Denver public school to gather student cell phones during strike, email says
Students at Denver Discovery School will not have gain access to to their cellphones throughout the upcoming Denver instructors strike, according to an e-mail shared by a parent.
The email states, “Please do not bring knapsacks, binders or anything of worth,” and cautions that trainees will not have access to their lockers throughout the strike. Also, it says school authorities will collect mobile phones at the beginning of the day and return them at the end of the day “so that trainees don’t have to concern about loosing (sic) them.”
Denver Discovery School, a middle school located at 3480 Syracuse St., likewise published the message to its Facebook page, which a moms and dad took a screenshot of and shared before it was got rid of from the school’s page.
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“Are they going to school or prison?” asked JoyAnn Ruscha, a moms and dad of an eighth grade student at Denver Discovery School.
She said she feels like the most current relocation is an effort to make trainees feel bitter their instructors.
“What do you imply, ‘No binders enabled’? So my child can’t bring his Honors Algebra notes to school?” Ruscha asked. “My son has dyslexia — this is just going to induce stress and anxiety. Taking away cellphones and putting them in bags? This feels like a punitive punishment directed at our kids.”
Ruscha included that lots of of the older kids at the school take RTD buses, so she doesn’t comprehend how they can leave their knapsacks at house.
Denver Public Schools spokesperson Anna Alejo stated each school has its own policies, and “school leaders have the authority to decide what is in their trainees’ finest interest.”
According to Alejo, Principal Pam Kirk made the decision because the school’s policy is for students to keep their cellphones in their lockers. But because the school will have less instructors than normal, “the principal is looking into how finest to serve all of the students.”
One of the alternatives is that trainees will only have classes on the very first floor, so students who have lockers on the second flooring won’t be able to follow the regular policy, according to Alejo. The principal made this decision to prevent confusion related to which students have mobile phones in their lockers and which students have cellular phones in their backpacks, she said.
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association and Denver Public Schools’ most recent effort at contract negotiations on Saturday failed, and the union is planning to kick off its picketing at schools on Monday morning.
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