Dear Principal,

I and the other students appreciate your reviewing of our school's cell phone polices, but I do not support allowing students to use cell phones during lunch and other free periods during the school day. Most students at our school do own a cell phone and carry it with them on an average school day. I do acknowledge that many students are in support of allowing cell phones to be permitted during certain times during school, but I strongly disagree.

There are several important reasons why cell phones are not allowed to be used during school. If the students are given the ability to use their phones at some parts of the day they will be tempted to use them all day.

If students know they will be allowed to use their phone during lunch and their free period, what stops them from using them in the classroom during crucial learning time for students? Suppose that during class students are texting and their cell phone's ring tone goes off while their teacher is teaching the class academic lesson.

Or Imagine students taking an important test in a classroom. A student can easily take their phone and send a text message of the answers to another student. It's that simple for students to do when a teacher steps away for a moment or turns around.

Put yourself in a gym locker room. When students are changing another student has the chance to take a photo of another student and post it somewhere on the internet.

I must stress that when the students attending school here know they will be allowed to have their phones turned on during parts of the day, there will be students who refuse to follow guidelines and rules for when the phones should be turned on and off. These problems created from allowing cell phones are an example of what could become a reality for our school.

I reassure you that prohibiting cell phones from being used in school is a rule that has been upheld with good reasoning and logic.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Student