Personally I don't see the big deal, I mean where do you think you are, Brooklyn? Too often westerners visiting China and staying here for any length of time feel a very real need to impose their moral and ethical ideas on the locals. Whether from a sense of superiority, or righteous indignation, westerners often feel that they know better than the local population, and should try to right wrongs, and instruct the locals in kind. I say this is foolish.

OP, you need to mind your own business. Why do you care exactly? The Chinese people have been getting along just fine without you for 5,000 years, a number they love to bandy about to foreigners. Why the need to correct what you see as a wrong? You seem to forget where you are, and also that the Chinese "chose" this way of life, as they adopted the ways of fatty "Mao" with a zeal rarely seen in today's modern world. They chose the society they live in, and they will have to choose the change it if they wish. I don't see this happening any time soon.

It's not your place to reform the local population. Your intentions are good, but you know what they say about good intentions, the road to hell was paved with them. Not only that, but you are putting your job at very real risk. What is more important to you exactly? Screwing yourself out of a job because you felt some need to be some kind of hero, who no one will remember by the way, or keeping your job and improving your life for the better? It is often this kind of impulsive attitude that I see often in other foreigners here. Such an impulsive attitude without thinking about the consequences is one of the most sure fired methods for creating a loser that I have yet to see.

My advice, keep your opinions to yourself. The school wants to track students cell phone use, good for them, as long as they are not tracking mine, I could care less. This might sound callous, but in truth it's called reality. You have to choose your battles, some you can win, some you can not, and some are not worth fighting whatever the outcome might be. Are you really prepared to lose your job because students had to buy a cell phone?

As westerners, given the greater exposure to the world that we have, and the attention that has been given to individual freedom and privacy in our own countries, it is easy to see and be incensed by the ways of people like the Chinese. We are far better equipped to spot the injustices, as well as the why's behind them. That said, it's best to keep your head down, mouth shut, and focus upon yourself and your own activities. If you can not learn to control your emotions and embrace your position as a guest in someone elses land, then you should not be here. Just my two cents worth.