LMMS Students & Families –
There has been a significant increase in the number of students who are wearing earbuds and AirPods to LMMS. We are seeing these items while students walk to and from class, and in many instances, during class without the teacher’s permission. AirPods, for example, are being worn by students with long hair and out of view of the teacher, placed in ears to listen to music, or connect wirelessly to a game on a laptop while the teacher is instructing. When asked, students often remove their AirPods and earbuds, but the next day – there they are again.
Becoming even more of a problem is that students are losing these expensive AirPods and asking for our help in locating them, and even requesting our help in “tracking the lost device down” when other students pick them up and they can see via technology where their device is located – – Often not telling their parents or guardians so they will not get in further trouble.
While I understand that lots of students love to listen to music, we have a responsibility to ensure that our students are engaged in the learning activities provided to them throughout the day. Students are engaged in learning for about six hours a day, and continually asking them to remove earbuds and AirPods during all classes and during all passing periods becomes quite a task. In addition, parents are often calling the school and upset when a child misplaces them or they are stolen.
Starting Monday, January 9th, students are only permitted to wear wired headphones or larger wireless headphones – A pair of wired headphones will be supplied to all students that need them. This means that on Monday, January 9th no type of AirPods, earbuds, etc. will be permitted at any time in school.
In the event a student is wearing AirPods or earbuds, any staff member has the right to confiscate the item. The item will be securely placed in our LMMS office and we will follow
our phone/earbud confiscation policy:
1st offense- Warning
2nd offense- Confiscate & student pick-up at the end of the day
3rd offense- Confiscate & parent pick-up at the end of the day & the student calls home
4th offense- Confiscate & parent pick-up at the end of the day & administration calls home to assign other progressive discipline (after-school detentions, etc.)
We appreciate the support of our LMMS community regarding this new policy! If a student has a specific question regarding their headphones, they can stop by the main office or ask a staff member!
*Students were given examples of acceptable and unacceptable earbuds in a Schoology update today