1) Cell phones should be allowed because a student should be able to call 911 immediately if required for whatever reason. More specific example: in one of the schools shootings, it was a student cell phone that was able to alert police to the presence of a shooter in the school. 2) Parents are able to call their children and leave messages in their voice mail or through text messaging that their kids can see later on instead of bugging the office to leave a message there. These messages could be things such as, “Mr. Boyd is going to be picking you up tonight,” or “I’m going to be late this afternoon; wait for me until 4pm. Or something more important (can’t come up with any ideas at the moment! ) 3) Public phones are full of bacteria and their use should be discouraged as much as possible. Being allowed to have a cell phone would prevent public phone use. 4) Many students at the jr. high and high school level have activities and the like after school. Often the office is closed and isn’t picking up a phone so parents would have no way to contact their kids (if need be) if they weren’t allowed to bring their cell phones. [I have memories of waiting around after band for my mother to show up, wondering where the heck she was.
But this was before the age of cell phones–it would’ve been nice to have been able to call her and find out what was going on! ] Well, I think yes because if you just tell them to not text message, play games, and call people, and make allot of noises with it like beeps or ringtones. Just them them to put them on silent, and no games, then they can use them. If you do that, then yes they should. It also gives them more happiness in the classroom because they can bring something along so they don’t forget to take it after class or leave it at home.
Oh yeah, and just incase something bad happens like your school caught on fire or police emergency. Something like that. You know what they say: “Better safe than sorry. ” Cell phones should be allowed if the first number in their contact list is an emergency one for the student. That way a student in trouble or ill or hurt is only a call away from a parent or guardian. Cell phones provide communications for an emergency use by any other student or school staff member in a crisis. Cell phones provide easy communications before and after school for parent-to-student, student-to-parent and student-to-student.
Some school districts even call students on their cell phones to inquire as to their whereabouts in an absence, to find a student who is out-of-place during the school day but on the campus and to let them know of changes in plan for a class or team. This is one area that schools have not fully explored as they continue to see possession as a “problem” and not a “solution” or “aid” to the educational process. Messaging to cheat is always going to be a problem, but in my classes, cell phones stay face up on desks during tests so I can monitor communications as I walk the aisles to check on student work.
Every advantage also has disadvantages, so you must work to make these devices be the servants they were meant to be. Incidentally, any student who receives communications with another student during my tests gets their phone taken away for the balance of the day. To make a comparison that might be appropriate, if we had treated the earliest automobiles as we currently treat cell phones in modern schools, we would still be riding horses and using carriages!! Cell phones, like all devices, are servants, not inherently evil unless we attempt to control them and make students want them all the more and use them inappropriately.
