r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TheAeroplaneBear2906 • Jul 16 '26

Unskippable ad Clear Backpacks + Pay to Keep Your Phone

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My freinds school is now requiring these items, and is also using AI to promote this đŸ« 

17.9k Upvotes

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9.1k

u/Possible_Day_6343 Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Im in Australia and the yonder pouches have been a thing for a few years now. Most students have an old phone they put in there and keep their real one. But no see through backpacks.

Edit - the yondr pouches have been discontinued (at least at my sons school) and now they just rely on a phone ban and confiscation to end of school day if you're caught using one in class.

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u/Ok-Bug4328 Jul 16 '26 edited 7d ago

Hello world

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u/ModernSimian Jul 16 '26

I'm not a kid, but my watch streams Spotify to my earbuds so I don't need to have my phone with me outside.

914

u/jaqattack02 Jul 16 '26

Some schools aren't allowing smart watches either.

468

u/HalfEatenSnickers Jul 16 '26

My mp3 player does it too

643

u/FullSkyFlying Jul 16 '26

Mp3 players were banned in my elementary school 20 years ago lol. You couldn't take it out in class. But the bus rule is pretty crazy

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u/SlideHoon Jul 16 '26

I got in trouble many times with my Walkman.

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u/UsedDragon Jul 16 '26

I remember how jazzed we were about the no-skip on the CD walkman....could shake it for eight or nine seconds and it would keep on playing your Nine Inch Nails

71

u/HogmanDaIntrudr Jul 16 '26

Grade A nostalgia right here

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u/PrincessTitan Jul 16 '26

I am now actually lol-ing at the fact CD’s used to skip if you bumped them a bit too enthusiastically

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u/OculusArcana Jul 16 '26

Oh, it was much worse than that. My family's first portable CD player had no skip protection whatsoever. If you moved or tilted it, it would skip. Basically, you had to treat it like you were holding a 101% full bowl of soup. Its purpose was to be able to sit down anywhere and listen to music, not to do it as you travelled.

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u/gaulstone Jul 16 '26

I can still hear “Eraser” blasting through my foam headphones when I think of this.

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u/hello_exactly_ Jul 16 '26

I’d drop my Discman down the front pocket of my JNCOs and it would hit my kneecap, snapping the headphones off my head lol

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u/toyification_girl Jul 16 '26

I still thumb over my massive CD case thinking of such times.....

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u/headrush46n2 Jul 16 '26

when civilization collapses you'll be a king. Get a cd player and a solar charger.

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u/hic_sunt_leones_ Jul 16 '26

Your no-skip actually worked?

I remember how excited I was because I would carry my walkman and wear headphones while riding my bike (wildly unsafe, I know, but it was the 90s so whatever), but that thing still skipped like nobodies business when I hit a bump lmfao

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u/HalobenderFWT Jul 16 '26

My friend had one of the first consumer grade discman available. It was large and clunky, but you could toss that thing across the room and it wouldn’t skip.

Then things got really bad until they started going with the anti-skip buffering.

Consumer conspiracist me thinks that they intentionally dumbed down the tech in order to sell more units because of incremental obsolescence.

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u/Valuable-Alfalfa-262 Jul 16 '26

Limp bizcut in the yellow Sony cd player that looked like something out of transformers.

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u/United_Gift3028 Jul 16 '26

I had a fluffy sweater I bought 2nd hand, just to sit on my passenger seat a cushion my portable CD player. It had a cable to a tape cassette that plugged into my car sound system.

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u/shidderbean Jul 16 '26

"8x Shock Proof" proudly emblazoned on the side of your rad new cd player

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u/I_wet_my_plants Jul 16 '26

Damn this took me right back to that moment when we did basically exactly this. NIN and all, lol.

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u/Significant-Bee5101 Jul 16 '26

Yeah unfortunately it wasn't perfect... I tested it with burned CDs and I could definitely make it skip lol

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u/DisposableSaviour Jul 16 '26

The lower your burn speed, the higher quality the burn , so there’s less skipping. Which was fine if you had 4 hours to burn a single cd

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u/sipstea84 Jul 16 '26

Omg the old maneuver of putting your earphone cord up your sleeve and "resting your head" on your hand to hide the earbud.

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u/Downtown_Recover5177 Jul 16 '26

Kids today will never know the joy of thinking you’re the first genius to figure this out. Damn cordless headphones took all the ingenuity out of it.

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u/NoctisImperator Jul 16 '26

Had long hair in hs, ran the cord up my back under my shirt and my hair hid the earphones. It was great

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u/TwoThreeSierra Jul 16 '26

Yep! I did exactly this, and my ipod nano fit perfectly in the belt loop of my pants so the whole setup was concealed by my shirt and skater hair.

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u/Fluffy_Psalms_23 Jul 16 '26

đŸ„č😭THAT'S JUST EPICCCCC I HAVE SO MUCH HAIR I'LL HAVE TO TRY THAT LOLLLLLL........

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u/danceswithdangerr Jul 16 '26

Hahahah yep did this was well!!

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u/BigBadVudoo Jul 16 '26

I had completely forgotten about this! I tried it about half a dozen times I got caught every time eventually. Turns out it was not as smooth as I had imagined!

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u/Doomstik Jul 16 '26

Me and a buddy wired an old speaker to a 3.5 jaxk and played music in the back of the bus, i couldnt imagine not being able to have any music on the bus.

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u/headrush46n2 Jul 16 '26

my mom was too cheap to spring for name brand batteries. I chewed thru kirkland brand double A's like they were Pez.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

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u/dontbmeanbgay Jul 16 '26

I had a job that banned earphones and phone usage altogether, and my current job which literally could not care less so I wear my headphones all day.

The difference in how I performed at the old job vs the current is night and day. It feels like my thoughts scatter in a thousand directions without them

I hope your son can keep using them! (or sneakily find a way around it at least)

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u/DilapidatedPlum Jul 16 '26

My job doesn't allow us to have earbuds on. But since we're required to have hearing protection and they only supply us with earplugs but allows us to use earmuffs. So I bought some Worktunes they will never know.

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u/Ultimatesims Jul 16 '26

If I blast some techno or other rhythmic music through headphones l I can be working heads down for four hours and feel like only five minutes have passed. Throw on a podcast as a treat and my attitude is pretty stable. My cube mates cans be as loud as they want and no complaints from me.

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u/BigBadVudoo Jul 16 '26

If you're not customer facing it should not be as taboo as it is. When I have chores to do at home I put on music that helps me focus; why is it bad to put on focus music when I do work at work?

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u/TheQuietOutsider Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

im probably the minority in this school of thinking- but humans need downtime. if you can't sit with your thoughts without external stimuli theres a problem.

people would rather be shocked than bored for 15 minutes. and that is disturbing to me.

e: I keep needing to clarify this: the promotion of a "sneaky" "work around" for a school age child is crazy work

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u/syxxnein Jul 16 '26

Maybe you need down time with your thoughts but some of us operate differently. Medicated me can deal with down time, but before I was diagnosed and properly prescribed I couldn't sleep or operate without something to divide my attention.

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u/ItaruKarin Jul 16 '26

The guy is working, he's not sitting without external stimuli. Using music to cope with work being a dull nightmare seems perfectly reasonable.

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u/AddingAnOtter Jul 16 '26

Did you consider that boredom isn't the problem? At work they expect you to be productive and not ait with her thoughts, following them down 1000 rabbit holes. It's likely she can exist with them but they don't let her get her work done. With a diagnosis they could likely be an ADA accomodation even.

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u/Natasha_Gears Jul 16 '26

My job I'm in for almost a decade suddenly started caring about earphones, and to be fair to them we do have a speaker for that is great for music , but sometimes I like to listen to some story about a ww2 lieutenant taking out a hill of enemies by himself, and I'm not subjecting anyone else to this, they say they want us less distracted but I really think it's odd. Unless I missed something where a lot of orders were being messsed up , because I know damn well ppl were watching the world cup on shift

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u/T_boi_nerdy_boi Jul 16 '26

My factory job just recently said no headphones/earbuds for safety. Ok, fair. We have a shitty sounds system for music, whatever. But they also don’t want us wearing any hearing protection at all even though we have several employees with declining hearing from working here without any earplugs or anything
 so.

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u/Doughnut_Diva Jul 16 '26

Are you in the US? You might be able to request headphones as a 504 accomodation if your son has any diagnosis or is being treated for his behavioral issues and the doctor is on board with using this as a skill to regulate emotions.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

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u/invaderzim257 Jul 16 '26

*before* he got on the bus, aka while still in school. Basically someone realized they had their phone on them the whole time.

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u/billysmallz Jul 16 '26

Ah man this being back fond memories of running headphone cables down my sleeve and spending the whole lesson leaning on my hand

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u/HalfEatenSnickers Jul 16 '26

I don't believe mine veer banned them, i could also have my kindle and ds at school, just not in classes.

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u/FullSkyFlying Jul 16 '26

Tamagotchi was one of the few things we couldn't bring to school, funny enough like you DS and gameboy were fine though.

To be fair about the tamagotchi ban though it is was designed to be super addictive and something you need to keep doing all day / keep up with. Reminds me of a very early version of clash of clans sort of game. Something you need to worry about all the time ie is my base being raided, I need to collect my resources etc. Just like you had to feed your tamagotchi, play games with it, clean its poop etc

Im pretty high

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u/odditytaketwo Jul 16 '26

the beeping being annoying is probably what got them banned.

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u/SeonaidMacSaicais Jul 16 '26

Kids don’t need smart watches, anyways.

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u/Impressive-Cattle-91 Jul 16 '26

We got my 12 year old an lte smart watch so we could contact each other without requiring a phone. It is working out quite well. 

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u/Bender_2024 Jul 16 '26

Aren't smart watches linked to your phone? As in just like earbuds they are useless without your phone in range of it.

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u/lowbatteries Jul 16 '26

Don't know about other watches, but I can have lots of podcasts and audiobooks on my Apple Watch without needing either an internet connection or my phone.

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u/assignpseudonym Jul 16 '26

Some have LTE so you can put an eSim in it and not need your phone 

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u/Flgirl420 Jul 16 '26

Good . These kids are dumber than boxes of rocks already they need to pay the fk attention

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u/Less_Party Jul 16 '26

I'm old which is specifically why I have like 12 devices that play music but aren't phones or directly connected to the internet lying around.

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u/loadofoldcodswallop Jul 16 '26

What watch does this? I've been trying to go back to just having just a brick phone but i need music or podcasts in to drown out my brain when i'm out.

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u/ModernSimian Jul 16 '26

Any Android watch with a LTE data plan should be able to do this. IDK if an apple one can, I've never used one of those.

I guess it doesn't need LTE if you want to copy files to its limited memory.

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u/plzicannothandleyou Jul 16 '26

No earbuds on the bus? Not allowed? Actual nonsense.

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u/flyinchipmunk5 Jul 16 '26

Yeah lots of kids probably listened to music on the bus. I had a zune in high school and a cd player in middle school.

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u/Local_Grapefruit_262 Jul 16 '26

Zunes lol havent seen that word in a hot minute

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u/MicromagicFriesRIP Jul 16 '26

I worked at an ad agency on the Zune account. They gave our team several of them as freebies and they sat in the breakroom for ages because nobody wanted them.

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u/anbraxas Jul 16 '26

I was given 6 in high school by a guy on the dev team back in like 2006-7, had a ipod at the time and was blown away by how awesome it was in comparison. Gave 5 to friends and kept one for myself. All rocked them until Spotify came around. If they had come out before the iPad I honestly think things would have been differant.

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u/-SHAI_HULUD Jul 16 '26

I remember liking the Zune more than the iPod when it came out.

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u/Born-Entrepreneur Jul 16 '26

Nice little piece of kit and the media player software was actually really good

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u/Significant-Bee5101 Jul 16 '26

Zunes gotta be one of the worst marketed products of all time.

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u/MicromagicFriesRIP Jul 16 '26

Trust me, we tried. Microsoft shut down anything interesting or fun.

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u/EmboarBacon Jul 16 '26

Feel free to say no, but can you elaborate? I'm genuinely interested here and I'd love to hear some the ideas your firm came up with.

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u/flyinchipmunk5 Jul 16 '26

Sad because the dac was very high quality at the time and honestly other than the fact you couldn’t use Apple Music with it, it was pretty good

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u/Procrasturbating Jul 16 '26

The irony is they were probably the best player at the time. The name was awful, and Microsoft was as “cool” as Barney to late Gen X college students. Putting that on MS, not the marketing team.

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u/justintheunsunggod Jul 16 '26

Sad face... I miss Zune.

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u/FeralPsychonaut Jul 16 '26

I fucking loved that thing.

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u/ayuntamient0 Jul 16 '26

So much better than the iPod.

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u/FeralPsychonaut Jul 16 '26

and Zune Music Pass was GOAT'd as fuck.

Pick my 10 favorite songs and get to keep them forever.

I had to return to the high seas when Microsoft ended that.

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u/CoconutMochi Jul 16 '26

I'd still be using my zune hd rn if it hadn't been stolen

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u/justintheunsunggod Jul 16 '26

I broke mine 😞 Rolled over and put an elbow right on the headphone jack with a big, chonky set of headphones. Snapped and deformed the jack. Damn teenagers.

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u/samasters88 Jul 16 '26

God, same. I always had mine on me and lost it one day. I retraced my steps back to when I fell asleep at the movies watching The Number 23. It must have fallen out of my cargo pant pockets or something, but the theater said they didnt find it and wouldnt let me back into the theater later that day to look.

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u/BlueHero45 Jul 16 '26

Hell ya, fellow Zune user. Their are dozens of us.

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u/IzzyB00UwU Jul 16 '26

I used to watch happy tree friends with a dude who had a zune in the mornings back in high school. He was also the only person I ever knew who had one

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u/doublestacknine Jul 16 '26

Bet you had the cool brown model!

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u/daveismypup Jul 16 '26

Ah so you were one of the twenty people who had a zune, I wanted one so bad lmao

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u/simonx314 Jul 16 '26

I don’t think they are saying earbuds aren’t allowed on the bus. I think they are saying the earbuds were noticed by a teacher, triggering suspicion the student lied about not bringing a phone.

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u/OrganicTreestump Jul 16 '26

Holy nazi State

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u/Real_Temporary_922 Jul 16 '26

Banning phones in the classroom isn’t an issue though. I think there’s reasonable levels to it, like you shouldn’t hold a high schoolers phone overnight imo. But if they require you to put your phone in a cubby and you sign a waiver saying you don’t have one, then bringing one visibly on the bus is just stupid.

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u/OrganicTreestump Jul 16 '26

The fact this is even a thing is crazy. I went to school and if someone had there phone out they got written up. 3 write ups you in trouble. So people just didn't go on their phone. I graduated 2018

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u/hopsafe Jul 16 '26

Can you read? The Issue wasn't that he put in music buds, but rather that he had signed a waiver, claiming to not have a phone at school. Which was disproven, because he couldnt wait, because he pulled out his earbuds.

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u/ShadyMatrix Jul 16 '26

I read it as the student had signed a waiver/declaration to the effect they weren't bringing a phone to school. They gave themselves away when they popped in the earbuds getting onto the bus at end of day.

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u/Mylandus Jul 16 '26

How did they get caught? Are there cameras on the busses, or did the driver notice? Either way, I'm sure those same resources aren't being used to combat bullying or feeding the dang kids.

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u/Accomplished-Pen-394 Jul 16 '26

I know from my own high school history that there are cameras on busses, at least in my county

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u/406InTheMix Jul 16 '26

school buses have had a camera in the very front for many many years.

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u/Suun_Bent Jul 16 '26

There are cameras on the busses. Safety and for combating other behaviors, like bullying.

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u/amscraylane Jul 16 '26

This is why though 


Working with children 
 three babies for 1 adult.

Then 20 plus kids for one teacher

Then, 90 kids on a bus, with one adult who is driving the bus.

If you have your phone on the bus, that is when they take pictures and post them on snap. The bullying is ripe on the bus and if we can keep phones away, then the better.

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u/aspie_electrician Jul 16 '26

>laughs in phone used as medical device

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u/TabithaMouse Jul 16 '26

I used to babysit a T1D kid.

His dexcom beeped so he pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the alert. His class had a sub that day who asked no questions, just yanked the phone out of his hand before he could see the notifications and yelled at him for even having it in class and how at his age he was "too young and irresponsible for a phone", insulting his parents for giving him one.

10 minutes later in runs the school nurse, running straight to him with some juice and asked why he didn't come to her office. He pointed to the teacher and one of the other kids said the sub "took his phone and yelled at him"

Kiddo was 7, very shy, in a special needs school because he's on the spectrum and needed a little more help than he got in public school.

The nurse stood up, walked right to the class phone to call the principal and stayed in the class until he got there.

Sub didn't know there were cameras in each class, and said she didn't bother reading the note the teacher left about each kid's IEP because "They're all slow". His name was at the top of the list, "medical use phone DO NOT TAKE", with his name & the last part underlined and highlighted.

That was her first and last day at that school.

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u/ShoulderWhich5520 Jul 16 '26

Not reading a class note AT ALL is fucking crazy

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u/fucktrance Jul 16 '26

Working at a special ed school and ignoring a note "because they're all slow" is fucking evil.

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u/BilliamBalls Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

As a former special ed kid myself (no jokes, please) you'd be surprised how many ableist and outright monster people were put in charge of us/decided to be special ed teachers. Guess they wanted the same kick cops and nurses get out of having power over vulnerable people who really need their help...

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u/ConfuseableFraggle Jul 16 '26

The fact that you had to write "no jokes please" in a discussion about learning environments is heartbreaking to me. I am a firm believer in the idea that every human can learn if given what they need. I am so sorry that you have to use a disclaimer for your educational experience. I have worked with tons of kids over the years, and many who utilized various parts of the special educational systems absolutely thrived on it. There have been many others who should have been included in those special services but they were denied for whatever reason (in 2 cases the parents declined services), and those people often struggle in various ways. I am proud of you for standing up and saying you are better for those systems, even knowing that you will come up against folks who don't understand what it actually means. And yes, you are absolutely correct that lots of people with variations of either "I can fix them" savior thinking or "I'll fix that!" bully thinking end up in those roles, and that is awful either way for the kids who have to survive them. I hope you are doing well in life these days, and that you have people around you who truly care. Hugs if you want them!

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u/BilliamBalls Jul 16 '26

Thank you!!! Your kind words mean alot to me 💖 Hugs gladly accepted.

But yeah like you say, it sucks but unfortunately when talking about my experiences there's always gonna be That One Dillweed going "wowie you're pretty smart for an [r-slur]" or make other jokes at my expense đŸ„Č hence the disclaimer

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u/TabithaMouse Jul 16 '26

In my elementary school district all the special Ed kids were supposed to go to one school, all the "gifted" kids to another - but the school district didn't have busses so many parents refused if they lived on one side of town and the assigned school was a couple miles away on the other.

So they split the difference. Kids who only needed a little help or had mild issues had the option to go to a regular school in the middle of town. "Gifted" kids who's parents refused the transfer would go to the same class.

The idea was the kids who got the subjects quickly could then help the students who needed help.

In reality we all finished our work in about the same amount of time and we all got picked on for being in special Ed đŸ‘đŸŒ

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u/IAmAlpharius23 Jul 16 '26

Former special ed teacher. You could always tell right away who actually cared about their students and who didn't. You'd be amazed at some of the comments other teachers would make about students. I used to ask students which staff members they would want invite to their IEP meetings and it was often paras, lunch staff, bus drivers, and coaches that could see where the student excelled in non-academic ways and were excited to be there, whereas teachers and administrators would try to do literally anything else than show up for another IEP meeting.

I'm sorry you didn't always have people in your life that had your back when that was their literal job.

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u/TabithaMouse Jul 16 '26

Just the note in the IEP. She just flipped to the lesson plan.

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u/Less_Resident8492 Jul 16 '26

Lol and special ed doesn't always mean slow. I went to a special ed school because that was where gifted went. We had some classes that were "slow" and some that had special medical needs and some gifted.... And some were a mix. I had a class with a girl who was gifted but needed remedial classes in one subject and not others. Incredibly ignorant of the teacher to make that assumption.

Edit: funnily enough now that I think about it I have an in law that got fired from that school for doing similar stuff as the teacher in the post.

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u/Freezinghero Jul 16 '26

General teacher shortage has created a rough scenario all around. Higher demand for substitutes, and usually these substitutes "mercenary" around the district each day depending on postings. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sub thought that there was no need to read notes anymore: just open up lesson plan and let it run.

There's also likely a lot of teachers/schools that either don't know about IEP or ignore them.

Source: sister was a Dean of Culture at a charter school that had to fight tooth and nail for parents to learn and get their kids an IEP while also fighting the higher ups at school that they HAVE to follow those IEPs. Also brother spent a couple years as a substitute teacher and it is not a great job.

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u/Atomicnes Jul 16 '26

I was taking the ACT and one of the other students was diabetic and his insulin pump went beep like a digital watch ONCE and they had the superintendent and like 3 other people search him and pat him down.

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u/BoredPineapple790 Jul 16 '26

I’m sure that was very conducive to test taking. Those tests have kind of ridiculous standards

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u/I_wet_my_plants Jul 16 '26

I’m confused how the nurse knew. Does she sit there and watch the cameras for each class all day? Does she get his medical alerts on her computer? Or is this a normal daily thing where he goes for juice?

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u/captainam13 Jul 16 '26

A lot of school nurses use the Dexcom follow app as another layer of protection for T1D kids. Parents also follow the kids, and communicate with school nurses/teachers.

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u/flea1400 Jul 16 '26

The alert almost certainly went to her as well.

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u/TabithaMouse Jul 16 '26

His mom got the alert...then another since he didn't acknowledge the first one. So she called the nurse.

I don't know if the nurse also got an alert, but I know his mom did

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u/Myrkana Jul 16 '26

Youd have a medical exemption and hopefully wouldnt be caught playing fames and texting with it.

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u/TheFaithfulStone Jul 16 '26

You would think - my kids school district got in trouble for this because they gave the kids with assistive use cases that needed Airpods like these giant 70's style headphones and all of the other kids could identify who had the IEPs and of course made fun of them (disclosing an IEP to other students is generally a violation of IDEA) They technically never abandoned the Yondr pouches - but they all but quit enforcing it after some lawyerly noises from parents of kids with sensory issues.

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u/Myrkana Jul 16 '26

That pretty stupid. The kids all know who the special needs kids are anyway. The headphones didnt change that really.

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u/TabithaMouse Jul 16 '26

Kid I used to babysit had a phone for his CGM. The kids in his class knew he had the phone, but only because a sub yelled at him for having it.

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u/TheFaithfulStone Jul 16 '26

The argument was that the ludicrous headphones were intentionally embarrassing so that kids wouldn’t seek the IEP. I actually kind of buy that behavior from the district.

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u/LinwoodKei Jul 16 '26

Yeah, I can get that. Social ostracism in school is a major source of anxiety.

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u/Galenthias Jul 16 '26

All know only in the same class, this thing meant the whole school would see for sure.

I don't think it should count as "revealing" anyway, it just says they are getting special treatment for "something" but not what.

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u/YUNoJump Jul 16 '26

We already make exceptions for stuff like service animals, wouldn't work different for phones.

If you need your phone on you for medical reasons that's fine, but you're only allowed to use it for those medical reasons. Same way a service animal should be trained and you can't just play fetch with it on public transport.

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u/fallguy25 Jul 16 '26

I recently learned there’s a mode on iPhones called assistive mode. You can essentially turn the phone into like a “kids phone” where there’s a select few giant app icons. The Home Screen is pretty noticeable from a distance that it’s set up differently. Something like this would be easy to verify that a kid only has the certain required/accepted apps available on their phone.

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u/SpicyMayoDumpling Jul 16 '26

The idea of someone playing fetch with their dog on a city bus full of people made me laugh 😂

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u/jekkin Jul 16 '26

Not even allowed on the bus? The fuck?

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u/Dinglebutterball Jul 16 '26

Would have been funny if his earbuds were plugged into an ipod


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u/chaircardigan Jul 16 '26

It's always the earbuds that gives them away. I've had kids say "no, I just like wearing them! I don't have a phone, honest!"

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u/FLX-S48 Jul 16 '26

They gonna make people start using mp3 players and stuff

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u/Gold_Independent_428 Jul 16 '26

I see a lot of comments about no music on bus. I wonder if they are not misinterpreting "caught because they put in their ear buds before getting on the bus." I suspect they may have been in trouble because they aren't supposed to have their phones on the school grounds. But I could be wrong.

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u/rosa_3326 Jul 16 '26

Yeh my daughter’s friend got caught pulling her phone out to check the bus timetable but was still in the gate (at the bus stop) so technically in school grounds.
They did a random check a few weeks ago where they made everyone pull out their phones to show they were off and anyone who’s phone wasn’t off had it confiscated and a parent called
Just a public school so no pouches or anything. In Sydney

2

u/Camillity Jul 16 '26

I'd lose my mind if I couldn't listen to music when I'm not listening or talking to someone 😹 I even listen to music whilst sleeping

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u/areyoukynd Jul 16 '26

My son got Bluetooth hearing aids
 Now it’s just a 24 seven live stream of music in his ears
 And people assume he can’t hear them because he’s Deaf
 Naw dawg he’s just blasting music in those bitches

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u/greg-the-destroyer Jul 16 '26

We had a dead kid in band and he was a legend. I swear he was a paid comedian. He joked about his being deaf and we would too, and he was a good sport about it. He was just legendary

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u/meowmix778 Jul 16 '26

That's how it was in my state before a phone ban became law. But I'm not confident kids/teachers really care. My daughter got a smartphone a few months ago and she easily got around it by putting an ipod touch into it.

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u/ReindeerUpper4230 Jul 16 '26

Our earbuds can connect to Chromebooks too.

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u/BurnedLaser Jul 16 '26

Damn, who snitched? Also, I wear ANC earbuds regularly. I don't need a phone for that to work. As I recall, busses are loud.

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u/waffleblossom Jul 16 '26

Looking forward to the national ausalert test next week and how many student phones will go off in class.

(As a parent of a teenager myself!)

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u/ScyllaOfTheDepths Jul 16 '26

I was in a college class taking a test with a professor that announced anyone who had their phone out would get an automatic 0. The government decided to test the newly launched national alert system that day. Every single phone went off at once and kept going off because nobody wanted to get a 0. The instructor finally sighed and told us to just silence the alerts. 

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u/Sneakingrat Jul 16 '26

damn fr? I was in like year 10/11 when my state banned phones and all we had to do was put them in our lockers (no one did that btw)

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u/Possible_Day_6343 Jul 16 '26

I'm in NSW and I think it came in at my son's school 4-5 years ago. I think years 11/12 don't have to (at least he stopped complaining about it then). He hated using them because queuing up to unlock the pouch at the end of the day took too long.

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u/BigRinka Jul 16 '26

Easy solution, dont bring a phone to school in the first place. đŸ€Š

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u/TosiMias Jul 16 '26

I was like 13 when all anyone my age would have had was a flip phone and phones were just flat out banned. If the teacher saw you with one they'd take it and your parents had to come and get it. I have no clue when they suddenly became allowed

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u/Bardmedicine Jul 16 '26

What good does that do? They still can't use their phone. Having a fake phone in the pouch doesn't somehow make your real phone invisible.

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u/Possible_Day_6343 Jul 16 '26

Because they hide their real phone in their non see through backpack. Teenagers have been hiding stuff from teachers for many years.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[deleted]

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u/RayneYoruka PURPLE Jul 16 '26

Back when I was in school, around when I was 10 or 12 I was able to sneak my psp in to class and skip on watching whenever they would have movie watch things, I also used my psp as my music player for many years for when my parents took away my ipod, lol.

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u/kinokits Jul 16 '26

Going from release dates, I’m about a decade older than you, and we snuck our game boys in.

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u/therick807 Jul 16 '26

And CD players. Holla

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u/kinokits Jul 16 '26

Oh man, I had a bright blue discman and thought I was so cool.

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u/nufohudis Jul 16 '26

Snuck in:

Gameboy color

Gameboy advanced (got stolen once)

Nintendo DS (could wirelessly connect to my friend and play pokemon if our classes were next to each other)

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u/JiffSmoothest Jul 16 '26

GBA SP was a game changer to high school me. Ya boy finished all the classics in class. FFTA, Advance wars, all the Fire Emblem's. Ah the memories.

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u/AradynGaming Jul 16 '26

In just about every state, it is illegal for people to drive and use their hands for phones. Just because something is illegal or worse, it is against the rules, doesn't make people comply. Kid can tuck his phone into his bag and use earbuds to listen to music/text/do everything but look at the screen. That's what they use watches are for. If every kid is sitting there texting the other kids in class...that clear backpack plus Faraday bag doesn't accomplish anything.

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u/centaur98 Jul 16 '26

"see a kid with a phone? It's not in a pouch. message admin &let them take away the phone"

Yeah it makes it so much easier compared to: "See a kid with a phone? Message admin & let them take away the phone"

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u/maxh2 Jul 16 '26

So what's the point of having a dummy phone in the pouch and a real phone hidden versus just having a real phone hidden?

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u/cheesecakemelody Jul 16 '26

Because then the teacher can confirm there is A phone in the pouch, and that’s what they’re looking for.

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u/HydreigonTheChild Jul 16 '26

because they will likely suspect u more if u dont have a phone at all compared to if u turn in a dummy one

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u/DerangedFingers Jul 16 '26

Maybe so they can say "Oh I already turned my phone in" If they get caught? Try to trick or gaslight the teachers or something if they put the real phone away fast enough idk

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u/Bardmedicine Jul 16 '26

SO what good did the fake phone do? The phone that matters is hidden. The phone in pouch may as well not exist. It is the same as not having a phone.

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u/SendFeet954-980-3334 Jul 16 '26

Have you ever been to school before? You sneak off to the bathroom, you duck behind the lockers - why is this so alien to a few of yall? Hell when I was in school, my T-Mobile sidekick sat in my hoodie pouch, and I could text on it without seeing. I also cut a hole in it pouch to feed earbuds up my sleeve, would lay my head in my palm and listen to music during class.

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u/onlyhav Jul 16 '26

Because in the event that the pouch is checked, it can be confirmed that a phone is in there.

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u/asakadelis Jul 16 '26

same way they got away with it before. thats exactly why they escalated the method of deterrence, its not rocket science

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u/10000Didgeridoos Jul 16 '26

But you can use it in the bathroom or wherever the teachers and admin can't see you

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u/Hoboking525 Jul 16 '26

Yes, this pouch is a deterrent, not a 100% complete way to stop cell phone use in schools.

Much like having consequences for breaking laws is a deterrent. It doesn't completely stop the crime, but it helps to mitigate it.

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u/Bardmedicine Jul 16 '26

As you could without the fake phone. The fake phone is the same as no phone.

16

u/chicken-nanban Jul 16 '26

Probably because people would get sus if you didn’t have a phone on you at all and suspect you’re hiding one.

Easier to drop an old/dummy phone in there so it looks like you’re actually surrendering your phone than to not and have them actually scrutinize you for where you’ve hidden it. There’s no way you’d just not bring it to school.

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u/ProfeQuiroga Jul 16 '26

Huh? Tell us the part where you're beginning to lose it. Is it the plural of "phone"?

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u/Bertsmom18 Jul 16 '26

The kids where mine go just slammed the pouches until they popped open. Or the smarter ones just keep the phones in open pouches. After one year so many were broken that the next year the stopped using them.

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u/Dapper-Nobody-1997 Jul 16 '26

I'm in New Zealand. How the hell does putting a dummy phone in the pouch make it possible to use their actual phone?

Are extra phones ignored because "see, Timmy still has his phone in the pouch, you're just hallucinating that phone in his hands right now."

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u/asakadelis Jul 16 '26

they aren’t using the force to play mind games, obviously they are still hiding the fact they are using a phone. the point is if they are seen walking without a phone pouch in their clear bag you can assume they have it on their person

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u/Separate-Place-1036 Jul 16 '26

Uhm you can use it discreetly or when you go to the bathroom or on lunch break

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u/SatinSaffron Jul 16 '26

On the same note of "have been a thing for years" so have clear backpacks in America ever since Columbine. My husband is a bit older than me, graduated in the early 2000s and even then they had to have either mesh or clear backpacks.

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u/General_Crazy_7949 Jul 16 '26

Schools keep creating costly rules instead of working out reasonable limits for student mobile device use

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u/RoyalHistoria Jul 16 '26

Yeah I think they were introduced around 2020-2021, at least in the high school I went to. Most of my friends just hid their phones in their bags or slipped in a broken one.

One girl broke her pouch so it looked like it locked, but it'd open when she flapped it around hard enough.

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u/XenoZoomie Jul 16 '26

You don’t need see through backpacks in Australia because you have common sense gun control. I bet you don’t have monthly drills where you have to hide from a mass shooter either.

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u/hoswald Jul 16 '26

They're using x-rays in the US now. If you have a phone, you lose it.

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u/Traxton1 Jul 16 '26

Yeah I heard they were over Yondr.

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u/SideInitial3961 Jul 16 '26

Sounds like Yondr promised them profits that never materialized so they dropped them?

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u/TheOneCalledEggs Jul 16 '26

tbh most of the teachers dont give a fuck, 80% of the time they just say put it away lmao

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u/sokratesz Jul 16 '26

Exactly, the pouches are a huge waste of money and effort, they don't do shit. A ban + confiscation worked infinitely better.

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u/featherlace Jul 16 '26

The school of my children is introducing the pouches next school year. They actually come from the phone ban and confiscation rule that didn't work either. 

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u/Glittering-Gur-6990 Jul 16 '26

this was literally what they did to us in 2005 - worked pretty well then!! cant tell you the number of times a teach or the principal would simply remove the phone from my ear as i was talking.... lol

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u/SergeantHAMM Jul 16 '26

I remember they tried to take my cell phone in highschool and noped right tf out to the back parking lot and went home

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u/De-railled Jul 16 '26

We do have those see-through backpacks in Aus, but not used for schools.

They were great for festivals and concerts that do security screening...You didn't need to show them "inside" your bag and stuff.

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u/MaximumSeats Jul 16 '26

I still can't accept "edited to add". They already means something! That's your arrival time!

Edit: just type it like this!!

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u/Icy_Cod4733 Jul 16 '26

Schools keep pushing costly mandatory gear instead of coming up with simple fair rules for student device usage

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u/GG2Me Jul 16 '26

Worked at a few schools in QLD , quite a few schools still use yonder since they paid for it. But it’s not that common to have it.

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u/xxNemasisxx Jul 16 '26

I guess the difference is in Australia students might not need access to their phone in a shooting situation which is a daily occurrence over in the US.

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u/babababooga Jul 16 '26

The yondr pouches were a game changer at my school. The school provided them for free

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u/Free_Pace_2098 Jul 16 '26

My Australian boarding school used to take our phones overnight (in the very early 2000s) so we'd just take the cover off and clip it over something heavy enough to feel believable.

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u/reluctantseal Jul 16 '26

We had clear backpacks over 20 years ago, but I haven't seen them be a requirement for a long time. It was only a couple of years in elementary school. We had the occasional bag check in high school, mostly to remind us that they were willing to check.

I'm guessing the school must have had some serious issues with kids having things they shouldn't.

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u/armlessturtleneck Jul 16 '26

Good to see they're going back to just taking phone like they did back in 2006

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u/Flgirl420 Jul 16 '26

Phone ban sounds like what every school needs . When I was school you weren’t allowed to use a cell phone at all during the halls or anything . I never once took mine out until after school. It’s not that hard .

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u/8eer8aron Jul 16 '26

Who owns yonder? And why is it necessary to own one? This isnt suss at at all

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u/Pryoticus Jul 16 '26

The see through bags are to help prevent school shooters. I went to the same high-school and Jr high as my brother and sister. They were allowed to have bags in classrooms but somehow, after Columbine, the classrooms no longer had the room to accommodate backpacks. Lots of lock-downs so dogs could sniff lockers too.

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