Cell Phones In The Classroom

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Up until recently I've been attending one of the (VERY) few schools lacking in metal detecters or x-ray machines in NYC. I believe the reasons for this would be due to the the fact that it is an Art and Fashion school so everyone's more or less carrying a weapon.

Well, I'm stuck going to summer school in scanning school and they absolutly refuse to allow students to carry cell phones. Why? Well, they say it has to do with kids talking on their cells in the middle of class and how disruptive they are when they go off.

Fact is, they connect cell phones with drug dealers.

In my honest opinion, it's all utter bullshit. There are easy ways to ensure kids don't use their cells in school. Simple policy: Hear it? TAKE it!

Is that so hard?

The fact of the matter is my freedom is in my cellphone. It's a security thing. If some creep tries to follow me home all I need to do is whip out my cellphone and BAM! Creep repellant!

This also how I keep in touch with my mother when I'm out at the ass crack of "why the hell am I up?" and need to let her know where I am. Otherwise I'll have the National Guard out looking for me.

Parents need to be able to get ahold of their kids. They need to feel secure that their child is only a phone call away.

[StoryJunkie]

er, sry, I meant to vote. "It depends" Oh well.

I think that during class the phones should be turned off.

I don't think it has anything to do with your drug-dealer or pimp.

I think that it has to do with respect to the person who is teaching you, that he/she not be interupted.

It kind of defeats the purpose, esp if you have paid the said teacher to teach you. Imagine trying to get a lesson across to the people who have paid you to do so, and they keep interupting you. You lose your train of thought, and everybody suffers, not just the one student. It kind of makes everyone question your priorities.

Keep your cell phones, but turn them off during class. If there's a family emergency, your parents and relatives can call the school to have you paged. That system still works.

[Guest Vamp468]

Cell phones ringing in the middle of class is one of my biggest pet peves. If people could just turn them off during class, or set them to vibrate. Better yet, just leave them in their lockers. Having a cell phone ring during a lecture just shows an overall lack of respect towards the teacher and the other students, who might actually be there to learn something.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Keep your cell phones, but turn them off during class. If there's a family emergency, your parents and relatives can call the school to have you paged. That system still works.

That only works in school. What happens if you're on your way home or to school and you get sick or what have you? Not all pay phones work, and you don't always have change on you. Not only that, but like I said, Creep Repellant. It's an hour and 15 minutes commute to and from school. So, if i want to do something afterwords and I won't neccessarily be home by 7, I need to go home first, then back out to Manhatten.

I understand the not wanting them going off in class. That annoys the hell out of me, especially with walky-talky phones. I always want to break them. However, I always had my phone on vibrate 'cause it was also my reminder for when I needed to take my pill.

So, how about this, everyone signs a contract stating the following:

"I [name] agree to make sure that my cell phone does not disrupt class. If it does, I understand that I must relinquish my phone to the teacher or be escorted from the class and face disiplinary measures. After [number] times of my phone disrupting the class, I understand that it becomes property of the school unless my parent come's to pick it up."

x__________

And boom!

[Guest Melody Fate]

Sometimes it boggles my mind that there's anyone left on this planet.

A cell phone is a convenience it is NOT a necessity. I don't have one. I grew up without one. I lived. My parents didn't have one. They went out on occation and you know what? We kids didn't die because of it.

Yes, I understand they make life easier, but the way some folks act, you'd think that no one ever survived without being able to call someone 24/7. And the most amazing thing is that I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I heard someone on a cell phone at a restaurant or at a movie theater or any innappropriate place going, "Oh my god, I'll meet you at the hospital right away!" or anything else that would indicated to me that indeed all these cell phones were being used for life saving purposes. But I've lost count of the number of times I've been to those events and heard, "OH HI! ME? NO, I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING, I'M JUST AT __________. YEAH, I CAN TALK. SO, WHAT'S UP WITH YOU?"

Even more amazing, my father's family didn't have a phone until he was in High School. And none of them died either. No phone at all! Makes you wonder how come they all didn't revert to savages and run neekid through the jungle.

[Guest Big Samurai]

I like having a cell at a time when it is the only way to call for help, should I run into trouble. However, I feel that in any setting where it is inappropriate to have such a device, it should be either muted or turned off. This goes for classrooms, movie theaters, and, more than anything, the driver's seat. My local paper recently ran a statistic that cells are now responsible for more accidents than drunk driving, though, really, I think any motorists here will already understand that.

[EveKnight75]

I got my first cellphone at 18, I always take it out, but I rarely use it. Not all of us young 'uns are cell-obsessed. Even then, I usually end up getting important calls. That is, if someone suffering a hypoglycemia attack during a charity fast and me being the only one on campus who's diabetic and knows how to deal with hypoglycemia that the organizer knows of and has the cellphone number for counts as an emergency. (I hate run-on sentences.)

I agree with everyone else about using cellphone etiquette. That's why I picked Depends. My high school would confiscate a student's cellphone if the student chose to answer it in class. The teachers understood that sometimes someone forgets to turn it off. If the phone rings, at least the student had the good grace to look sheepish, switch to vibrate, and get back to the calls after class.

Honestly, that's what the students should do. Don't turn it off because then you can't receive any calls. However, put it on vibrate, miss the calls in class, then call back during lunch or right after school. If it's a family member, then call once class lets out, because it's likely an emergency and the call will only take 5 minutes, which is how long it takes to go from one class to the next.

The problem is, that most high school students aren't responsible enough. My last year of high school, everyone received a contract at the beginning of the year on cellphone use and etiquette (a detailed one). Those who signed were held to it, but some kept answering the phone in class anyway. They had their phones confiscated immediately and their parents/guardians were called over. The phone was returned to the parents rather than the student. If the student was an independent, the student would receive the cellphone, but receive a harsher probation than the dependent students.

I think it was an excellent idea and a good exercise in learning about contracts and cellphone etiquette (which is very important in today's world). I just hope it works out in the end.

[StoryJunkie]

Pixigirl, I meant as a courtesy, turn them off during class. I'm not putting down the use of them otherwise.

There's a big sign when you enter my kid's school it's about one foot high and two foot wide and it says: "Please turn off your cell phone". Nobody likes the idea of their tax dollars going to waste on kids who don't appreciate it. The teachers are the authority in the Kingdom of the School. If you incur their displeasure, you risk the chance of all the weight of society falling on you. It's not a really difficult rule to follow, and guess what? If you follow rules, everyone is happier, now who would have thought it possible that rules are actually good? Using a cell phone is just a frickin ego booster. Its a status symbol that says: "I've got money to afford this" "I've got friends that phone me, and you don't." There's alot an inanimate object can say, just by being an inanimate object. I find people who get off on that ego trip very distasteful. And guess what? A lot of people do it.

(There, is that enough fodder for debate?)

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Pixigirl, I meant as a courtesy, turn them off during class. I'm not putting down the use of them otherwise.

There's a big sign when you enter my kid's school it's about one foot high and two foot wide and it says: "Please turn off your cell phone". Nobody likes the idea of their tax dollars going to waste on kids who don't appreciate it. The teachers are the authority in the Kingdom of the School. If you incur their displeasure, you risk the chance of all the weight of society falling on you. It's not a really difficult rule to follow, and guess what? If you follow rules, everyone is happier, now who would have thought it possible that rules are actually good? Using a cell phone is just a frickin ego booster. Its a status symbol that says: "I've got money to afford this" "I've got friends that phone me, and you don't." There's alot an inanimate object can say, just by being an inanimate object. I find people who get off on that ego trip very distasteful. And guess what? A lot of people do it.

(There, is that enough fodder for debate?)

That's what I'm saying. When I was in the Scanner-free school it was basically accepted that pretty much HAD a cell, but that if they went off they were taken away (at least if it became an issue).

Is it just me or do people seem to think that I'm saying "Bitch! I waanna call my boyfriend/best friend/neighbor/your mom in class and don't wanna get shit for it!"

[Guest Pink Lace]

I've been to both types of schools, one that allows cellphones and another that doesn't. The first was the top state university around. No one would dare have their cellphone ring in the classroom, it's completely unthinkable. It happens by mistake sometimes when people forget but it's extremely rare.

The other is a private college where students often sneak their cellphones in (by hiding it in their underwear, yuck). They text message people during classes. If a teacher sees them it's confiscated at once but they still sneak 'em in. At first I thought the no cellphones rule was too much but now I see the students can't be trusted at all.

Basically it's the type of students you have. If it's serious smart people, they are much less likely to do stupid stuff so the school trusts them more. A school for rich spoiled kids needs harsher discipline and stricter rules but ideally any school *should* be able to allow cellphones.

[Guest Melody Fate]

I still stick with my original post, Cellphones are not a necessity. They can be a very useful tool, but they aren't a necessity. And I'm sick of being told they are a necessity. And I'm tired of being unable to hear a movie because someone is on the cellphone, or having my dinner interrupted by the person in the booth next to me screaming into a cellphone.

If you use your cellphone for the purposes it was intended... if you turn it to vibrate when you're in a situation where you're with other people who won't appreciate listening to your conversation, then I wasn't talking to you.

I'm talking to people like the woman in church today, who's cellphone rang four times. I'm talking about the girl in the restaurant the other day, who kept telling everyone in the tables next to her to shut up because she was talking to someone and she couldn't hear. (And no, it wasn't an emergency call, unless agreeing to meet the next day someplace can be seen as a dire emergency.)

I find cellphones one of the most obnoxious inventions ever. Sorry if that upsets you... oh no, wait, no I'm not. I have every right to dislike them. I have every right to point out that no, they aren't a necessity that people did survive for a number of years without them.

Because parents are bitching that their kids aren't allowed to have their cellphones in class. Parents. So yeah, I understand that not all "young people" are cellphone obsessed, but some are. And I know enough people my age who think of their cellphone as a necessity to the point where they literally cannot go out to lunch or to the beach without their phone.

That being said, I don't care if kids have cellphones outside of class. If they want to call people durring lunch, great. If their parents need to get ahold of them before or after, fine. But durring class? Nope. If it's an emergency, the parents can call the school and have their kid paged out of class, which is what my parents did.

[redsliver]

Ever have a cell phone ring while trying to write an exam. Completely throws off your train of thought. I agree with Pixagi. Hear it, take it. No one needs it during class, but there's no reason not to have them on the premises.

[bookworm51485]

Up until recently I've been attending one of the (VERY) few schools lacking in metal detecters or x-ray machines in NYC. I believe the reasons for this would be due to the the fact that it is an Art and Fashion school so everyone's more or less carrying a weapon.

Well, I'm stuck going to summer school in scanning school and they absolutly refuse to allow students to carry cell phones. Why? Well, they say it has to do with kids talking on their cells in the middle of class and how disruptive they are when they go off.

Fact is, they connect cell phones with drug dealers.

In my honest opinion, it's all utter bullshit. There are easy ways to ensure kids don't use their cells in school. Simple policy: Hear it? TAKE it!

Is that so hard?

The fact of the matter is my freedom is in my cellphone. It's a security thing. If some creep tries to follow me home all I need to do is whip out my cellphone and BAM! Creep repellant!

This also how I keep in touch with my mother when I'm out at the ass crack of "why the hell am I up?" and need to let her know where I am. Otherwise I'll have the National Guard out looking for me.

Parents need to be able to get ahold of their kids. They need to feel secure that their child is only a phone call away.

I've had many annoying experiences with cell phones, but I still say yes. I somewhat agree with the if you hear it, take it policy, but the phone should be given back at the end of class and the teacher should make them silence the phone. And they should have a little mark put on their record, like a Three Strikes your out kind of thing. As soon as you hit threee strikes, then ban the student's phone and if it happens again, come up with a punishment for that student. But it's unfair to say that all students should be banned from bringing their phones because of a few idiots. I have a cell phone and the main person I get calls from is my mom. Also I keep my phone silenced any time I'm in a class, theater, or any other place where it would be annoying. And there are many others who also do that.

But I can see where the other side is coming from based off of experiences I had recently, before that I'd actually never really encountered any problems with cells.

The annoyance for me came in the zoology class I had this last semester. There were a few idiots in the class who didn't understand the concept of classtime is for class and cell phones should be silenced, unfortunately that extended to the teacher too. We had one incident where one students phone started ringing and the teacher started to cuss the student out for it, then his phone started to ring. So from that point on, no one really took him seriously about the cell phone thing, and it got worse every time the teacher's phone went off (it happened about 5-6 times in the semester). We had one incident where the teacher was in the middle of the lecture and one student's phone rings. Instead of taking it outside like most people would, the idiot sits there are proceeds to have a 5 minute conversation in the middle of class while the teachers trying to lecture. And it wasn't a huge lecture hall with over 100 people, it was a small classroom with less than 20 so it was very noticeable and annoying. I still don't understand why the teacher didn't say anything, but I guess maybe he was still feeling a bit bad about his own cell phone incidents. Though we did have a sub at one point who came in, we had a similar incident with a girl in the class, teacher kicked her out of the classroom. That's a solution I like:)

[Guest Melody Fate]

But it's unfair to say that all students should be banned from bringing their phones because of a few idiots. I have a cell phone and the main person I get calls from is my mom. Also I keep my phone silenced any time I'm in a class, theater, or any other place where it would be annoying. And there are many others who also do that.

So, you're saying that you'd have the right to take a call in class if it were from your mom?

I don't think students should be told they can't have a cellphone. Lunch time, study hall, yeah, that's fine, but there is no reason to have a cellphone in the class and a lot of reasons not to have one.

My nephew got busted for having a gameboy in school. Now, he had it on silent, he wasn't disturbing anyone, but still, they took it away. Why? Because he was supposed to be paying attention not playing Pokemon.

Phones themselves can be distracting. The classroom is a place for learning, not for messaging your friends, or checking to see if your Mom called, or anything else. As I said, if it's an emergency, you can be paged in the classroom itself. You don't need the distraction of a cellphone, even if it isn't bothering anyone around you.

And yes, I understand that not all kids will abuse the privilage, but enough will. And if you start saying ,"he can, she can't," then it's going to cause too much trouble.

This is High School and younger mind you. In College, that's different, a student should have the right to have their cellphone in the class. However, the professor should have the right to take it away until class is over if the professor thinks it's disturbing to the class.

[bookworm51485]

So, you're saying that you'd have the right to take a call in class if it were from your mom?

I don't think students should be told they can't have a cellphone. Lunch time, study hall, yeah, that's fine, but there is no reason to have a cellphone in the class and a lot of reasons not to have one.

My nephew got busted for having a gameboy in school. Now, he had it on silent, he wasn't disturbing anyone, but still, they took it away. Why? Because he was supposed to be paying attention not playing Pokemon.

Phones themselves can be distracting. The classroom is a place for learning, not for messaging your friends, or checking to see if your Mom called, or anything else. As I said, if it's an emergency, you can be paged in the classroom itself.

I never said I'd take a call in the middle of class, I would never do that. But I wouldn't have been able to take the calls after class or at lunch, many of them imporant, if I hadn't been allowed to bring my cell phone to school.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

So, you're saying that you'd have the right to take a call in class if it were from your mom?

I don't think students should be told they can't have a cellphone. Lunch time, study hall, yeah, that's fine, but there is no reason to have a cellphone in the class and a lot of reasons not to have one.

My nephew got busted for having a gameboy in school. Now, he had it on silent, he wasn't disturbing anyone, but still, they took it away. Why? Because he was supposed to be paying attention not playing Pokemon.

Phones themselves can be distracting. The classroom is a place for learning, not for messaging your friends, or checking to see if your Mom called, or anything else. As I said, if it's an emergency, you can be paged in the classroom itself. You don't need the distraction of a cellphone, even if it isn't bothering anyone around you.

And yes, I understand that not all kids will abuse the privilage, but enough will. And if you start saying ,"he can, she can't," then it's going to cause too much trouble.

This is High School and younger mind you. In College, that's different, a student should have the right to have their cellphone in the class. However, the professor should have the right to take it away until class is over if the professor thinks it's disturbing to the class.

Dude, no one's fighting the idea that cell's can be annoying and I'm not saying that I want to be able to sit and chat with my mom in class. However, I have had an issue where I had an emotional break down IN CLASS and had I not had my cell, I wouldn't have been able to get ahold of her.

ONCE AGAIN I'm going to ask what is it that people think I'm trying to say because honestly, it looks like everyone's saying the same thing and STILL fighting with each other!

[EveKnight75]

Yes, there's a lot of people who need to be forced to take lessons in cell phone etiquette. If they irritate you in public with their cellphone use, you have a right to approach them and point it out in a polite manner. It usually works for me when someone's annoying me.

Another thing is, the paging system no longer works. A lot of parents complain because the school doesn't pass on the message to the student. Those who have that responsibility are paid crap so they don't bother to do the job right, even if the message is important. One of my friends had her mom end up in the hospital due to a heart attack. Her dad called but the school didn't page her. Her mom died a few hours later while she was still in school.

After that, her dad gave her a cell phone and told her to check the messages in-between classes, because Allah knows that he couldn't trust the school to do anything right. And hers isn't the only high school. Many public high schools have the same problem, and many parents make the same complaint if they ask to have messages paged often enough. Sure, the messages aren't usually as important as the one in the above example, but they're still important. And unless the schools learn to do their job right, there really isn't much of an alternative outside of cellphones.

I'm sorry to say it, but it's true.

[Guest Melody Fate]

EDIT: Nothing to see here, move along.

[Guest Melody Fate]

Dude, no one's fighting the idea that cell's can be annoying and I'm not saying that I want to be able to sit and chat with my mom in class. However, I have had an issue where I had an emotional break down IN CLASS and had I not had my cell, I wouldn't have been able to get ahold of her.

Don't they have payphones at your school? I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm honestly asking because we had them when I was in school. If schools have gotten rid of all payphones, then yes, they need to allow students a way to communicate with parents/bosses/etc.

I think I misunderstood something. Are you saying that because you had an emotional breakdown, you should have been allow to talk to your mother while in class? Or are you saying that if they'd taken your phone before the class you never would have been able to leave the classroom and talk to your mother?

I'm going to assume it's the second and if that's the case, you leave the class and either go to a payphone, or go and get your cellphone and call your Mom.

I'm not saying teachers should take kids phones, unless the kid is stupid enough to smuggle one into a class. I think the schools should offer a safe place to store them and kids can use them at A: Lunch B: Studyhall. C: In case of emergency. A breakdown qualifies as C. IF the school decides teachers take the phones at the start of each class so students can use them between classes, then the teachers should put them in a spot that you can see your phone and take it at any time. So, you take your phone and you leave. If the teacher stops you, you say, "I don't feel well." I would assume they'd stop you walking out the door anyway, cellphone or not. You go out of the class, you call your mother.

If the school doesn't give the students a way to communicate with parents in the case of emergency (pay phone or office phone if student has no money) then yes, the school should allow cellphones, because of what they themselves are lacking. And yes, that's a two-way street, meaning the school should also be willing to page a child IF its an emergency. And no, "Jessica, where did you leave my green sweater?" is not an emergency. Before you say, "But no one would do that!" one of my friends did and now she wonders why the school asks her why she needs to talk to her child before they go and get her. If a parent has never abused the privilege, then the school shouldn't even ask why. "Parent says its an emergency, go get the kid."

The problem with allowing kids cellphones in the class is more than just students talking... it's just distracting. The phone vibrates and you know someone called, so you start thinking. "Who called? Why did they call? Is it an emergency?"

The other problem is that the moment you give anyone a privilege, someone will work on taking advantage of it, so what often happens is some idiot ruins it for the rest of us. Schools aren't going to play a game of, "You're responsible, you can have your phone, you are not, so you can't." They play black and white, either all can or no one can.

Why did your school stop allowing cellphones? Was it because some kids took advantage of the situation? If that's the case...well, then, guess who's fault it is?

We lost a lot of privileges in school growing up because of a few kids who took advantage. We lost our vending machines, we lost our teen center, we lost our open campus. And it was probably the same group of kids that blew all of these things for everyone. Was it fair? Techically, no, but that was the way it worked... a few rotten idiots could spoil it for everyone.

EDIT: I'm not saying that our teen center and vending machines are as useful or even possibly necessary as a cellphone is, I'm pointing it out as the principle of the matter. Chances are most kids are not using their cellphones for emergencies only and are instead misusing them.

If indeed this is a high school issue, and the kids want their phones and feel they deserve them, they need to talk to their parents. If enough parents agree, they can go to the schoolboard and talk to them, give their reasons and ask for the rule to be changed.

However, it maybe be the parents themselves who are trying to get this rule passed. I just found out from the neighbor that in our local high school the parents went to the school and said they didn't want kids being allowed to bring cellphones into class. I don't know if that means they have to leave them home, or if they have to leave them in their locker durring classes, but enough parents felt the phones were too distracting. As my neighbor put it, "If I'd had a cell phone growing up, I would have been text messaging and playing games, not learning." Like it or not, if a majority of the parents don't want their kids allowed to have cellphones in class, you won't have them. Since parents pay for the education (be it by taxes for public school or tuition by private school) they really do have the power with that.

College? Again, another story. I don't know the rules in college, but I assume it's all right to have a cellphone in college, as long as you don't disrupt the class.

[EveKnight75]

There's usually only one or two payphones around, and they're usually located in the main entrance hallway, which is pretty far away from the classrooms. One wouldn't have enough time to make a call between classes, and the noise level would be too high during lunch time and after school to hear someone properly.

So yes, there are payphones, but they're not much good for an actual emergency, seeing as how one usually gets in trouble for running out of the classroom while the teacher is talking. I remember one kid running out in the middle of class, coming back with mild traces of bile on his shirt, and getting detention for running out in the middle of a lecture. He threw up! And in the bathroom, no less! Isn't that better than the trash can? Isn't that an extremely valid excuse to run out of the room?

I also remember another time when I just had a feeling that something was wrong, so I went down to the main hall during my free period to call my mom. Someone in the office sees me, recognizes me, and pulls me in. And then,

"By the way, we got a call from your sister's school an hour ago. Apparently, she started crying in the middle of class for no reason. Your mom wasn't answering so they called here to contact you. The loudspeaker in your classroom isn't working, so we couldn't page you."

Our dad had died 6 weeks ago and they were doing a Father's Day assignment. That's a pretty good reason to burst out into tears. I had nearly forgotten that Father's Day was coming up, but now I knew what that nagging feeling was. What I want to know is why the office didn't send someone up in person. If I hadn't walked past the office, I wouldn't have found out until I picked her up from school (which was right across the street from mine). I just have no faith in the system anymore.

Melody's right about one thing, though. There's always several idiots who abuse the privilege and ruin it for the rest of us. We had a vending machine ban at one point. We couldn't enter the library during a free period unless we showed our timetable and ID to the librarian as proof, because too many kids skipped a period and hung out at the library lounge with the "free period" excuse (our library lounge had some of the most comfy chairs I have ever sat on). It was ridiculous. And another thing is, the school does use the black and white policy and try to disguise it as fair play. We receive contracts at the beginning of the year that make us promise that we won't use school computers for personal use, but rather, academic research. If they catch 3 kids within the first month violating the contract, no one else gets to use the computers unless their teacher booked them for that period, for the rest of the year. And one time, they managed to mess up with me. I was researching "sexual tension between teen stepsiblings during the initial stages of a combined family" for psychology, and used the computers in the library during my free period. I was on a site that referenced popular literature and media (such as The Brady Bunch and Marmalade Boy), the librarian saw, and automatically assumed that I was goofing off by reading up on my favorite TV shows and animes. I don't even like anime! (But I'll admit to liking stepcest fiction, but only here ). The librarian would not listen, not even after I brought my psychology teacher into the whole mess to explain things. Eventually, the vice principal got involved before the ban was lifted for the entire school. And all the while, I'm thinking, Was this trip really necessary? Never used the library's computers again after that, unless I was forced to because my class was booked. At least the librarian had the good grace to look sheepish whenever she saw me after that incident.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, black and white in disguise. During my senior year of high school, the same contract policy was enacted for cellphones. Apparently, the school finally admitted that even thought there were many students who were rude about cellphone use, there were many more who were polite and responsible about it. So sign a contract and stick to it. They managed to ease up on the computer contract and enforce it in a fair manner (the psych incident was my junior year). Surprisingly, they played fair with the cellphone contract, too. Maybe they really are improving, but I have no way of telling, because I have had no news about my high school after I graduated and we moved.

[Guest Melody Fate]

Okay, I guess what I want to know is what emergencies are happening to kids now that didn't happen in our day?

Yes, in our day, if you walked out of class, you were in trouble too. But if you came in looking sick then that was different. If I'd ever gone home and told my parents I'd gotten in trouble for leaving the class to puke, my parents would have been all over that school. If your school really is that cruel to a sick child, then the kids really need to talk to the parents, because that's terrible.

We had four payphones in our school too, and student population of 2000+ students. It wasn't a problem, because I guess we didn't have as many emergencies. I only used the payphone to let my parents know if something came up and I was going to be late from school, or to call my boss the last three years, to let her know if I was going to be late as well. If I was going to be late from school because of detention, I could use the school phone. I remember only one time having to wait to use a payphone. I might be remembering that rather optimistically, but clearly, I didn't have to wait so often that it was an issue for me.

No one in our school was charmed. We were a diverse group, including everything from kids who's parents were multimillionaires to lower working class, so it wasn't that we were much different from any other schools.

I was paged out of class maybe three times in 12 years of public school (13 with Kindergarten) When my Grandmother died, I wasn't even pulled out of class, my parents waited until I got home. Why? Because what good would it have done to tell me then? They had arrangements to make and better I was in school blissfully ignorant, so they could do what they had to do, and then think of how they were going to gently break the news to me. No one thought this was cruel or unusual. I'm actually grateful to them for giving me a few hours where I still thought my grandmother was alive before I found out the truth. It wasn't that our parents insisted on protecting us, it was just common knowlege you did not disrupt your kid from school unless something happened where you absolutely needed their attention.

The fact that your school took such a casual attitude about getting you, tells me they've spent way too much time retreving kids. If any parent had called the school and said, "I need to talk to my child it's an emergency," no intercom would be used, someone would have gone to the class and called that child out to the hall and escorted them to the phone. If a parent called the school then, you knew it was literally life or death, and you don't use an intercom for that, it's rude. You go and get the student and you do it as quietly and dignified as possible. If you name came over the loudspeaker, that meant you been caught doing something wrong and were now in deep doo-doo. The only time I ever saw a kid pulled out for something that wasn't really a dire emergency was because his mother had a baby and they wanted to tell him he had a brother so he'd stop worrying about his mom being in labor. That's right, mom having a baby wasn't enough to give the kid a day off from school. If 100 kids were paged out of class in the entire time I was in public schoo, I would be absolutely amazed. I was probably considered unusual for being paged out as many times as I was. Most of my friends never had been paged out of class.

This is what I'm having trouble with, the idea that every teenager is in such a state of crisis that they must have instant access to call the outside world. If that is true, then there are problems a whole lot deeper than allowing cellphones. To me, that's like saying, "Yes, we understand these kids are stabbing themselves with the forks, so we'll let them bring in bandaids." The real solution is to find out why the kids are stabbing themselves with the forks.

[Guest Mike256bit]

It's like having cells phones makes everything seem like an emergency since it's suddenly so easy to call someone. Frankly, my phone died for a few months and I survived. Not. Necessary.

[StoryJunkie]

quite frankly, I'm embarassed to use my phone. It usually happens when I'm walking outside, and I try not to check out who's looking at me, since I used to suffer from that phobia related to performance anxiety. If I have initiate a call in a public place, I always glance furtively around, as if I'm James Bond and the bad guy's gonna notice me now! (The grocery store..."do we need dog food? I forgot..." "Could you come get me now? I'm at the checkout.") I don't even say "bye" or "love you" or any crap like that. Terse, to the point and blushing; hang up. The only other use I have for it is calling my daughter, who's away in Van for the next year or so. And as for that, I pm her on her msn account more than I talk to her on the cell. Not that they don't feel cool, or like somekind of weird invention only dreampt about when I was a kid...

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

Don't they have payphones at your school? I'm not being sarcastic here, I'm honestly asking because we had them when I was in school. If schools have gotten rid of all payphones, then yes, they need to allow students a way to communicate with parents/bosses/etc.

I think I misunderstood something. Are you saying that because you had an emotional breakdown, you should have been allow to talk to your mother while in class? Or are you saying that if they'd taken your phone before the class you never would have been able to leave the classroom and talk to your mother?

I'm going to assume it's the second and if that's the case, you leave the class and either go to a payphone, or go and get your cellphone and call your Mom.

I'm not saying teachers should take kids phones, unless the kid is stupid enough to smuggle one into a class. I think the schools should offer a safe place to store them and kids can use them at A: Lunch B: Studyhall. C: In case of emergency. A breakdown qualifies as C. IF the school decides teachers take the phones at the start of each class so students can use them between classes, then the teachers should put them in a spot that you can see your phone and take it at any time. So, you take your phone and you leave. If the teacher stops you, you say, "I don't feel well." I would assume they'd stop you walking out the door anyway, cellphone or not. You go out of the class, you call your mother.

If the school doesn't give the students a way to communicate with parents in the case of emergency (pay phone or office phone if student has no money) then yes, the school should allow cellphones, because of what they themselves are lacking. And yes, that's a two-way street, meaning the school should also be willing to page a child IF its an emergency. And no, "Jessica, where did you leave my green sweater?" is not an emergency. Before you say, "But no one would do that!" one of my friends did and now she wonders why the school asks her why she needs to talk to her child before they go and get her. If a parent has never abused the privilege, then the school shouldn't even ask why. "Parent says its an emergency, go get the kid."

The problem with allowing kids cellphones in the class is more than just students talking... it's just distracting. The phone vibrates and you know someone called, so you start thinking. "Who called? Why did they call? Is it an emergency?"

The other problem is that the moment you give anyone a privilege, someone will work on taking advantage of it, so what often happens is some idiot ruins it for the rest of us. Schools aren't going to play a game of, "You're responsible, you can have your phone, you are not, so you can't." They play black and white, either all can or no one can.

Why did your school stop allowing cellphones? Was it because some kids took advantage of the situation? If that's the case...well, then, guess who's fault it is?

We lost a lot of privileges in school growing up because of a few kids who took advantage. We lost our vending machines, we lost our teen center, we lost our open campus. And it was probably the same group of kids that blew all of these things for everyone. Was it fair? Techically, no, but that was the way it worked... a few rotten idiots could spoil it for everyone.

EDIT: I'm not saying that our teen center and vending machines are as useful or even possibly necessary as a cellphone is, I'm pointing it out as the principle of the matter. Chances are most kids are not using their cellphones for emergencies only and are instead misusing them.

If indeed this is a high school issue, and the kids want their phones and feel they deserve them, they need to talk to their parents. If enough parents agree, they can go to the schoolboard and talk to them, give their reasons and ask for the rule to be changed.

However, it maybe be the parents themselves who are trying to get this rule passed. I just found out from the neighbor that in our local high school the parents went to the school and said they didn't want kids being allowed to bring cellphones into class. I don't know if that means they have to leave them home, or if they have to leave them in their locker durring classes, but enough parents felt the phones were too distracting. As my neighbor put it, "If I'd had a cell phone growing up, I would have been text messaging and playing games, not learning." Like it or not, if a majority of the parents don't want their kids allowed to have cellphones in class, you won't have them. Since parents pay for the education (be it by taxes for public school or tuition by private school) they really do have the power with that.

College? Again, another story. I don't know the rules in college, but I assume it's all right to have a cellphone in college, as long as you don't disrupt the class.

Yes, there are payphones. Not, they don;t really work. No they WON'T let em use the office phone. Nurses won't believe I'm sick unless I throw up on her desk or something.

And fuck no "Did I have my sweater?" is NOT an emergancy. Bleeding profusly IS.

There was once a day when a buch of people got caught in the school elevater which causes the fire gons to go off. Teachers thought kids where pulling the alarms until someone in the elevater finally got reception and called for help.

Get it?

And really, no one here is saying anything differant then I have so really, I don't even understand why everyone seems so argumentative.

[Guest Adara]

I say let the kids have the cell phones, as long as they silence them during class. Honestly, while I was in Jr High, and in High School, there were two bomb threats during school hours. We were rushed to the meeting area, we weren't told what was happening and had no way of communicating with anyone.

My little brother is now in Jr. High and my parents bought him a cell phone which he carries with him at ALL times. It is true that some kids abuse their priviledges, but that goes for adults as well. I digress, my little brother is responsible, doesn't use it in class and only uses it to communicate with my parents. We live almost three miles away from the school, no buses, he has to walk home.

I like the fact that my little brother can call for help should he ever need it.