Allowed In School

Should Cell Phones Be Allowed in School? Picture this, it’s a regular day of school you sit down at your desk at about 9:30 a.m. and all of the sudden you hear gunshots! You are rushed into the bathrooms and closets by staff members. You wait, hoping nothing will happen to you. You hear screams and more loud noises. You wonder “what’s happening.” Your heart skips a beat as the door opens and a police officer confirms your worst fears. Many people are dead. This is the scene from Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14th, 2012, the day of the shooting. This and other incidents like this are why many schools are lifting the ban on cellphones in school. One of the students at Sandy Hook could have called the police when they saw the gunman coming, if they had a phone with them. This is one of the many

Kids can call the authorities if they see something that shouldn’t be happening. Just like the situation which happened at Sandy Hook Elementary. They could also call an ambulance if someone got cut and was bleeding. Whitney Young Principal Dr. Joyce D. Kenner said "I think (a cellphone) could be an educational tool and it could be a safety tool” (Rossi 8). Parents could also contact their kids to update them if there was a change of plans. Bill Di Blasio, mayor of New York City, answered when asked about the prohibition of cell phones, “the prohibition was out of touch with the realities of modern child-rearing, and parents have a right to reach their children by phone” (Brody and Sharp A13). An example of parents updating their kids is when my friends mom came to pick him up. The original plan was to walk home, but throughout the day the temperature dropped. By the end of school the weather was frigid. His mom texted him in class, and he didn’t have to walk home in the cold. If allowing students to have phones in class can make schools safer, we should do