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« 

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u/TheMaidenOfDragons Jul 16 '26

Genuine question - I guess I’m confused because I haven’t been in middle school in almost two decades, but phones have never been allowed to be used during school.

Why can’t the old rules still work? If a teacher sees you with your phone, they send you to the office. The punishments escalate from there.

I just really don’t understand how capitalism needed to be inserted in this equation by charging to lock phones up.

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u/HawaiiLife745 Jul 16 '26

It comes down to an issue of scale. 10 years ago, the number of students who had a cellphone was a fraction of what it is now, and the number of students who were bold enough to use them during school was a fraction of that.

Now, if every teacher properly punished every student who ever used their phones during class, the system would get clogged. There simply isn't enough man-hours to call every parent, write every incident report, and verbally scold every student.

I'm not saying this is the way things should be, but it is a reality in a large number of schools.

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u/Soft_Phrase_7961 Jul 16 '26

As someone who recently graduated, my teachers kept a “phone jail” at the front of the class that they used to take attendance. If your phone wasn’t there, then you were marked absent unless you had a genuine reason why you didn’t have it.

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u/Zula13 Jul 16 '26

In my state a student getting marked absent affects the school for funding and optics, but has zero consequences or impact on the student.

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u/TheMaidenOfDragons Jul 16 '26

I went to school in Nebraska and if you had too many “absences” excused or otherwise the court system would get involved after a time.

Being marked absent when you’re actually there just seems like lying to be able to punish.

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u/Soft_Phrase_7961 Jul 16 '26

In mine, an absence has the most impact on the student, but I completely understand why this wouldn’t be a solution in your state.