TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Should Kids Have Cell Phones in School?

Re: Should Kids Have Cell Phones in School?

Herb Stein (herb@herbstein.com)
Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:42:01 GMT

<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote in message
news:telecom26.5.2@telecom-digest.org:

> Should kids be even allowed to bring a phone into the building? If
> so, should it be allowed with them?

> I am curious as to what other people think of this issue. It is
> presently controversial.

> Generally speaking I don't think kids "need" cell phones; for a kid
> they're generally a luxury rather than a need.

> I don't buy the argument that parents need to be able to reach their
> kids "since 9/11". "9/11" was a once in a lifetime event. Other
> disasters, natural or man-created can of course happen, but they are
> rare, too.

I, for one, agree that no school child needs a cell phone. But then
I'm an old guy. I don't think they need helmets when riding a bicycle
either.

Schools just need to ban cell phones.

> However, the argument that pay phones are no longer available is
> unfortunately valid in most places. I've seen lots of places where
> pay phones were pulled (like the local public library). School kids
> tell me they were pulled in school as a result of prank call abuse.

> I don't like the idea that middle school age kids are so interdependent
> on the outside world that they need cells phones to deal with it.
> Parents should be available for their kids directly, not over the
> phone; I don't like parents using the phone as a crutch as too many
> do. Kids tell mom "I'm at the library" when in reality they're
> somewhere they shouldn't be.

> Some companies (including Disney) are advertising GPS/monitoring phones
> for their kids. I don't like the idea of parents becoming "Big
> Brother" either, that makes me really uncomfortable. It's like saying
> to the kids "Oh, we trust you. Well, actually we don't trust you." I
> was a goody-goody growing up, but I'd resent as hell secret attempts by
> my parents to monitor my whereabouts. I think the first thing I'd do
> would be to figure out how to defeat the tracking.
>
> Unfortunately today high school kids have much more adult
> responsibilities than in our day. Having a cell phone is almost a
> necessity. High school age kids today work after school. They have
> varied after school activities. They have no public transit and are
> dependent on the car. They have split parents who both work.

> Any thoughts?

> [public replies, please]

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