by Ali StrandThe rise of the cell phone becoming such a popular and common place piece of technology to own has caused such a fuss that schools have banned their use throughout the day. It is obvious why cell phone use is prohibited during class time; they create a huge distraction for not only the teacher but everyone in the classroom. However what’s hard for us [students] to understand is why they are also forbidden between classes and during breaks. It creates an inconvenience for students who need to get in touch with someone quickly, whether it be a parent or just a friend across the building. Here at Westborough High, the time we are given in between classes and during breaks are chances that we are allowed to talk without raising our hand, eat food, and socialize. So if we’re allowed to talk to friends in person, why not on a cell phone or through a quick text message?  

We’ve all heard that “Beep. Beep. Beep,” noise during class at some point in our high school career. Immediately after we start to turn and look for the student who forgot to turn off their phone before school. Countless times after a second or two of scanning of our surprised fellow students we look back to the front and see the teacher is taking out there own cell phone! Now, it comes with the territory that teachers have a few more privileges than students, but if they’re disrupting the class how can they penalize us for using a phone between classes, what’s their excuse? They can interrupt our class time to chat; isn’t this the reason that the cell phones were banned from school? Students and teachers may never get equal benefits, but students should have a limited version of the same privilege.   

It may be argued that the school allows free reign of the office phones since we can use those if there’s an emergency. However this agreement can be somewhat mute because of the sheer inconvenience of using the office lines. If the student wants to call home talking about something that they would rather not publicize to the bystanders in the office, it can be embarrassing or annoying to have a discussion in front of them. Why not make it easy on everyone and allow cell phones in school to let a student personally go back and forth with the person trying to reach them.  

While there are good intentions behind this cell phone ban, these objectives only apply to various parts of the school day. During classes cell phones should be turned off in a backpack or in a locker, however in between classes, during break, or during lunch period, the convenience of the cell phone can help the student while preventing a disruption in our time to learn.