Cell Phones Should Be Allowed In School

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Have you ever heard of the gruesome Columbine High School massacre? This incident occurred on April 20th 1999 and involved two students embarking on a shooting rampage, killing twelve students, a teacher and wounding twenty three others. Unfortunately during this incident, the school's most easily accessible phone was on the other side of the school in the library. Perhaps some of these lives could have been saved if the students in this class had cell phones that they could've used to contact the authorities more quickly. The issue we are addressing today is the use of cellular devices in educational facilities. I believe that cell phone use is of extreme convenience, and has academically beneficial aspects, among it's so called "faults". In a nutshell, here are some academically beneficial aspects of cell phones and other devices. Most modern devices are capable of remembering complex math theorems and are able to note due dates for assignments. My phone has a "Notes" application, where I conveniently store all of my assignments. So, for those of you who are arguing that there is no reason to have a phone in school, how do you think I get absolutely all of my homework assignments done on time? Another aspect that is advantageous in most cell phones are calculator applications. Rather than spending an additional $100 on a fancy Texas Instruments calculator for Trigonometry or Calculus, I am easily able to access an application on my cellphone that allows me to take advantage of all of the functions that any standard calculator is able to use. There is no real "problem" with cell-phones in themselves. Students just need to learn, and remember, that there is a time and a place for everything. A cell-phone should generally not be used in class, unless perhaps somebody is standing at the front of the room with a gun, or if there was some other calamity, such as: kids making bomb threats and what not - for these reasons I find it completely reasonable for a child to be permitted to be equipped with a powered "ON" cellular device. I don't know about you, but if I have kids one day who are potentially in danger, I would want to be aware of this at once. The chief argument against cell phone usage in school is that they are a disruption. I would agree with the fact that people who have those disgustingly loud rap music-blaring ring tones can be quite annoying, but how often do you actually HEAR somebody's cell phone go off in class?

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