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April 15, 2006: Should Children Be Allowed To Carry Cell Phones on School Grounds?

While there is no official legislation concerning this topic, many schools have outlawed the use and/or the carrying of cell phones on school grounds. Should children be allowed to carry cell phones?

There is no doubt that cell phones can in fact be a life-saving measure - especially when it comes to the possible dangers just in a child's daily life.

Schools that have banned cell phones and pagers instead see them as distractions - cell phones that ring during class can interrupt effective teaching and in general allow some disruptive behavior. In addition, an article posted on schoolsecurity.org claims that "cell phones have been used by students in a number of cases nationwide for calling in bomb threats to schools.' The article continues, "Ringing cell phones can disrupt classes and distract students who should be paying attention to their lessons at hand. Text message has been used for cheating. And new cell phones with cameras could be used to take photos of exams, take pictures of students changing clothes in gym locker areas, and so on."

Cell phones are what I would term a "necessary evil" for youngsters. I think any disruption in classes, or any of the negative social effects listed above would be almost moot if a cell phone proved to be invaluable in saving a life.

And I don't think that cell phones for children will be going away any time soon. With new cell phones specifically targeted towards younger age groups, and the fact that the era of instant communication has arrived (in other words, with the assimilation of the Internet, cell phones and other technological advancements that speed up information, people expect things to happen faster than they used to be), the problem with cell phones and children will only get worse.

("School Safety: Cell Phones, Camera Phones, and Pager Issues" http://www.schoolsecurity.org/trends/cell_phones.html www.schoolsecurity.org 15 April 2006.)

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