Notice to Parents Regarding the Prohibition of Students Bringing Mobile Phones to School

Dear Parents:

Hello!

With the rapid development of modern technology, mobile phones have become increasingly intelligent. In addition to basic functions such as making calls and sending text messages, functions such as internet access, QQ chat, WeChat, online games, listening to music, and watching movies have become commonplace in people's lives. These entertainment functions can easily captivate students, even to the point of obsession. As students, they should focus their main energy on their studies. A good campus atmosphere is an important guarantee for students' normal studies and healthy growth. Mobile phones are a major contributing factor to illegal and criminal activities and various other bad behaviors among minors. For students, mobile phones are a source of numerous problems. The main harms are as follows:

1、 Distraction, decline in academic performance.

Surveys have found that most students with mobile phones have the habit of playing with their phones during class. Students exchange text messages with each other during class, and even spend the few minutes between classes playing with their phones; the habit of relying on mobile phones quickly forms. If they receive provocative or sexually suggestive messages, students will find it difficult to remain calm and their emotions will fluctuate greatly. Some students do not turn off their phones during class but put them on vibrate; once a call comes in, they often want to answer but dare not, constantly thinking about their phones and thus unable to concentrate on their studies, seriously affecting their academic performance.

2、 Cheating in exams, undermining exam discipline and atmosphere, affecting normal learning.

Exams are an important means of testing students' learning outcomes. However, some students bring their mobile phones into the examination room and directly search for answers or essay examples online; some even send answers via text message, falsifying information, deceiving parents and teachers, and creating unfair and inaccurate exam results. Because they have expectations of cheating, students do not need to study hard, seriously affecting the school's learning atmosphere.

3、 Proliferation of harmful information, detrimental to personal growth.

Pornographic websites, videos, and other harmful information on mobile phones seriously affect the physical and mental health of students who are not yet worldly-wise. Some students are greatly affected by pornographic videos and harmful information on their phones, experiencing significant emotional fluctuations, difficulty concentrating, and a sharp decline in academic performance. Some students even engage in misconduct and illegal activities, eventually going down the path of crime.

4、 Violation of school rules, affecting teachers' teaching.

Students generally carry their mobile phones with them. In class, some students receive several text messages in a single class and cannot concentrate on listening. Occasionally, a phone rings, not only affecting the learning of other students but also disrupting the teachers' teaching and the normal teaching order of the school.

5、 Making bad friends, leading to emotional conflicts.

Mobile phones are an important tool for communication and contact. After students get mobile phones, their social circle expands rapidly. Some students not only interact frequently within the school but also have contact with many bad teenagers in society. Conflicts arise between boys and girls due to jealousy, leading to fights; inappropriate interactions between male and female students lead to "early love," with mobile phones acting as accomplices and providing convenient conditions.

6、 Frequent use of mobile phones harms both body and mind.

Mobile phones mainly use radio waves to function. The radio waves transmitted by mobile phones are more or less absorbed by the human body, posing certain health risks. Junior high school students are in their growth and development period, and many of their bodily functions are not yet fully developed. Mobile phone radiation affects the physical development of adolescents, leading to a significant decline in comprehension, reaction, and memory; it also causes hearing loss, sleep disturbances, psychological irritability, and a series of physical problems such as decreased vision.

7、 Carrying mobile phones leads to a series of safety problems.

Some students play with their mobile phones on their way home, not paying attention to pedestrians and vehicles, easily causing traffic accidents. This also provides opportunities for criminals, who may deceive, beat, or rob students. Some students also use mobile phones to gather classmates and invite idle people to fight, seriously violating rules and laws. The widespread use of mobile phone chargers has caused some circuits to be overloaded, leading to short circuits. Some students illegally connect power sources in their dormitories to charge their phones, easily causing electric shocks and fires, posing a great safety risk to the school.

8、 Mobile phone expenses, extravagance and waste.

Some students spend dozens to hundreds of yuan a month on mobile phones. Students have no income, and all expenses are provided by their parents; they do not spend money on learning materials but waste it on mobile phones.

9、 Showing off and comparison, fostering hedonistic thoughts.

Students without mobile phones envy those with mobile phones, and those with mobile phones envy those with higher-end mobile phones. As a result, showing off and comparison are prevalent among students, causing great difficulties for financially strapped parents. Students who cannot afford mobile phones feel conflicted and painful, believing that society is unfair. They may vent their unhappiness and resentment towards the school and society, ranging from truancy and disciplinary violations to crimes.

1 0、Mobile internet access, difficult to prevent.

Students' addiction to the internet has always been a headache for teachers and parents. Online games and online chats attract young people like magnets. Although the state explicitly prohibits minors from entering internet cafes, mobile internet access makes it difficult for society and parents to prevent this. Nowadays, students can chat online anytime and anywhere without having to go to internet cafes. In their dormitories, some students hide under their blankets at night to send and receive text messages, read novels, and play games, staying up all night, seriously affecting their health and the rest of others.

Given the negative impacts and serious harm of students using mobile phones, our school has long stipulated that students are not allowed to bring mobile phones, MP3s, and other video and audio electronic products to school. This regulation has been strongly supported and cooperated with by the vast majority of parents and students, but some students and parents still lack awareness of this, and the phenomenon of students bringing mobile phones to school still occurs from time to time. Therefore, after careful consideration, the school has decided to further strengthen education for students and also stipulates that: Any student bringing prohibited items such as mobile phones and MP3 players to school will have their items confiscated and registered by the school for safekeeping. This will be considered a serious disciplinary violation, and according to the "Disciplinary Education and Management Regulations for Students", the student will be dealt with by "suspension for reflection or probation". If a similar incident occurs again, the student will be sent home by their parents for education (and procedures for withdrawal or transfer will be handled). To ensure smooth communication between students and parents, the school has published the phone numbers of administrative leaders, homeroom teachers, and dormitory teachers. Parents can call at any time. A parent WeChat group has been established for each class, allowing parents and teachers to contact each other at any time. The school has installed more than 100 IC card public telephones in student dormitories, teaching areas, student activity and rest areas, and guard rooms, fully meeting the needs of students to contact their parents.                  

  Thank you sincerely for your understanding and support!

Yingcheng Huamo Foreign Language School

May 22, 2019

A mother gave her child entering the first year of junior high school a mobile phone. It started with selfies, then WeChat, online chatting, Douyin, and finally, the child, alone in their room, would dress up as an adult and take indecent videos to satisfy the desires of some pedophiles. The situation involved pornography and illegal activities. By the time the mother discovered it, the child was already beyond help.

The mother, of course, was heartbroken, self-blaming, repentant, and distraught, saying that Douyin ruined her child. But I want to say that as long as the child has a mobile phone, even without Douyin, there is Kuaishou, there are games like King of Glory, WeChat, other games, online novels, and pornographic videos.

It's not Douyin that ruined the child, but rather the irresponsible parents who bought a mobile phone for their underage child.

01 Let me tell you three stories that happened around me.

Xiaowen, a junior high school student, has a five-year-old brother. Because her mother is busy with work and taking care of her brother, she entrusted Xiaowen to her elderly grandparents.

The grandparents are not in poor economic condition, the child is well-fed and cared for. The grandparents both have mobile phones, but the child said that in order to easily video call her mother every night, she wanted a mobile phone, of course, repeatedly promising not to play with it during school hours.

Other people's children are good, One's own child is the best. 。 Looking at her daughter's eager eyes, the mother hesitated for a moment and agreed to her daughter's request.

Although the homeroom teacher repeatedly emphasized that mobile phones should not be allowed, the parent and child conspired to deceive the teacher. A student with average grades often dozed off in class, causing their grades to plummet.

One day, a police officer from the community police station came to the school to inquire about the situation. This matter was certainly serious. It turned out that Xiaowen secretly chatted with a man in his thirties from Shandong every night after school while doing her homework, and after gradually getting closer, she foolishly revealed her real name, school, address, and phone number.

The man transferred 1314 yuan to Xiaowen on May 20. The man's wife happened to see the chat records. She posted screenshots on Weibo, saying that a certain junior high school student Xiaowen from a certain place had an unusual relationship with her husband, and the chat records were explicit and inappropriate.

The online views reached millions, alarming the local public security bureau, which immediately instructed the local police station to thoroughly investigate the matter. At first, the child repeatedly denied it, but finally, in the face of irrefutable evidence, she wept and said that she was also a victim. After the other party transferred her 1314 yuan, he asked her to go to a hotel, and then she blocked him.

Let's assume that Xiaowen's statement is correct, but to get the other party to transfer 1314 yuan, how explicit must the chat have been! The police officers paid the 1314 yuan to the other party on the spot, and the other party agreed to delete the post.

02

Li Muzi, a very excellent boy, 20 In 2016, he successfully passed the entrance examination for a very good key high school in the local area, a rural family, celebrating the good news.

But during the summer vacation after the high school entrance examination, the child became addicted to online games, constantly pestering his parents to buy him a mobile phone, otherwise he would go on a hunger strike, skip school, and rebel.

The routine was still to guarantee that he would not play with the phone during study time, almost writing a blood oath with a severed finger.

Concerned teachers, relatives, and friends all advised against indulging the child, but the parents still had a fluke, perhaps the child could control himself.

The child happily went to high school with a new mobile phone. In the first semester, he lost control. The 1.9-meter-tall child, his mother wanted to manage him, but he would retort after only a couple of sentences of persuasion and education; physical restraint was not an option, the child could easily push his mother over with a slight push; cutting off food and supplies, the mother couldn't bear it. It's not that poor families can't produce outstanding children, but that poor families have weaker awareness of rules, most children from poor families lack self-discipline, and most parents from poor families are too indulgent.

Seeing the deteriorating relationship with his mother, the grandmother was asked to take care of him, hoping that the child might be slightly grateful, might have a slight change of heart, wake up in time, and turn back from the wrong path, but no.

Then, barely finishing the first semester of high school, at the end of the first year, he resolutely refused to go to school, saying he wanted to work. He tried working, but returned home in less than a week, unable to endure the long hours and high intensity of a blue-collar worker.

Then he wasted a year in his second year of high school, and now he has completely stopped going to school and stays at home. Other children in the same grade are studying hard for next year's college entrance examination, while the 1.9-meter-tall child is at home eating and playing games, sleeping when tired. His nearly seventy-year-old grandfather is working at a construction site.

Whose fault is it?

03

Fan Zhe, a very excellent child in the class, Ranked first in the class when he entered the third year of junior high school, a well-behaved child in the eyes of teachers and parents.

His mother is a primary school teacher, and his father is a junior high school chemistry teacher. A family of scholars, such good learning resources and environment.

In the three months leading up to the junior high entrance examination, the student's grades plummeted; he fell asleep in class and felt drowsy while doing homework. Initially, it was thought to be due to academic stress. After a consultation with all the teachers, targeted guidance was provided. Even the top student in the class was struggling. How should the class morale be improved?

A turning point came during a math exam, when the child surprisingly wrote four unrelated words, "martial arts secret manual," in the margins of the math paper. Naturally, the math exam was a complete disaster.

Combining this with his drowsiness in class and the inexplicable words on the exam paper, an immediate and thorough search of his bag and room was conducted. A mobile phone was finally discovered under the bedsheet.

In such an environment, to be honest, most teachers wouldn't dare to physically punish a child. But his father is a chemistry teacher, and in his anger and frustration, punishment was inevitable.

The truth was finally revealed: the child had used his Lunar New Year red envelopes to buy a mobile phone. Every night, after completing his homework under his parents' watchful eyes, he would return to his room and continue reading e-novels until one or two in the morning, or even three or four. Of course, he also chatted and played games.

Strong measures were needed to address the problem. Fortunately, the issue was discovered three months before the junior high entrance examination; otherwise, even if the teachers had tried their best, they might not have been able to substantially change his fate.

Firstly, the child himself had good aptitude and foundation; secondly, he was under constant, 360-degree supervision. The child finally succeeded in making a comeback in the junior high entrance examination.

However, the child's parents and teachers later reflected on how frightening it was. If this gifted child's problem hadn't been discovered in time, what would have happened?

The child's parents are both teachers who understand education, and their guidance and discipline should have been quite adequate.  

But for ordinary families, especially those with left-behind children, how many children with promising futures are ruined by the small screen of a mobile phone if they lack self-control?