this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 155 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yep this will stop them making tiktoks alright

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The 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.

[–] [email protected] 93 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (22 children)

Why not just ban smartphones in school? There's ample research now that they're harmful to teen mental health

[–] [email protected] 49 points 9 months ago (11 children)

I 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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I think a good middle ground might be to ban smartphones but not phones entirely. If you want your kid to be able to call you, buy them a nokia or something without internet capabilities

[–] [email protected] 37 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I mean the real reason is that parents are almost as bad as their kids with their phones. They have become accustomed to texting their children throughout the day.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Because no one wants to deal with parents.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Id 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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

In a school shooting situation, cell phones could make things much worse. During my active shooter training, we were told to ask students to turn them off if we were in a shooting. The noise is an obvious danger, but the lines need to be kept clear for communication with emergency response personnel. There would be structured ways that the school would want to communicate with you - they don’t want the chaos of parents showing up to an active scene. I think it would be better to rely on things like the Rave app.

In other situations, the front office is there. That is the function that they have served for generations. Give the office aides something to do.

There’s just little reason for students to have smart phones in school. They cannot control themselves. We are asking them to have more self restraint than most adults do. It is not developmentally appropriate and it is harmful.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Good luck banning them from schools

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

I 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

they 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

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago

So now they need to pull their phones out to see themselves. That’s totally logical.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Middle school removes mirrors so as to not distress vampires.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

And why can't we get blood on the lunch menu, huh?

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago (5 children)

Was 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

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Kids: press switch to front-facing camera button anyways

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Most profile pictures I see suggest they don’t know this button even exists.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Back in my day they removed mirrors so we wouldn't summon Bloody Mary.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Given that mirrors have never been an issue before TikTok, maybe, just maybe, the problem is elsewhere?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

15-18 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...

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