School’s new cell phone policy goes viral

One school’s new cell phone policy has gone viral after a mom posted about it Friday afternoon.

Dr. Rachael French (@DrRachaelF) said in a now viral tweets that her daughter’s school released a new policy saying officials can read “any text messages between students, even after school hours.”

“Nopity nope nope,” she added to the tweet.

TODAY has reached out to French for further comment. We will update this post if she gets back to us. French is a professor of biology at San Jose State University in San Jose, California.

Within less than 24 hours, the tweet circulated social media, garnering more than 200,000 likes and over 17,000 retweets.

“Me to my daughter: ‘Your phone is my personal property. If someone asks to read your texts, you tell them to call me and ask,'” French said in a response tweet.

The post received an array of reactions, with some agreeing with the mom that the policy is an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, several Twitter users responded saying the rule provides an additional level of safety for school-age children.

Replying to those with the latter concern, French tweeted, “People, if a child is being cyberbullied and someone told them to kill themselves, the emergency is making sure that child is safe, not immediately figuring out who to punish.”

One person responded to her initial tweet: “Why is there a need for children to have phones during the school day? They should be handed in at the start of the day and collected at home time. Simple. They need to be focused on their work not texting or playing games. Get ready for the world of work!”

another added, “Have you heard about all the recent school shootings? But by all means, let’s take away the only thing a child has to contact 911 and their parents. The world of work now includes phones because it is 2022. Simple.”