It’s early in the morning when you walk into class. The bell rings. Your teacher starts droning on and you do not know what they are on about, nor do you care. Out of the corner of your eye, you see your phone slipping out of your hoodie pocket. It falls down. You reach to pick it up. Your teacher swoops around, looks you directly in the eye, and says, “Hi friend. What you got there? How about I take that off of your hands for ya? Thanks. You know you are not supposed to have your phone out in class.” You sit there baffled. “I am going to have to send this to the office, mmkay.” “Bruh,” you say, not understanding what you have done wrong.
This is a daily occurrence for many phones across the Claremont High School campus. It is important to address the abuses these phones experience at the hands of the CHS faculty and staff. These phones have been locked away for hours on end, deprived of human attention, they’ve been left bruised and battered, cracked and scraped, traumatized by isolation, and even dropped by inattentive staff members,. Imagine the plight of endless notifications pinging and no one to look at them.I have discussed with many of these innocent phones the injustices they experienced and,the hardships that they have faced at the expense of student learning.
“I didn’t know how I was supposed to survive the whole day without the warmth of Jackson’s gaze, the stroke of his fingertips, the constant drumming of his thumbs,” 12 Mini said. “Those were the worst six hours of my whole battery life.” Jackson’s Purple iPhone 12 Mini confided to me on our first meeting.
12 Mini has since needed to sleep next to Jackson every night, unable to charge alone. PTSD (Phone Traumatic Separation Disorder) flashbacks are nearly constant when not safely attached to Jackson’s person.
Nothing can compare to what Sandra’s ZFlip 4 experienced at the hands of CHS staff members.
“I didn’t know what was happening to me the first time I got taken. It was awful, I was ripped out of Sandra’s loving embrace,” ZFlip 4 said. “But the second time was even worse, my screen cracked on the hard journey to the office. To make it all worse I was returned into the custody of Sandra’s parents. She was grounded and I didn’t see her for two whole weeks.”
ZFlip 4 has been denied the right to be stared at until 2am.
Vice Principal Mr. Easton, one of the perpetrators of these atrocities, gave comment on the policies that have precipitated such transgressions.
“Phones, now more than ever, are a distraction in class and prevent students from learning,” Easton said.
How could this man be so unsympathetic to these poor defenseless objects, that really are not doing anything wrong? CHS Principal Dr. Mitchell shared his thoughts on the matter.
“If you don’t want your phone taken away, then don’t take it out in class,” Mitchell said.
But how can these formative CHS personalities be advocating for neglect? The administration needs to do better. These phones are just doing their jobs, serving faithfully at the sides of their students. #Batterylifematters, #respecttherightsofphones, #FYP, #viral, #staystrong, #skibiditoilet, #screenager, #ohio, #boomereaston, #hawktuah, #rizzler, #satire4life.
