Relax with the phone bans

School shouldn’t be considered a prison. Let’s keep heading in that direction.

Initially, California banned students from using electronics like pagers in 1990 because of their association with drug dealing. However, the state repealed this ban 13 years later after students from James Logan High School raised concerns stemming from the events of Columbine and 9/11.

Recently, however, more and more schools throughout the country have been banning student cell phone use throughout the entire school day, including during lunch due to the rise of social media increasing distraction and bullying. In Timber Creek High School, any phone caught in sight would result in the student having to deliver their phone to the office for the rest of the day. Additionally, students would have to go all the way to the office to call their parents.

This can be highly problematic. First, think of how backward this would be. If families need to contact their child for any issue, they would have to force the student out of class, and then have them go all the way to the office to be able to talk to them. This would cost students much more class time than if the parents could simply send their child a text.

Communication would also become an incredible challenge. Many extracurriculars use platforms such as Remind or Discord to communicate meetings and events to their members. QR Codes are also a staple for many clubs, being able to serve as an attendance form or a link to sign up for events. With a ban on phones as a whole, clubs would get much harder to run.

There is also potential for a wealth gap to impact students. Assuming laptops are still used in classes, students who have other laptops that aren’t school-issued would gain a large advantage, being able to use blocked websites and essentially bypass the bans.

The safety of students should also be in question. Imagine a world where students weren’t allowed to bring their phones to school, and an emergency at school happens. This is why phone bans were eased in the first place, and if we were to ban them again, we essentially go straight back two decades, where in the worst-case scenario, students would be unable to even call for help.

With the potential for so many problems spurring up if phones were banned entirely, it would be best for all of us if we were to keep phones around. Phone pockets should be enough.