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Should children have cell phones at school?

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YES! I believe our kids should have cell phones with them at all times. While in school, however, the phones should either be "off" or silenced in order to not cause interruptions.

I have my seven-year-old daughter take a cell phone to school for various reasons:

I am concerned about something bad happening to my daughter while in school, at a friend's house or on the school bus. I want her to be able to call 911 at a moment's notice, because I don't trust anyone else to keep her safe like I can. 911 still is not an absolute assurance of safety, but a whole lot better than a teacher, other parent or school bus driver alone.

Imagine something like the Amish school shooting incident or the Virginia tech shooting why did nobody call 911 immediately because nobody had direct access to a cell phone, perhaps?
I told my daughter to hide and call 911 if any bad person enters the school or classroom, if there is any kind of emergency on the way back from school or if perhaps she's at a friend's house and she wants to come home, because some "sick" individual scared her with sexual advances (that has never happened, but who knows what could happen!)!

My daughter has her cell phone for only one reason, and that is personal safety!

As for concerns about additional distracting cell phone functions like texting, Internet access and the like: "What keeps you parents from providing your kids with a very BASIC cell phone WITHOUT those features?"
The phone my daughter has, is a military standard rugged phone, and the company I get service from lets you choose certain features for each separate phone line/cell phone on your account. My daughter has only regular calling, including call waiting, caller ID and voice mail. Yes, she can receive text messages, but can only reply with pre-selected answers like "yes", "no", "cancel" and "Can I call you later?"
Besides, she knows that she is being held responsible for each and every phone call she makes. Therefore she usually places no calls to anyone but my husband and I. She knows that if she wants to call friends, she can do that from our house phone with limited supervision.

And if your kids don't stay within the boundaries you set, with all respect, you may want to reconsider your parenting style. It's not the cell phones that are the problem; it's the parents of the kids that disobey the schools laws regarding cell phone use! Teach boundaries and consequences if rules are broken and your kids will follow in line! That will make the whole cell phone-in-school-issue a lot easier and SAFER for everyone!

Learn more about this author, Petra Sando.
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