School cell phone rules need a change

By Alyssa Campbell Posted November 15, 2013

It is understandable that cell phones can be a major distraction in classrooms, in certain situations, but the punishment for using your cell phone in this school is a little extreme.

Students should be able to use their cell phones occasionally without having their phones taken away for 24 hours. There should at least be a warning when a student is caught using their cell phone. There are exceptions to this rule. For example, when students are taking a test, they should be punished for using their cell phones.  However, in regular classroom situations, the punishment should slowly build up with warnings and the punishment should be minimal.

The rules and punishments for our school are incredibly unreasonable. For the first confiscation, you have to pick up your cell phone at the end of the school day from an administrator. This rule is somewhat reasonable but the second and third confiscations are ridiculous. The second confiscation involves getting your phone taken away for 24 hours and serving one day of Saturday School. The third confiscation is having your phone taken away for five days and you have to go to in-school suspension. These two confiscations are just for using your phone in school and are overall just wrong. There are so many alternatives to reasonable rules. For example, the rule could be you can use your cell phone in class when told to be able to do so. The punishment for using your cell phone could start with a warning. Then there could be a second punishment of getting your phone taken for the rest of the day. Finally, there could be a punishment for getting your phone taken away by the office for 24 hours.

Overall the rules and punishments for getting your phone taken away are outrageous and could be taken care of in a totally different and more systematic way.