Cellphone Bans in School

No, I disagree with the idea of cell phones being banned in school. I believe there are more advantages to having cell phones that disadvantages. I don’t believe in the total ban, but I do believe they should be used with discretion.

          Cell phones can be an affective way of communication between other students during the day for academic purposes. They can also be a way of communication with the teacher if permitted. There are many means of communicating such as text messaging which might be useful in asking questions about assignments or tests. They can be used for projects as an effective way of taking pictures when you need them, as most phones today are equipped with cameras. One of the main reasons why students have cell phones is for safety purposes.

          Cell phones can be an effective way of parents to contact their children in case of emergency or other situations. It can also be a way of alerting them of perhaps what time you will arrive home or where you will be. Someone brought up the issue that the school has a phone line that can be used to contact parents to students or vice versa. But if there is an emergency such as fire, which causes an evacuation, then there isn’t a means of communication, other than the cell phone. In such a situation we would have to go to the neighbouring school as we did the last time a fire happened. This is now disrupting their school with mass influx of people and noise.

          Cell phones should not be banned but they should be used with maturity e.g. no pictures of inappropriate things or calling people in class when there isn’t an urgency to. Overall they should be encouraged as a valuable academic resource and perhaps be very beneficial to the institution.