School submerges mobile phones to reinforce ban

A middle school in Dengfeng, Henan province, submerged 21 mobile phones in a basin of water on Monday in front of its 3,000 students and teachers, to reinforce to students to focus on their studies, Dahe Daily reported on Tuesday.

Many students complained to local media that their mobile phones had been confiscated in the past two weeks after the school banned their use in classrooms. "Why did they damage the phones bought by our parents? Did they have the right to do so?" the students asked.

However, the school explained that the phones put in water were not those confiscated from students but waste phones collected from the teachers, and the display was to reinforce the ban on students using mobile phones during school.