There are many reasons why phones shouldn’t be banned. We need to come together as a society and get over the fact that kids have their phones in class and God forbid, they go on it to see something during class.
Now I do understand some kids have a problem with being on their phones during instructional time, but most teachers have a solution to that, like having pouches inside the classroom that you can grab after instructional time. Also, I don’t understand why people care about what students do in their free time during class. If a student doesn’t do the work they’re assigned, that’s their prerogative. It is a good teaching moment that shows students that you have to do what’s assigned to you before doing anything else.
Also, the argument of banning phones in school because there is “too much bullying happening online” has not looked at statistics. For example, a survey was conducted by the National Library of Medicine, and out of 20,268 students surveyed, only 6.4% of students were bullied online, 16.5% of students were bullied in school, and lastly, 9.4% of students were bullied both online and in school. So, using bullying as a reason why phones should be banned isn’t a good enough argument.
Lastly, emergency situations. As someone with a younger sibling and a parent who works in a field that he can’t drop everything to go get her. So, it’s important to have my phone in these types of situations so I know if I have to be the one to get her from school. There are also the emergency situations in school with lockdowns or fires that do happen and having my phone locked away and not being able to contact anyone. In contrast having my phone lets me communicate with my family members in these situations.
There are many more reasons why I think it’s critical to not lock up the phones and to just leave it to the parents and not the government.