Banning mobile phones in school

is coming into force in this state and the students are not happy about it.

The ban is coming in following the uploading of videos of school yard fighting and other issues. Whether it will be the answer to some of the problems is anyone's guess. 

I have seen the media footage of some of the violence in the school grounds. I have also seen a video on the phone of a young friend. He was not happy about it.

"How did you get it?" I asked him. 

"One of the others sent it to me.  He wants me to tell because they know I wasn't there so they won't think it was me. If I do tell then he's going to know I did and...well you know."

Oh, right. I do know.  The complications...I tried to think this through. They are supposed to report any incidents like that but it certainly makes them vulnerable.

"Can you talk to your Dad about it?" 

He shrugged and then said, "I hate this stuff. People don't talk to you. They just do this stuff instead. There's always fights."

Always? I wonder about this. There are certainly reports about such incidents. Some of those incidents have been very violent indeed. Are there less violent incidents also occurring as well? I have no doubt there are.

I can remember a couple of scuffles at schools I attended. They were over quickly and those involved were quickly hauled into line. I can remember the Senior Cat standing there and looking at two panting perpetrators and telling them, "In my office, now!" He left them there for so long they thought he had forgotten them. He had not. By the time he returned they were apparently looking thoroughly sheepish and talking to each other again. I doubt any more was said.

What I cannot remember is the sort of incident where everyone stood around in a circle chanting, "Fight!" or something equally stupid. We dealt with our disagreements in other ways. No, we were not angels. We argued and name-called and there was some bullying. There were people we liked and people we didn't like. There were people we avoided but there were no "gangs" that I was aware of. Rural schools tended to be too small for that but my brother does not remember any in the big high school he attended in the last two years. 

Do mobile phones actually encourage such violent behaviour? I don't know. I am not aware of the latest research. It is obvious the Education Department here thinks banning phones will help reduce such behaviour. It will be interesting to see if the ban has any effect.

What I hope might happen is something different. If the ban remains in place I am hoping that students might start to talk to each other more instead.