Victim’s mum backs move to lock up phones

Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey (inset), has urged Cheshire schools to take advantage of new £150,000 funding to lock phones away during the day

- BY GARY PORTER

MOBILE phones could soon be locked away during the day in every state high school in Cheshire - a move that is being backed by the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey.

The new initiative is being led by Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Dan Price who wants Cheshire to be the first county in the UK where all state high schools have lockable phone pouches.

And he’s backing it with a funding plan of up to £150,000.

Only nine of the county's mainstream high schools have introduced lockable phone pouches. While many schools have ‘out of sight’ mobile bans, these can be ineffective or difficult to enforce.

According to the Cheshire PCC (pictured right), schools with lockable pouches are seeing immediate, widespread, positive results in wellbeing and a dramatic reduction in online safeguarding incidents - one quoting an 80 per cent reduction in these.