Teenager joins legal action to get phones banned in schools across England
Two fathers who want to legally challenge government guidance on phones in schools have gained significant new support after a teenager and a mother of three joined the planned protest.
Flossie McShea, 17, and Katie Moore, 43, have added their support to Will Orr-Ewing and Pete Montgomery’s request for a judicial review to ban smartphones in schools altogether.
Ms McShea, who joined as a plaintiff, said she felt the Department for Education (DfE) had failed to protect her and her other children from the harm phones could cause during school hours.
He said using a smartphone “completely changed my life from year 7 onwards.”
“I was exposed to pornography and violent videos, such as beheading videos. I was sent a video of two young children finding a gun and one of them accidentally shooting the other,” Ms. McShea said.
“I had to go home. Many similar events happened and many of my friends went through the same things.
“All of this happens at school because you can see the reactions live. We’re all gathered here, so people think it’s much more appealing to share these things online when you can get reactions from 30 kids in the classroom.”
“I think if I didn’t have a phone, and we didn’t have phones at school, I wouldn’t be exposed to things I wouldn’t want to be exposed to.”
Ms. McShea’s school has completely banned the use of smartphones in school buildings.
“I got on the school bus the other day and there was a group of 7th graders laughing and chatting together. I was so happy for them,” she said.
“We never experienced that because we were always looking down and scrolling.”
Northampton mother Miss Moore also joins the allegation after her daughter, now 18, said she was shown explicit images on phones in school changing rooms and was once exposed to a video of boys masturbating when another student entered the school video chat room.
She said it was “devastating” to hear what her daughter was exposed to online.
“As a parent, it has been exhausting raising teenagers in a world that pushes us towards and becomes dependent on technology,” Ms. Moore said.
She added that she tried to delay giving her daughter a smartphone for as long as possible, but felt pressure to give up even though all her peers had smartphones.
Ms Moore believes a full legal ban on phones in school is the only solution and said ‘out of sight’ policies on phone use in schools do not go far enough.
Mr Orr-Ewing and Mr Montgomery, who are both parents of school-age children, wrote to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in July saying they intended to challenge the mandatory school phone ban, which was not included in safeguarding guidance for schools.
They continue the forensic investigation under an organization they founded called Generation Alpha CIC.
Lawyers will submit documents to the Supreme Court on Monday.
Under the former Conservative government, schools were given illegal instructions aimed at stopping phone use during the school day.
A survey by the Children’s Commissioner earlier this year found that 90 per cent of secondary schools and 99.8 per cent of primary schools already had policies in place to stop phone use during the school day.
The majority of secondary schools surveyed (79 percent) allowed students to bring phones but said the phone should be kept out of sight and not in use. Only 3.5 percent said students were not allowed to bring phones to school.
In July, Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Orr-Ewing said they had filed a freedom of information request with schools about security incidents involving phones and social media. They found that in one school’s case, 55 incidents were referred to social services, 17 of which were reported to the police.
Mr Montgomery said removing smartphones from schools was a “no-brainer”.
“This has to be the easiest decision in the world for the government to make,” he added. “But they didn’t, so we have no choice but to go to court.”
A government spokesman said: “Phones have no place in our schools and leaders already have the power to ban them.
“We support headteachers to take the necessary steps, supported by clear guidance, to prevent disruption and also better protect children from harmful content through the Online Safety Act.”
