Social Media and Cell Phones Presentation

Social Media and Cell Phones Presentation August 21, 2017

The biggest problem we have at North Fayette Valley High School, and a problem that impacts most of our students to at least some degree is cell phones and social media. Many of you here tonight will say that your son or daughter is a good kid and that you trust them 100%. What I am going to talk to you about tonight is not something that “those other” kids do. I will put it this way: There are times that good kids make bad decisions. In the past year we have some good kids, who were raised right, that did some very stupid things with their cell phones, and in some cases caused grief and heartache for other kids. If at any point tonight you believe I am pointing a finger at you, rest assured I am pointing it at myself as well, as I am a parent of kids that have cell phones, one of whom uses social media a lot. And, I am also the principal that is responsible for what happens in this school. The bottom line is that we are all in this together, and I need your help just as much, if not more, than you need mine! Slide Cell phones and student use of social media is the most disruptive force that has come about in my 32 years as a public educator. It has had a negative impact on student learning and emotional well- being. I have never seen anything that causes more problems in school than cell phones, and when kids use them to access social media. I agree that there are positives to having a cell phone and using social media, but in my opinion, the negatives far outweigh the positives. I have talked to a number of people over the past twelve months, including some of you sitting in here tonight as well as some of your neighbors, and many of them agree with this. This little piece of equipment has the power of a bomb when it is used by a teenager, and kids including teens are the last ones that have the maturity to have that kind of power! Slide Teenagers make bad decisions, even the good ones! That is how they are wired. That is what they do! And many of your kids who attend our school are making very bad decisions. But this should be no surprise because their brains are still developing. So, what are some of those things? This next slide I am going to show you has been edited. I have changed names, and I have not spelled out the actual words that were used. Slide These are just a few of the examples that have been brought to us, or that we have discovered. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We have also had a number of instances where students have taken nude photos of themselves and shared them with other students, as well as at situation when an unauthorized pictures were taken of a student and sent it to others. This is commonly called sexting. This is not like the old days when a boy may have brought a Playboy or Penthouse magazine to school. And you cannot say that boys will be boys. These are pictures taken by students of that they know. These are children, by law, minors. In Iowa it is considered child pornography, and a violation of the law. Depending on what happens it could be possession or trafficking, Whenever we deal with a sexting incident, we contact local law enforcement. That is not negotiable. In my eight years here there have been a number of these that have been brought to our attention, and I know there are many more out there. I have been told that one of our students has over 80 “nudes” of female students. And I was told by a credible source that one of our boys took a provocative photo of himself to 74 girls at the same time. There has been a change in Iowa law this year that may put a different slant on sending nude photos. Iowa now has an explicit revenge porn law, and it is yet to be seen whether a former boyfriend sending a nude picture of a former girl friend will be prosecuted under this law. Slide Folks, do not dismiss this! I would say that of all of you in this room right now that have daughters, at least one in four of you have a daughter that has taken either a nude photo or a sexually suggestive one of themselves. Find three other parents of girls in this room and one of your daughters has sent a nude photo. I do not care how independent or strong a teenage girl is, they are easily manipulated when a boy they are head over heels in lust with asks for a nude. Good kids do stupid things. Smart kids make bad decisions. In reality we are dealing with two separate issues that happen to be related. Slide Kids are missing out on learning opportunities because their phone is a major distraction. They are more interest in what is on their phone or waiting for that buzz or vibration to see who has texted or replied to a post. Research has shown that many people using their phones are so connected and dependent on their phones that they experience a release of dopamine when they are involved in some kind of a communication and it buzzes, similar to that dopamine release drug and sex addicts experience. They are hooked! We see kids walk into this building every morning with their phone in their hand and they never let it go over the course of the day. In the classroom they have a very difficult time focusing on the teacher’s instruction or the conversation taking place in a small group because they are wondering how many likes they are getting to one of their posts. Or they are distracted because they are waiting for a response. How can you expect a 15-year old to tune into a lesson on variables when she her phone is buzzing in her pocket? In my opinion, the number one reason that students are not learning in the classroom isn’t because of the type of instruction taking place. It’s because the instruction cannot compete with their handheld device. Once they leave the classroom out come the phones because they don’t want to miss whatever transpired in the cyber world over the previous 45 minutes. In my frustration I have often thought, “We just need to ban cell phones from school.” And when I have mentioned it I have had parents agree, teachers agree, and other adults agree. Of course when I have said it in front of kids I get a shocked look from them. Some you were in this same room a few years ago when I polled parents and asked how many of you wanted us to ban cell phones from being in the building. I asked you to cast your vote by standing and the overwhelming number of parents in the room that night said “No.” Banning them is not the answer. I cannot assign the manpower that it would take every morning to search backpacks and purses, and I don’t even want to think about implementing “pat-down” searches. We have rules in place, and for this year we have strengthen the consequences on the more significant violations. These can be found in the Student and Parent Handbook that is on our website. What I can tell you is that the kids are defiant when it comes to their phones, and perhaps it is typical teenage rebellion that contributes to this. Slide How many of you have rules regarding the use of cell phones at your place of work? At NFVHS, these are the general rules regarding cell phone use. We believe that they are reasonable, yet we still have significant violations, which is why we have increased the consequences. For the past four years we have included instruction through our advisory program about digital citizenship. That instruction has addressed a wide variety of topics including appropriate use. We believe that we are doing as much as we can, and yet it is very frustrating. And it is frustrating for principals and teachers elsewhere. Over the past year I have taken opportunity to talk to many principals about this issue, and the response I get is very similar to what we are facing in our building. There is overwhelming evidence that teenagers need structure in their lives at home and school, and even more research that declares that they need limits. That includes having limits on their cell phone and social media use! Limits help them mature. That is what our rules are set up to do. But, we cannot do it alone. We must have your help! I spoke earlier about the idea of banning phones, and as I said, that is not a reasonable solution. Without additional resources and a willingness to compromise time to teach, I do not believe the school can ban all students from bringing a cell phone to school. However, you as parents can ban the phones, and you are within your parental rights to do so. Slide What can parents do?  Talk about cell phone use.  Require they friend you or give you access to their social media accounts. o Can’t give access to SnapChat o That includes Fake Accounts – nearly every student we have talked to about inappropriate use has more than one Instagram account. They have their real one, the one they probably let you know about, and a fake one. The fake ones are where they go after other kids. By the way, Instagram is the platform where most of the cyberbullying takes place.  Do not text or try to communicate digitally with your child during the school day. o We have excellent secretaries that do a great job getting messages from parents to students, and if a student is not feeling well, they do a very good job contacting parents. o You need to insist that your child goes to the office if they are not feeling well before they contact you.  Be a positive role model for your child using social media and your cell phone. o If you are posting negative things of Facebook or sending inappropriate Tweets, and your child is aware of it, why wouldn’t they do the same? o If you are constantly on your phone, why wouldn’t your kids. 82% of kids in a BBC pole believe meal times should be device free and it isn’t just the kids that have their device in their hand!  Have them leave the phone at home.

One final note. One of the biggest concerns expressed by parents and students, and the terms often used are bullying and harassment. Those terms are the buzzwords right now, but the majority of the time what is going on is a conflict between two students. Most of what is going on between students is conflict and does not meet bar for bullying or harassment. That said, in Iowa we have a cyberbullying law that requires school officials to investigate and make a determination. This includes incidents that happen outside of school if they cause a disruption or have an impact at school. These phones have contributed to a lot of the problems that we deal with on a daily basis. The help that you give us will be greatly appreciated!