Confiscating phones 'problematic' in class

Although canton Vaud has a rule of no cell phones in the classroom – teachers say the punishment of confiscating them is becoming highly problematic as the phone serves many uses.

Some schools will take a phone away for 24 hours for the first offence – but the confiscation time could be as much as a week for several violations. 

But phones today are not just phones, they’re also public transport travel cards, payment systems and parents use them to track their children. A feature they want and value, so they don’t want their children to be separated from them.

Last month a court in Fribourg backed a father whose child had had his phone confiscated for a week. The father, who doesn’t live his child, says not being able to communicate with them for a week is unreasonable. 

A judge agreed and called the lengthy ban ‘unreasonable’. 

The court referred to rules in some German speaking cantons, such as Zurich, Solothurn and Basel-Country, that state the phone can only be seized during the school day and for a maximum of half a day. 

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