In our school district and many others across the state, schools have a policy against cellphones.
The student code of conduct states: “Use of these devices is prohibited on school property, including parking lots, gymnasiums, halls, cafeteria, classrooms and buses until after dismissal for the day, unless permission is granted by a school administrator or designee.”
Although nearly every person has a cellphone now and they are used for entertainment, they were originally created so that people could make calls in an emergency. Over the years, it has evolved into more than that and seemingly calls are a thing of the past. Despite how old school it may seem, those phone calls still happen. If an emergency strikes, we can’t do anything if our phones are taken.
Another reason why students feel the cellphone policy is unjust is because most teachers get the assumption that even though we are on our phones, we aren’t listening to what they are saying. In most cases, we are just multitasking. Of course, there will always be a few who are not on task, but that would happen with our without phones or headphones, too.
Should the majority get punished because of the few? Maybe the opinions of students and parents should be given more weight when it comes to creating cell phone policies in individual schools.