What Are Cons & Pros of Having a Cell Phone in School?
In the wake of past horrific violent incidents in schools, allowing students to have cell phones in school seems, at first, to be an easy decision to make. Yet, with issues such as cell phone misuse by children in school during normal school activities, lawmakers are having a difficult time coming to an agreement on the issue. There are many discussions on the pros and cons of the matter of cell phone use in school.
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Talking Anywhere
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Pros: The student can talk to parents between classes when there is a request to change plans (I.e., a late game or detour from regular activities). This can be done using the office phone but sometimes it's not convenient when a student doesn't want to be late for the next class and a permission needs to be granted right then.
Cons: Students can be anywhere and make calls telling parents one thing but the reality being something else. This can occur using a land line, true, but cell phones just make this opportunity more accessible and tempting. Also, prolonged talk time used by teens can cause large cell phone bills for parents.
Texting
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Pros: Covert conversing with classmates is sometimes advantageous for high school age children. Privacy is a big issue for many teens and this way, they can send messages without their privacy being invaded. Also for safety reasons, texting with the use of a cell phone is advantageous. If there is a threat in the school and silence is needed, as has been experienced in past school-related tragedies, covert texting could possibly save a child from harm. By being able to convey an "SOS" to a parent or authority through texting, a child's life could be saved.
Cons: Texting is a big problem these days with sexting (sending nude or pornographic sex messages) in the schools. Students can become distracted during class by texting to one another instead of listening to the instructor. Cheating on tests is done through texting as well. Text messaging comes with an additional fee on many cell phone service plans.
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Safety
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Pros: Did a child miss the bus home? Were they stranded at a game? Cell phones can allow children at school to call parents from the school yard, bus stop, or ball game. Global Positioning System (GPS) installed in a child's cell phones can give parents location information of the child when they are carrying the phone. Children with cell phones in school are at an advantage when it comes to this additional safety precaution.
Cons: Many times parents make children targets for violent attackers and thieves by giving them expensive gadgets to take to school. Cell phones can easily be considered in this category, with some costing upward of $400. Despite the advantages of the GPS system, in the case of locating a child, often if only gives parents working knowledge of where the child's phone is at any given time. This knowledge is limited in its advantages.
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References
- Photo Credit high school senior image by Kathy Burns from Fotolia.com
