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.
The dumb thing about all this is, I was able to manage keeping my phone away just fine through high school. Hell, even kept it in my sock at one point so I’d know if I was getting a call (emergency situation) but it was still away and unused for the school day.
True, but probably not the point? I’m not American, but my country has been banning smartphones too. Apparently kids stopped trying to talk to one another, they just scroll. A few kids will sneak phones, but the culture of avoiding interaction will be broken if they can’t scroll openly.
I still remember one day, in like 2005. I was in a program where long story short I went to school for 1/2 a day, went to work as a network administrator for a credit union for the other half. I had a cell phone and the credit union had my phone number. This day I forgot to silence my phone. Now the credit union was pretty good and specialized in school workers. I was in my last class of the day and my phone rang. I looked at it, saw it who it was, silenced the ringer and let it go to voicemail. My teacher flipped his shit. Started accusing me of everything from cheating(it was a lecture, not a test) to drug dealing. I interrupted him and asked “do you bank with abc credit union?” he was thrown off his rant and said “yes but what does that have to do with anything?” so I simply responded “that was the vice president and cfo of your bank”. “you lie, it’s one of your scumbag friends” I took out the phone, called voicemail and first message started with “hey vrek, this is cfo name vice president and cfo of abc credit union…” this was his normal start of a phone call cause he mostly dealt with other corporations. My teachers face went white and had no idea what to say or do. He literally just ignored it, turned around and went back to lecture lol.