In recent years the overwhelming popularity of cell phones and the advancement of their abilities has led to a great deal of concern within the school boards across the country. The primary question at meetings at most school districts each year is “Should cell phones be permitted in schools? Let’s take a look at this issue from all sides.

Problems with Phones at School

For the middle school and high school crowd, many teachers and administrators raise concerns that students are simply not mature enough to carry used cell phones on them and use them only as necessary for the reasons their parents may have intended. There are many occurrences on a daily basis in which students are caught making calls and sending text messages to their friends in either other classrooms or outside of the school during class. Another concern is the ability for student so exchange answers to test questions and enable other methods of cheating by sending answers back and forth via their phones.

Reasons to Carry Phones at School

The primary reason that parents allow their kids to carry refurbished cell phones to school is for emergency contacts. A large percentage of students are involved in after school activities that keep the students on campus or near campus after classes have ended for the day. Once the offices are closed, the ability to make calls home is not always readily available. Parents and their children need to be able to reach each other at a moment’s notice to make pickup arrangements and call for help in case of an emergency. It is also known that many kids have jobs after school (also drive themselves to and from school). For this reason parents and employers need to be able to reach the student to be able to keep track of where they are or to notify them or a sudden change in plans.

Personal Opinion

It is my personal opinion that there are definite reasons that phones need to be available to children while attending school. I also note that many kids try to abuse the privilege of carrying a cell phone on school property and that schools should have the right to temporarily take the phone from children during class time if they make it a distraction to the class. Cheating does present a problem but I truly don’t think that too many kids would be able to communicate test answers easily that would be easy enough to read, send, and transcribe to not get caught.

The decision to allow a child to carry a phone to school should ultimately be left to that of the parents. Parents have to make a decision of if their child is mature enough to handle the responsibility of carrying the phone on them without getting into trouble with it. In the event that you determine your child should have their own cell phone at school, consider saving money with used AT&T cell phones.