by Pamela Rodriguez

Created on: September 11, 2007

Absolutely, unequivocally, resounding NO.

I have the wonderful fortune of working with teenagers all day long in the high school setting. This is what I have witnessed;

Teens have distractions that would boggle the mind these days. Clothing, shoes, boyfriends, peer pressure revolving around drug use, sex, and other questionable activities. Now we have added to that the cell phone. Such a small innocent looking little thing, but, as they say, sometimes dangerous things come in small packages.

Teenagers today are addicted to this innocuous little box of wires, computer chips and buttons. Just try and take one away from a teenager for any length of time! There is a removal process, stages of removal, withdrawal if you will. These little cell phones are the new drug of choice for teens of today.

In the particular school that I teach at, cell phones - just this year - have been banned from usage, even in the parking lot as you are leaving school for the day. Bravo I say! But the big loophole in this new rule is that the school has not banned cell phones from campus. You can still carry them, just don't use them? what?! This is much like a rehab clinic telling a meth addict "oh sure you can CARRY the meth around in your pocket, but just don't use it" How redundant.

On a regular basis, meaning several times a day, I witness students pulling out their cell phones, looking right then left under veiled eyes and then quickly, thumbs flying, get off a text message. It happens on precious class time, lunch time, go sit in your car and pretend you are getting your home work time, run to the bathroom time, you name it. If this is not a serious distraction at the very least, or a serious addiction I don't know what is.

There is ABSOLUTELY no real NEED for a student to carry a cell phone for the 6-7 hours that they are at school, SUPPOSED to be devoting themselves to the learning process. If there is an emergency at home, the student can be notified very efficiently through the office at school. If there is an emergency at school the parents are notified very effectively, again, through the office.

Cell phones are a major distraction and should be treated as such on campus.

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