Dad Takes a Hammer to Teen's Cell Phone Over $5K Bill
Dena, a 13-year-old from Cheyenne, Wyoming, incurred the wrath of her father after she rang up a $4,756.25 cell phone bill, which included over 10,000 text messages. The family didn't have a text messaging plan. To make matters worse, most of the messages appeared to be sent during school hours. On one day in particular, Dena sent over 300 texts during the eight-hour school day. Needless to say, this had an effect on Dena's grades, which went from A's and B's to F's.
After seeing the bill, Dena's father Gregg took his aggression out on the teen's handset -- with a hammer.
Now sans cell phone, Dena has pulled her grades back up, and we're quite impressed with Gregg's restraint. If we got a $5,000 cell phone bill, we'd probably smash a lot more than our daughter's phone. [From: Denver Post/9News, Via: Textually]
Teen Texting Craziness
Syracuse University professor Laurence Thomas made news last year for walking out of the classroom whenever his students disobeyed his "no texting in class" rule. Wouldn't the kind of student who would text in class be happy to have class canceled?
In January, 13-year-old Californian Reina Hardesty sent 14,528 text messages from her cell phone. Fortunately for her daddy, he had her on an unlimited text plan.
Two high school cheerleaders in Seattle were suspended from school in December when school officials found out that they had taken nude pictures of themselves on their cell phones and, mistakenly or not, wound up with them circulating through the football locker room. The girls' parents have filed suit against the school. You'd think they would just let the embarassment die quietly.
In December, while on a class trip (according to an Internet rumor anyway), the above message appeared on 18-year-old Elizabeth Frisinger's phone after mistakenly texting her dad, back home in Cleveland, that she'd just lost her virginity. Whoops!
Outdoing Reina Hardesty, 15-year-old Ohioan Paige Hornev averages 15,000 text messages a month. That comes out to the impressive, or pitiful, average of 500 text messages a day.
Thinking about Emily Jenning's texting abilities just makes our thumbs hurt. The Vancouver, British Columbia teen pumped out an absurd 41,600 text messages in the course of a single month -- we did some quick calculations and that works out to about one text every minute.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Michael said 8:17PM on 4-09-2009
"Now sans cell phone, Dena has pulled her grades gone back up"
Is it just me, or is that retarded?
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SlidesOffTheMoon said 2:04AM on 4-10-2009
lmao..... I thought it was me at first I had to reread that. I feel my I.Q. drop 10 points.
John said 2:35AM on 4-10-2009
That's what happens when you text and blog.
franco said 10:21PM on 4-11-2009
maybe by "sans cell phone" they mean "without a cellular". That's my best explanation
John said 10:54PM on 4-14-2009
Please tell me you guys know that "sans" is french for "without"? People use it in English for emphasis. Careful with those 10 IQ points, you may need them :-)
Nick said 7:41PM on 4-17-2009
John, I believe Michael had a problem with "Dena has pulled her grades gone back up" rather than "sans." It looks like the author has cleaned up the flub, though, since by the time I looked at this article, it read "Now sans cell phone, Dena has pulled her grades back up..."
Level 5 said 8:55PM on 4-09-2009
Kids don't deserve phones. Period. Furthermore, carriers need to give account holders the option of preventing ANY AND ALL texts from being sent to or sent from the device. There, perfect. Little Dena no longer is ABLE to dick off during class. It's so ridiculous that this isn't in place from a carrier standpoint; which they'd NEVER allow total SMS blocking because it's so much money into thier pocket.
Pathetic parents raising pathetic kids, using pathetic cell phones on pathetic cell carriers.
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Michelle said 11:38PM on 4-09-2009
The good ones do offer the text blocking feature.
azlady1996 said 12:48AM on 4-10-2009
You need to check your facts. Most all of the cell phone companies do offer the ability to block messaging. But people also need to take responsibility for their actions when using a cell phone.
Level 5 said 5:28AM on 4-10-2009
Well if carriers do allow total SMS blocking then I'm mistaken. I've tried this with Sprint a while back (since I was getting alot of spam texts for a time and didn't want to have to e-mail all my clients a new cell #), and the first thing they did was try to offer me an unlimited SMS plan. I already had that; so I'm not positive that they were really on the ball, most CSR's I've encountered with Sprint surely are not. Luckily it all became a moot point as I don't get any of these texts anymore, still.
The whole point is that there need to also be devices that can easily have the SMS feature blocked in menus, as in there is no way to access any sort of texting features. It simply would not be there. Most of these young kids have phones at a young age for either emergencies or so their parents can be able to get a hold of them easier. But kids are kids here, and I realize no amount of parenting can 100% assure that someone's child won't do something they're not supposed to. That's why as a parent, they've got to just step it up. If any parent thinks for a SECOND that kids don't fire off rapid texts 24 hours a day, they're an idiot; I even manage to send over 1,000 a month and I'm in an office 50+ hours a week. Do some kids refrain? Oh yeah sure, but with unlimited SMS a mere $20 per account each month, why risk getting a $5k bill when all they'd have to do is flip the switch and boom, no risk on the SMS portion.
I dunno, parents don't enforce the rules, plain and simple. Making adjustments to the phone accounts is IMO part of enforcing said rules. When I was a kid, I knew if I had a cell/pager in school, I could be expelled for it, or if I had a nice teacher/faculty member catch me with it, I'd at least have it taken away. And guess what? I never used them in school, and kept them hidden on my person. My parents made me promise that I'd only use it for certain things; and call me crazy but my folks brought me up well enough to respect their wishes. I never ever got my cell or pager (it was the 90s, pagers were in style) taken away. It's all about the parenting. Lazy people just need to step it up. If the kid dicks off anyway, then she needs to babysit her little heart away all summer and school year weekends to pay me back that $5k.
bobpell said 9:07PM on 4-09-2009
That comes out to 41.6 hours of texting if you assume the average time was 15 seconds each message. That equals 1 full work week in a month's time. I think a foot in the ass would also help.
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J said 9:25PM on 4-09-2009
Pay as you go phones. My oldest child has one and when she runs out of minutes, she's out a phone until payday again. And my payday is once a month. Then, when she has minutes again, I lock her phone and I have my number as an emergency contact so she can only call me. She can still receive calls from friends, but, she can't text either.
Level 5: I kind of agree, except, now kids can go anywhere and I'm the type that likes to keep tabs on my children, unlike some parents.
So, my girl has a phone--might look into one with GPS now so I can KNOW where she is.
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Dave said 9:37PM on 4-09-2009
J - " So, my girl has a phone--might look into one with GPS now so I can KNOW where she is."
geez, that will help.
Over-parenting, a sure way to push your kids into rebellion.
How about building trust from an early age and give them the chance to learn from mistakes. I guess if you screwed that up, there is no other choice than to over-parent. But rest assurred, when they earn the freedom through age, it will not be a good path they take, usually.
J said 9:58PM on 4-09-2009
Better than under-parenting.
Have a sister-in-law that could care less what her children are doing. Her oldest is in the same grade as my oldest and he's anti-social, has awful grades, has been in ISS soooooo many times and her youngest (who is 2 years younger than her brother) is already a slut, like her mother. So, you tell me which is better, under-parenting or over-parenting. At least I care enough to KNOW what my children are doing, what their grades are, who their friends are, etc....
She is learning to not to use her cell so much tho. She keeps using her minutes up within 3 days of getting them uploaded. That's 27 days, or so without a phone!
Ayesha said 9:04AM on 4-11-2009
Ouch. As a teen with a phone reading everyone's messages hurts. I am an A+ student and I am going to enter college as a second semester Junior. AT 17!!! Not all of us adolescents text. I have a cell phone and I only text rarely to my dad when he is in a meeting and I need to tell him something important.
But on to the topic I was going to mention. The whole over-parenting idea, its great… until you push your kid over the edge. Parents need to know when too far is Too Far. The GPS thing is ridiculous. The reason your teen/child is rebelling is probably because they don’t want people breathing down their necks 24/7. And with under-parenting, they are crying out for attention. Parents as the intelligent adults they think they are, need to find the balance. Times have changed people, come out of the Dark Ages.
jay said 1:12AM on 4-12-2009
Both of my children started with pre-paid phones it allowed them to understand how much time spent their cells is goign ot cost them, they had to go in and pay the bill ( I had to take them) but it was their responcibility to deal with the people at verizon. They both have a regular play now and do extra chores to earn the $10 that it cost me. They also know that I have the right at any time to open it up and see what and when they are texting. When my son started driving he had to text me to tell me he got to school safely, but for only the first month now he jsut texts me to let me know if he wont be home when he said he was going to be. Its about trust and respect which goes both ways. My daughter isnt in high school yet so she only takes her phone to school if she knows that shes going to need it after school or on a field trip. I lucky both of my kids understand the value of a dollar and that trust and respect are something that if they give it to me i will give it to them. its all about finding a balance in over parenting and under parenting, I agree that over parenting only leads to kids who will rebel and sneak around to get there privacy, and that under parenting is nothing more then jsut parents be lazy.
MadMike said 10:32PM on 4-09-2009
Thank God my daughter is only 2. :-)
She isn't getting a cell phone until she turns 35!
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mikey said 10:49PM on 4-09-2009
Dave seems when we were youths our parents knew everywhere we were and most of us turned out fine. Thats one of the biggest problems nowdays, let them run and learn someone will look out for them my job is being the best friend not parent. We see everyday how that one worked out.
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jeremy said 12:28AM on 4-10-2009
@ J
my daughter is isn't old enough for a phone (17 months) but i can assure you and everyone else i'll be the dad that treats a phone as a privilege and not a hook up tool... good job!
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azlady1996 said 11:03PM on 4-30-2009
This bill is partly the parent's fault. I work for one of the major cell phone companies. ALL companies provide you several options to keep track of usage on a phone during the bill cycle. If people would take two seconds to utilize these options, they stop a lot of the larger than government deficit bills they receive. Some companies also offer the option to block messages. Just because you don't have a package that allows so many messages for one price, doesn't mean your phone doesn't have the ability. Also if you would take the time to read the literature, the contract and everything you are given when you open a line, there would be a lot less yelling at me when the bills come each month. When you call in to yell at me about charges that you didn't use>>remember our systems track that and we know you did. This family is lucky the company was willing to work with them. I wouldn't have.
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