I personally agree with and strongly promote "Policy 1" because I believe students should be able to keep in touch with their social life during the times in which their attention is not required. Look at it this way: it isn't like students don't talk to each other in the halls, in the restrooms, outside school, in class and during lunch anyway, so why ban a device used to talk to someone who isn't in the room when it's okay for them to talk? It doesn't disrupt anyone or anything in general. It is simply the time students take to set their minds aside from work for a while; take a break.

Yes, cell phones can be loud when they go off. However, there is a setting on basically every cellular device that can control the ringer volume. The choices range from "silence all" to "full volume". If every student with a cell phone in their possession keeps their ringer volume setting on "vibrate all" or "silence all", the variable of unintended disruption caused by machinate noises will be completely eliminated.

However, I do understand why some people would prefer "Policy 2" because school is a place of learning and not social hour. But does is really defeat the purpose of learning if a student is using his/her phone when he/she is taking a break? No. Therefore, "Policy 2" is unreasonable.

The whole purpose of this letter is to make the board of education realize that students using their phones during their leisure time is no different than everything else they do during that time. As long as it doesn't disrupt the learning process, I believe cell phones should be allowed to be used in school by students.