I have in the past did some substitute teaching between jobs. I have been in schools and find most forbid cell phones, and yet most kids carry them anyway, turned off, to not get caught with them. Two different scenarios come to mind though.
One, is the many students who stayed after school for basketball or cheerleading practice and such. Many times I have seen a lone student standing out in the dark, after the office is closed and locked up, waiting for a ride. If that were my child, I would want him or her to have a cell phone. Many students do not go straight home but onto babysit and other places, and their parents may desire the student keep their phone on them for use after school. This sounds reasonable.
However I have also seen other things. Bullying. Cell phone pictures taken in the locker room posted on myspace, and other things. The cell phones can be used for cheating if answers are stored in texts. The cell phones can be disruptive.
There is still a question of where a school’s authority ends with this technology too. If a kid at school takes pictures of a kid they are bullying and posts it on myspace, does the school have any authority over this? In my mind, there’s not a simple answer. Bullies existed before technology, but this technology has really increased a bully’s power now. Sometimes the kids being picked on are almost terrorized with texts and myspace gossip. The kids also access their myspace at school in computer lab for instance. I am not sure how we can adapt new school rules and policies, to the new technologies.
The thing is teachers and counselors spend a significant amount of time quelling the teenage drama that goes on with the gossip and bullying. When this magnifies said drama, one does want to just ban the things.