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Kansas Schools Now Collect Phones at the Door – Spends $180K On Smartphone Lockers (www.gadgetreview.com)

submitted 2 days ago by FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] BadlyTimedLuck@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

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

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 8 points 14 hours ago

Yes, let's take away student's ability to call for help during a way too common American emergency event. What could go wrong?

[-] quarkquasar@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

Yes, and let's never address the problems that cause so many school shootings.

We should only ever apply band-aids to wounds.

[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

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.

[-] quarkquasar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

[-] Railcar8095@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

This is just to promote Musk Neurolink.

[-] cashsky@sh.itjust.works 7 points 14 hours ago

Great so they can't contact their parents during next school shooting.

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 13 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

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.

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 5 points 13 hours ago

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.

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

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.

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 3 points 12 hours ago

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.

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

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.”

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 12 hours ago

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?

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

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.

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

I "got" to experience my school because I was left neglected by a public school system for most of my life, to the point where the state had to intervene and force the school district to pay for private education until I aged out. I know exactly what's its like to be subject to a failed system that would rather avoid problems instead of confronting them. My last year in the system was the first year we got two squad cars when school got out instead of just the one. I even got to be the one arrested once for talking back to an admin who (pattern here, try to recognize it) decided i didnt need my medication one day. I got to see just about the full classroom to prison pipeline before my parents managed to take out a loan to hire an attorney. Don't tell me for a fucking instant that I dont know what public school is like.

You, on the other hand, see metal detectors in the halls and think it makes kids safer. You see squad cars outside and think they're going to protect you. You get to work with the same cop that might kill the parent of one of your kids one day. And instead of finding a problem with that, you're just happy the kids wont stream from your class anymore. Are you so broken that little victories are all you have left?

[-] andros_rex@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

You, on the other hand, see metal detectors in the halls and think it makes kids safer. You see squad cars outside and think they’re going to protect you. You get to work with the same cop that might kill the parent of one of your kids one day

Now you are hallucinating. Where the fuck did I say any of that. Sorry you failed to make your argument, now you’re just spouting nonsense.

Time to admit that you have ZERO experience here and have to resort to non sequitors and straw men. (FYI - one of the papers I wrote in graduate school was a literature review on why metal detectors are ineffective. Maybe my dissertation will be about how cell phone bans are effective… I also fought cops in middle schools locally, so doubly fuck you by the way)

[-] KingGimpicus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 44 minutes ago

My only point was that schools cant be trusted to hear kids who need to be heard, therefore cell phones are necessary in case of an emergency. Your argument was that "streaming makes kids do dumb things" like we didnt have Jackass wannabes growing up as well. How dare children not be obedient when told to sit down and shut up? A flashlight when its dark?! The audacity.

Im sorry you clearly hate working with kids. Its so disappointing to see someone invest the time it takes to earn a masters degree only to hate the field they find themselves in. The fact is that children have always acted like children, regardless of the tech they happen to have. They want attention. They want recognition. They want to be seen. You clearly arent engaging them if they're on tiktok or streaming their class to their friends. Again, why do you think taking away the phone is better than teaching them to use it? When is abstinence better than education?

[-] mrmisses@lemmy.world 3 points 13 hours ago

Just like the good ol days

[-] lemmelemmy@feddit.org 1 points 9 hours ago

Wouldn’t it be cheaper if they have them magnet pouches

[-] SleepyPie@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago

Fantastic news, I’m glad they’re proactively seeking solutions

[-] wowwoweowza@lemmy.world 11 points 19 hours ago

Bring two phones. Problem solved.

[-] NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 hours ago

The problem of being distracted in class can be solved by having two phones? Weird!

[-] wowwoweowza@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Freedom or fascism.

[-] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 2 points 14 hours ago

The withdrawal symptoms would be interesting to observe.

[-] moendopi@lemmy.world 15 points 22 hours ago

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!

[-] rumba@lemmy.zip 14 points 19 hours ago

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

[-] stormeuh@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

It's likely also plain corruption, just lawmakers creating ways for their friends to siphon money from government budgets with useless gadgets like this.

[-] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago

150k is for a single district, statewide they plan to waste millions on this

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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2026

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