Should Students be Allowed to Have Cell Phones at School?

If Lily is found to have a cell phone at school, it will be confiscated.

We bought her the phone because she didn't feel safe at school. Although she's in a magnet program, it's within a larger school where it's not uncommon to have fights. One of the boys in the single-gender program was jumped by some girls in the general population, who beat him up under the guidance and direction of an older male student in a gang-initiation.

Her first day at school she got in the wrong place at the wrong time and didn't know where to go to get away from a fight that broke out between two older male students. The high school this middle school feeds into has a known and uncontrolled gang problem.

And even if the school were filled with pacifist cherubs, that doesn't mean that some crazy with a gun won't turn up and do what crazies with guns do. There is an armed guard, but it's a large campus.

I understand why schools don't want the students on phones. They can be disruptive, distracting and used for cheating. They can also be used in case of emergency.

I keep telling her to take it in spite of the rules and to keep it turned off and hidden. Being a good kid, she won't break the rules. I don't want to alarm her by telling her why I want her to do this, so I've backed off.

I wonder if there is a way that schools could accommodate cell phones by using permission to carry them as an incentive? If you're on honor roll, for instance, you can carry a phone that's turned off. You can turn it on after the final bell rings. During tests they'd sit on the teacher's desk, just to be sure.

If more students carried phones and used them legitimately, I think our schools could be safer.

And in a culture where it's not cool to be smart, maybe earning the ability to carry your phone would counter some of this destructive attitude.

What do you think?

Comments

[jae]

I think I agree with you. Part of me feels like the safety aspect is me overreacting, but having experienced the things we have in the last year -- I know better. Ours aren't supposed to have them at school either, but as long as they keep them turned off there doesn't seem to be a problem.

[Caleb Miles]

I think that cell phones should be allowed in school because there are a lot of people who have after school activities and if for some reason it was to got cancled they would have a phone to contact someone.

[Anwyn]

Ugh. Catch me sending my child to a school where I as the parent do not have the freedom to say what freedom of communication--with me!!--my child will have.

Of course, good luck to me *finding* the school that will give me that freedom.

[Caleb Miles]

I think that cell phones should be allowed in school because there are a lot of people who have after school activities and if for some reason it was to got cancled they would have a phone to contact someone.

[utech]

Completely agree with you. I think it should be taken a step further. Guns. I am NOT saying that children should be allowed to carry firearms, that would be illegal. But there should be trained staff/faculty that have firearms within the schools. For pretty much the same reasons that you gave for "law abiding" students to carry phones.

[Mellow (Angry's brother)]

(On behalf of Angry)
Mobile (Cell) phones are not allowed at school here in Aus either. However, Angry’s high school student takes hers, switches it off, leaves it in her locker and checks it during the day. Although her school policy is ‘no phones’ what she does is quite common practice, even to the point where one of her teachers asked her during class to go to her locker and call her father for some kind of info that was needed. Angry, in his role as School Council President some years ago, formulated school policy on mobiles for the Primary (Elementary) School that his youngest attends. He determined that the only appropriate line of communication from outside school to any child MUST be through the school office and either the Principle or the child’s teacher. The only appropriate communication from child to outside school, usually to a parent was to be via the same route through teacher or Principle.

But then we don’t have guards at our schools, let alone armed ones. I know Angry is passionate about gun control so I’ll leave it to him to discuss that some other time. There is certainly a much higher prevalence of school shooting in the US than here (than anywhere I think) but really, Utech, is encouraging more weaponry at schools by arming teachers a better option than effective gun control?

Big problem and difficult choices, good luck with it.

Cin-Cin

[Anne]

Mellow, you're new around here so I'll be gentle. The shooting last week was in a gun-free area. That means not even the guards have guns, if I understand it correctly. I'm afraid I'm with utech on this, if not worse. If I had greater confidence in the mental stability of our teachers, I'd say they all need to be armed. (Isn't that what they do in Israel?) But our teachers can't seem to keep their hands off their students. Every week it seems there's another attractive blond woman teachers on TV, dressed inappropriately for her court appearance, going on trial for charges of misconduct with young male students. I don't feel good about arming people with this kind of extremely poor judgment. However, surely a number of teachers and administrators at the schools have sense and should be given training and access to weapons.
I do believe lives would be saved.

[Tim]

I'm with you on the cell phones. Where I may have struggled with it 10 years ago, I'm all for it now. Kids need a safety net at school. The only one many can ever have is a cell phone call to Mom or Dad.

[Anwyn]

Only appropriate line of communication goes through the office? Sorry, no. My child has the right to be in touch with me at will without the say-so of other adults.

Now somebody should point me to the school that'll be on board with that policy. Argh.

[Liza's Eyeview]

I think the school should allow cell phones, turned off during classes but can be carried around on vibrate when on campus. It's for safety purposes. Many universities now use it as an alarm system to notify students if there are "emergencies" going on.

I suggest you write a very nice letetr to the school reminding them of the importance of this.

Our kids are just 9 and 10 years old. Initially, we were against buying them a cell phone but after much thoughts (and prayers) we realized it's now a safety device that we should take advantage of. We're buying them cellphones very soon. Most of their friends and classmates already have.

Incentive use only? That's inapprorpiate - it doesn't work that way. Every student should have teh right to carry a cell phone. They should think of other incentives, but cell phones should be for everyone. Now if someone abuses the use, then tha person can have the the consequence of not being allowed to have one.

[groovyoldlady]

Personally? I don't think ANYONE should have cell phones. They're rude, they're obnoxious, they're annoying, they're habit forming and they're evil.

Not that I have an opinion or anything.

[Anwyn]

Cell phones aren't rude. People are rude.

[Angry]

BREAKING NEWS: We have a report just in, someone has committed a mass rudeness attack in a lecture hall at a local school, and it appears there maybe another crazed cell phone user walking the corridors being indiscriminately rude to whomever he comes across. Emergency services are....

“Cell phones aren’t rude. People are rude.”

Guns don't kill people, people do.

If cell phones in the community were tightly controlled then less people would have the means to bring their rudeness to bear on groups of people, you know, in a school or a mall or fast food outlet and other places where people gather.

Fortunately rudeness is not as life threatening as guns so we would never entertain such a control on cell phones.

(I realise it's a clumsy metaphor, but I hope you see what I'm trying to say)

[Anwyn]

Actually, I don't see what you're trying to say.

[DJ]

I THINK ANYONE IS ALLOWED TO HAVE CELL PHONES AT SCHOOL AND CAN USE THEM WHEN EVER THEY WANT TO THE TECHERS DONT PAY THE BILL AND TEACHERS HAVE THERE PHONES AT SCHOOL AND THEY TALK ON THE PHONE ALL THE TIME SO WHY CANT USE STUDENTS DO THE SAME THING FUCJ TECHERS

[tarsha brooks]

cell phones should be allowed in school