Use of Cellular Telephones in School, and should they be allowed
Many people debate whether or not students should be permitted to use cellular telephones in school. There are compelling points of view on both sides. Whether or not a school allows it, there will always be pros and cons. You can be in contact with your children, and know their whereabouts. Your kids can reach you in the occurrence of an emergency, and vice versa. If in danger, your children can reach the authorities or a medicinal provider. Telephones can be silenced for the extent of class or study periods and active only in appropriate places. Cellular telephones create a convenience that was beforehand unavailable. With cellular telephones, you can easily reach your kids for any reason, to ask those questions, change plans, or to simply say hello.
However, there are also cons to having cellular telephones in school. Students often forget to turn off their telephones in class, and ringing noises or text-message alerts disrupt learning. Even if set to silent, cellular telephones can still cause distraction, since text messaging has become a high-tech method of passing notes in school, which can also be a pro, if the student is passing notes that the teacher has written for the students to copy. Students have been known to use cellular telephones to call in bomb threats to schools, to avoid or condense class time. In the event of a widespread crisis, rampant cellular telephones use can overload communication systems and render them inoperable. Student cellular telephones networks add to the spread of rumors and misinformation, which can be harmful at some stage in a widespread catastrophe. Telephones can be used as cheating devices for the period of exams. The long-term physical effects of cellular telephones use are still undetermined.
Many schools have been lifting bans on cellular telephones that they have had for years, after recent events made them re-evaluate, such as the Columbine shootings, and September 11 attacks. There seems to be three established polices, the outright banning of cellular telephones on school grounds, allowing students to have telephones as long as they are off and not used throughout school hours, and requiring students to turn in their telephones to the principals office at the start of the day and allowing them to pick of their telephones at the end of the day.
I believe that telephones should be tolerable in school, just as long as they aren't used for the extent of class, or when the teacher is teaching the class, as to not interrupt the rest of the class, but rather be used after class is over. It should have sound turned off, or have earphones if the user wants to have sound. Furthermore, they should only be allowed in class when there is not a test or quiz to be taken unless they are off, or have a feature to disable wireless communication, to prevent texting of answers so that the student could use the calculator function that comes on countless telephones. If the educator doesn't wish for the students to have their telephones for the duration of a test to help prevent dishonesty, they should make available an extremely developed calculator so that students don't have an excuse to use their telephones.
Cellular telephones are unbelievably useful devices that will always be a part of daily life, and they become more and more sophisticated every day, with new telephones being released nearly every day, they will never stop being a part of life, and students will always have them.
References
"National School Safety and Security Services". 2007. National School Safety and Security Services. 11/03/08 .org/consultants/school_safety_.