This week’s question: Do you agree with the Cherokee County Board of Education’s decision, which was based on a new state law, to ban students from using cell phones during the school day?
- Yes, phones are a distraction from getting an education.
- No, phones are too valuable in case of an emergency.
- I can see both sides on this issue.
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“I think it’s a distraction. Students have enough going on with the curriculum and so forth that they should not have a phone to use during classroom time. If they wanna have access for making emergency calls, they should be able to do that, but definitely not using cell phones in the classroom or at school.
“I’ve seen in some cases where the phones are locked up in a locker or closet, and they retrieve it when they leave. I think the learning would be much better because the focus won’t be on the text messages they’re trying to send but on what the teacher’s trying to teach them.”
Jeff Manson
Bellview
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“I think they should not be able to actively use cell phones in the classroom because it’s a huge distraction. However, I do feel like they need to have cell phones in case of emergency, and they need to call their family if there’s an active shooter or something.
“They could turn them off but then you’d have to police them and that would be an extra chore for the teacher. I think it’s a huge distraction and they also use them for their test answers, they look up things for the test answers online.”
Kelly Johnson
Marble
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“The kids need to have the phones in their possession in case of emergency. I don’t think the option of having them all put into a basket is a good one. I think it’s bad because when the emergency happens, you’re going to have 20 or 30 kids all huddling over the basket trying to grab their phones. Meanwhile, they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing, like hiding and blocking doors.
“I recommend they have some sort of scrambling signal during the day that keeps them from connecting to the internet. The administration has it in their procedures that when an active shooter is declared, the first thing they do is disable the scrambling and then the kids can call out.”
Joe Hubbell
Murphy
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“I don’t think they should have them in school at all, otherwise they’d have to police it. It’s also no good to have a phone anyway if it’s in a box somewhere until after school. They need to put guards in the schools, they need to have a police officer
there. With an active shooter, it’s too late to call out and wait for police to show up.
“They need somebody in the school that can take care of those situations when they arise. We’re from Florida and we were right there in Parkland when they had the active shooter and shot all those kids. I’d be willing to pay more in taxes to have somebody at the school.”
David Barber
Bellview
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“I can see both sides of it. I agree with taking them away because of the distraction, but I’m also willing to let them have it in case something does happen. We had a basket when I was in school, and we just put them in that.”
Dakota Thrower
Culberson