• Doug Most

    Associate Vice President, Executive Editor, Editorial Department Twitter Profile

    Doug Most is a lifelong journalist and author whose career has spanned newspapers and magazines up and down the East Coast, with stops in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, New Jersey, and Boston. He was named Journalist of the Year while at The Record in Bergen County, N.J., for his coverage of a tragic story about two teens charged with killing their newborn. After a stint at Boston Magazine, he worked for more than a decade at the Boston Globe in various roles, including magazine editor and deputy managing editor/special projects. His 2014 nonfiction book, The Race Underground, tells the story of the birth of subways in America and was made into a PBS/American Experience documentary. He has a BA in political communication from George Washington University. Profile

Comments & Discussion

Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 53 comments on Why Schools Should Ban Cell Phones in the Classroom—and Why Parents Have to Help

  1. I think that this was helpful, but there is an ongoing question at my school, which is, though phones may be negative to health and knowledge and they’re a distraction what happens if there was a shooting or a fire or a dangourus weather event and you don’t have a phone to tell your parents or guardians at home if you are alright? (Reply answer if have one)

    1. well, the school has the technology that can help communicate that to the parents, and if that were to happen, I guess that’s why there’s always a cell phone in the classrooms those old-time ones, but I feel it would not be okay in case of a shooting since you have to go silence, and on the moment of fire or weather everything happens so fast in the moment.

    2. In schools all teachers have cell phones. So one way or the other the messages would get out to the parents as needed. If a student gets on the cell phone to inform the parent about the activity, that’s taken place it could cause panic. School staffs are informed as to how to handle such situations.. what I have seen take place in classes are students who are texting each other either in the same room or in another classroom during the school time. Many students spend time on YouTube and not concentrating what’s going on in the classroom.

    3. I’m a teacher. If there’s an event like this, it could be detrimental to the emergency system if too many people are calling. Also, kids don’t have the common sense to turn their ringers off. They go off in my class, more often than they should.. If there’s a shooter in any school, parents are going to be calling their kids. Phones constantly going off could lead a shooter to specific places if they can hear them. I understand the parent’s arguments as to why they want their kids to have their phones, but that very argument could lead to their child being hurt or killed in the scenario mentioned above.

    4. the school can handle that and already have methods in place to keep the students safe in case of any emergency and can contact the parents when necessary. This also happens very rarely. The latter is better because you already have the methods of contacting the parents and keeping the students safe and they never really have the need to do that because of the rarity of emergencies that need parents’ involvement.

  2. I think that this was helpful, but there is an ongoing question at my school, which is, though phones may be negative to health and knowledge and they’re a distraction what happens if there is a shooting or a fire or a dangerous weather event and you don’t have a phone to tell your parents or guardians at home if you are alright?

  3. this helped me with my school project about whether cell phones should be banned in school. I think yes but the class is saying no. I think it’s because I was raised without a phone so I know how to survive and contact my parents without a phone. but anyway, this helped me with my essay! thank you!

  4. Thanks, this helped a lot I’m working on an essay and this has been really helpful.by the way, some people may think, but what if i need to call my mom/dad/guardian.
    but the real thing is, there is a high chance that there will be a telephone near you.
    or if it’s something that only you want them to know,go ahead and ask your teacher if you can go to the office.

  5. I mean it could also depend on the student, like for example let’s say that i’m a student inside the school, if I used my phone and I got off it, for me it would instant focus, but for others students they might take longer or the same time as me, it all really depends if the student is tend to be responsible with their time trying to focus so I would say that this claim is not true.

  6. I think that is article was very good. I’m currently writing and essay and I have used this for most of my evidence so far. I personally think that cellphones should be banned from the classroom because the school will get the information that your parents need out to them so you don’t have to cause a panic because you don’t know if your parents know what is going on at your school or not. It will just be better because then we wouldn’t have as many distractions in the classrooms as we do now because kids are always getting caught on their phones and they are constantly being sent down to the office and it takes time to get the class back on track. I personally agree with Doug that cellphones should be banned in the classrooms.

  7. It’s striking to realize that the reason some parents feel the need to advocate for phone usage in school is due to concerns about a potential school shooting. While parents may be more informed about the harmful effects of smartphones in a learning environment, they take preference for the safety of their child in a hypothetical situation. It’s a hard debate because while the safety of their children is important, the drastic effects of students needing 20 minutes to refocus is significantly impacting their ability to learn in their classes. I find it very saddening that this is what our world has come to – prioritizing safety for a school shooting over academic performance, because it is no longer so unusual for a school to experience that type of tragedy.

    I liked the comment, “Addiction to phones is kind of like second-hand smoking. If you’re young and people around you are using it, you are going to want it too,” because I experienced this phenomenon in my early middle school years, with the invention of the first iPhone. All of a sudden an invention that was broadcasted on the news became an essential for the other students in my middle school class, to the point where I became one of the only students without one. Then, I finally succumbed to the pressure, and begged my parents for an iPhone as I felt extremely left out. It’s frustrating to accept that this pressure is affecting children now younger and younger by the year, with even six year old children I babysit owning their own iPhone/iPad.

    I also think that with the prevalence of child phone usage significantly increases parental anxiety, particularly for those parents who are already overbearing to start. Giving parents the ability to contact their child at any given time is harmful, and it can create a dependence on either side. It’s ironic given the fact that parents push their children to focus and succeed in their classes, yet harass them all day about minuscule things that could’ve been addressed later that day. So yes, parents need to stop calling their kids during the day.

  8. I think the teachers or guardians will allow you to contact someone but I think after the shooting or crisis they will contact your parents or guardian from the office or person in charge

  9. very helpful for me but I do think that we should still have phones in school. my daughter has a phone and she says that at some point the schools need to think about the safety of children. she is ten yrs old and one day when she almost forgot her phone but she remembered and grabbed but a homeless man came up to her asking her if she wanted some food and good thing she had her phone because she called me crying saying that the schools say no phones but I grabbed it today anyway and I almost got kidnapped

  10. I really do agree to everything in this i really do think kids need to be off there phones all the time and even when there parents calls them yeah it might be important but still don’t call your kids or text them….

  11. I am 11, and I’m not even allowed to have a cell phone at all. Thank you. This helped me a lot with an essay I have to write for school, and I agree with you that this could increase cyberbullying and the number of distractions a kid could have in school. Thank you again, and I hope you keep researching and persuading people why they should not be allowed to have cell phones in class.

Post a comment.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *