Cell Phone Ban: The Big Lie

Last week at my English academy, where a cell phone ban was enacted at the beginning of the semester (see old posts), I happened to see a group of boys, maybe 5th grade level, huddled around another boy who was sitting on a chair in the hallway.

Based on past experience at the academy, there is usually only one reason for such a physical grouping: they were watching another boy play a phone game.

Since I wasn't sure what was happening, however, I wandered over and, as the one boy made to hide something in his pocket, gave them a warning: "No cell phones are allowed to be used in the school.  If I see you using a cell phone I will take it, ok?"

Nods all around.

End of action.

Or so I thought.  About 5 minutes later--when I was walking to another classroom, I happened to see the same boys in their classroom engaged in the same type of huddled activity.

I entered the classroom and held out my hand.

The boy whose hand was hidden under his bookbag on his desk started to make an excuse, but I just said, "Cell phone please" and he reluctantly handed it over.

Without another word I took it to the front desk and put it away in a drawer.  A short while later, when I saw our school director, I informed her briefly about what had happened.  Since this was a Thursday, and the rule is that the cell phone would be kept at the school until the next class, in this case Tuesday (unless the boy's parents came by to pick it up), I wanted the director to be prepared for any potential complaints.

A few hours later, as we all prepared to go home for the night, my director mentioned that the boy had stopped by the desk to pick up his cell phone before he went home.

"He did what?" I asked, a bit surprised.

"Didn't you tell him that he could claim his phone before he went home?"

"No," I replied, "I didn't tell him anything.  I just confiscated his phone."

"Oh," she said.  "Well, in that case he lied to me.  But I asked him about it and told him that if he was lying I would confiscate his phone when he comes back next Tuesday."

I forgot about the little drama until Tuesday night rolled around and my director was sitting at the front desk.  She held up a cell phone and said, "I took that boy's cell phone.  He started to say that maybe there had been a misunderstanding because of language . . ."

"Like maybe he didn't understand my warning?  But he felt he had to hide his phone?" I replied, a bit sarcastically.

Later I thought, what if this boy was smart enough to know that:

a) having a phone confiscated for 2 days (Tuesday to Thursday) was not as painful as having one confiscated for 5 days (Thursday to Tuesday)

and

b) bold/dishonest/attached enough to lie about what had happened?

Hmmm . . . maybe we have a politician/celebrity in-the-making.