at once?
What do you think happens when the kids start talking on their phone during a lockdown?
Children do not need 24/7 access to phones.
I’m sorry, but if you have not run a lockdown drill, you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about.
Im from the time lockdown drills were invented. They were invented because of school shootings, but instead of actually addressing the issues that caused school shootings, we did shit like lockdown drills and active shooter simulations and whatever school district approved nonsense would appeal to parents.
My parents, being practical people, gave me a cell phone and a glass breaker. They showed me how to use the glass breaker and taught me when to use it. Im still showing them how phones work and when to trust them, but id consider it a good trade. You can train kids to hide like rabbits or you can give them the tools and knowledge they need to make a difference. I can guess where you fall on the spectrum.
Do you work with thirty children at a time? Are you aware of the fact that children in groups in public act differently from children in their home with their parent? You are totally going to be the “no, Johnny doesn’t throw things at home!” type aren’t you?
I have done lockdowns which weren’t school shooter related. It does not matter how well you “train” them. When there are 30+ kids, one of those phones is coming out to be a flashlight, another two are being used to livestream…
Also - school shooter situations are not every day situations. I can tell you in the everyday world, they are absolutely antithetical to any learning. Adults can’t keep off the fucking things at work trainings, why would you not flip through TikTok during math class? They all want to be streamers, so they will insanely stupid and harmful things to get it recorded. They will share awful pictures of each other and say awful things. They will take random phone calls, which are always “from their parents.”
Working with kids has never been easy. Im sorry you chose that for yourself, but sacrifices must be made for the corporate machine to turn out adequately educated fodder.
By the time I was getting through with school, I found myself in a facility specifically designed to accommodate and encourage kids with learning disabilities. Dysgraphia, dyslexia, speech impediments, attention disorders, you name it. If you think teaching baseline kids is tough, try teaching math where half the kids see 6s as 9s and the other half would do better on heiroglyphics than word problems. Then, add in a good third of those kids not just having cell phones, but a full MacBook pro sitting in front of them. Every class. Oh, and the headphones? Covered by the IEP. They’re not going anywhere.
And somehow, some way, despite every distraction and roadblock available to man, they got through it. You know when they say a student can always tell when a teacher really cares? We can.
We had a good group of them at that school, and they went above and beyond to make sure we succeeded as students. They didnt treat us like problems despite the fact that the system thought we were. Im struggling to understand why you think removing the phone is better than teaching them how to use it better. Do you think abstinence is a good sex ed methodology?
Mate, my first year teaching was the year after the district decided to combine several high school across multiple gang lines. Reality and Dangerous Minds have nothing in common, brw.
It’s nice that you got experience in a specialized setting with children from privileged backgrounds in a school designed to meet their needs (not as a teacher even? as a student?) That’s not what most schools like.
You do not understand anything about teaching in a public school. That’s okay. But you can’t pretend you know anything about it. My job is a profession and i am a professional with skills and expertise specific to this environment. Can you imagine someone with no training or experience telling you about how your job works? For lemmings - if someone with zero experience in sysadmin was telling you to just use simple blacklists?
but sacrifices must be made for the corporate machine to turn out adequately educated fodder.
Eat shit and die, please.
Just like the good ol days
They could just leave them at home. I mean that worked just fine literally forever until these last two generations.
But, since both parents and kids are now addicted to the damn things, no one can imagine not having one in their hand for more than five minutes.
When your phone is your GPS and radio, no. I was in band, and some days we wouldn’t leave school afterwards because we’d be going to a game across the state. After the game, my mom would want to know where I was, which was usually Waffle House with a dozen others.
That requires an honesty system and kids aren’t honest
Some aren’t. You’d be surprised how far you can get by talking to teens like equals.
Well it’s the bad few eggs that ruin it for everyone
And cooperative parents
It worked, but not well. I remember standing in line for 20 minutes waiting on the one phone to call my parents so they knew my after school activity was done. (while other students were calling their parents).
My kid will have a phone at school
So fucking edgy dude.
Your kid isn’t special.
Sure he is…like the Olympics.
Idgaf he will have a way to contact me if he’s in danger.
That’s what school staff is for, helicopter parent.
They post in childfree. I doubt there’s a kid, in danger or no.
So they are a child who doesn’t want their phone taken in schooooooooool.
The same thing as when kids were in danger back in the 80’s and 90’s.
Slightly better, since presumably adults at the school have mobile phones, instead of having to use the limited land lines.
True.
It is long past time cell phones started to be regulated in schools. (And nationwide, but that’ll never happen.)
BUT…
…what gets me is the money angle here. Can anyone out there help me understand why a temp-use cell phone locker is $180,000? To me, this just screams government malfeasance, and I’d bet someone involved in the passage of this bill either owns a company or took a bribe from the company that wants to sell $180,000 cell phone lockers that people are forced to buy.
All government agencies get gouged. It’s absurd.
Followed some links and did some googling. The school district in question is USD-261 in Haysville, Kansas. The high school should have about 1800 students, so they would need 67 of these cell phone lockers. The price for 6+ is $1510, but let’s knock another $110 off since they’re buying 11 times that many, so $1400. That’s $93,800, for just the high school, and that’s before we talk about where the hell you’re going to put 67 of those things, and who you’re going to pay to install them and do any necessary renovations to accommodate them.
I’m probably going to make a YT video on this later this week.
Do you mind if I use this info? Happy to credit you, just message me how you’d like it attributed and if you want me to shout anything out for you.
Go for it. I don’t need any recognition or anything. A couple disclaimers:
1 - I’m not from the area in question, but I work in the public sector overseeing spending, so I thought it was an interesting exercise in understanding the scale we end up dealing with. So my comment is just a demonstration. None of this is actual information about the specific school district’s plans. I’m assuming they must be getting their lockers even cheaper than the ones I found with a quick search, because with my numbers you’re blowing past $180k pretty quickly once you scale it up to the whole district.
2 - I used this site for the student population. I didn’t cross-reference it or anything, so I have no idea how accurate it is. It states 5788 total enrollment, with 31.2% at Campus High School, so that’s where I got the 1800 students. It looks like the district serves multiple southwestern suburbs of Wichita, which makes a little more sense since the total population of Haysville itself is under 12k.
It’s also 180K for a 15-20 year refresh cycle. These are commercial units that are used in harsh environments… not a cabinet you buy once and it sits in your bedroom.
Add in wiring plus the install costs and $180K seems like a good deal
Wiring for what? It’s a locker…
“Used in harsh environments” like a middle school office where it gets opened twice a day?
Slammed twice a day for 20 years but probably kept there for 40+ if it’s like my schools as a kid.
Some of the desks at my highschool were older than any of the teachers there.
The 180k price tag seems to be for the outfitting of the school district and not just one school.
They say that Kansas City spent 150k and that’s presumably one of the largest in the state.
Can anyone out there help me understand why a temp-use cell phone locker is $180,000?
Corruption.
It’s for the entire district, and the costs don’t seem that high to me.
14000 slots for students means it’s $12.86 per student over (typically) 20 years…
$0.64 per student per year seems reasonable.
100% behind phone lockers, but, I do agree the price seems too high for this specific implementation. Looks like those hold ~250 phones each and I’m going to guess should cost $500-$1,000 per locker. A school should only be spending $5k-50k on these lockers.
Right?
$180,000 is absolutely insane. You could literally just get a lockable file cabinet from the 80’s or something and put each phone in its own file folder a few hundred.
It’s for the entire district, and the costs don’t seem that high to me.
14000 slots for students means it’s $12.86 per student over (typically) 20 years…
$0.64 per student per year seems reasonable.
Jesus, that sounds like my job where we’re not allowed to bring phones
Maybe you shouldn’t work at Area 51 if you want to use your phone while on the can?
What kind of job are you not allowed to bring your phone to? I’ve never heard of that but there’s probably a good reason for it
Classified areas don’t allow phones but classified areas are usually a subset of a company or something that does allow them outside the secure area.
People who do certain govt work. Makes dealing with MFA the biggest pain in the ass.
There are defense contractors that will not allow an item that emits a frequency into sensitive areas, including your key FOB.
My sister can’t have hers. She’s a mechanic at a cheese factory.
There must brie another way for her to contact you
Well that not gouda
My brother in law worked at the BMW plant and they weren’t supposed to have their phones on the floor at all.
It turns out that operating industrial production equipment while distracted is a huge safety liability.
It doesnt look like returning the devices has to be immediate or convenient. Heres my proposed plan:
Ban devices entirely. Any item discovered gets confiscated, labeled, and placed in a bin in the office (achieving the “secure” location requirement of the bill.) Students are permitted to label their item. Items are available for pickup weekly at the end of a district-wide midday “value of education” parental education session.
Labelmaker: ~$200/school
Labels: $0.01/item
2 hrs labor weekly: 38×2×$50=$3800/district/year
Value of inconveniencing parents enough to care: priceless.
Banning phones doesn’t work.
Source: my high school
Banning sexual assault, bulling, rape and pedophilia doesn’t work either. Source: my secondary school.
