Cell Phone Policy Gone Awry

We have daily stupid issues with cell phones at my high school. The students can’t seem to get it that they should stay in their pockets during the day. Not smart enough.

One day, as I took a phone from a student, I came up with an impromptu incentive for the students to keep their phones out of sight. In the most sarcastic way possible, I told the student with the phone, “We’re going to play your favorite new game! You go out into the hallway. When you come back in, your phone will be hidden in the room in plain sight. You will have to search for it. Once you see the phone, you can’t touch it! You have to run back to your seat as fast as you can, and shout, ‘Huckle Buckle Beanstalk!’ The first person to find the phone, go back to their seat, and say that, will win a prize.”

“But Mr. ********, aren’t I the only one playing?” the student asks.

“Yes. So you want to be sure to be the first to find it.”

He was confused. So were the others in the room who weren’t laughing too hard.

“What’s the prize?” the student asks.

“Well,” I reply, “You’ll have your choice. The prize options include getting your phone back, a piece of candy, or a new set of markers.”

“I’m obviously going to pick my phone,” he states with an overconfidence in his ability to find the phone.

“You haven’t won yet. Have you?”

He reluctantly goes into the hall muttering something about the game being stupid as I hide his phone. The other students watch as he comes back in and begins the search.

A good fifteen minutes later of whining, looking, and being embarrassed, he spots the phone. A halfhearted “Huckle Buckle Beanstalk” comes out of his mouth from his seat.

“Not loud enough,” I say in the most condescending way imaginable.

He tries again, louder the second time. I offer him his prize options. He chooses his phone which stayed in his pocket for the rest of the year.

This becomes my new phone policy. Students have missed their bus, missed lunch, and cried while playing their favorite new game.