Should S.I.S Studentsbe Allowed to use Smartphones During School?

Our school is called Saipan International School and it has many strict rules. According to our headmaster, all the rules have a valid meaning to them, making these rules proper to enforce.  One of the most important rules that is disliked by the majority of the S.I.S students is that they are not allowed to use cell phones on the campus while school is in session.  This rule makes a lot of sense from the perspective of enforcing it, but there are also factors that display how the use of cell phones during school is a bad idea.  These issues over the rule are constantly debated by the students and the faculty members of S.I.S.

                The view of the teachers and specifically the headmaster is a much more realistic view and is thus easier to hold in place.  However the students view also has an importance in the decision and their view is that cell phones should be allowed during school hours.  Important points that the student body brings up include the fact that something important could come up and thus the student would have to answer his or her phone to reply.  This thing could be as important as a sick or deceased family member or close friend, or maybe there is a community alarm about a dangerous man on the loose and thus the parent would want their daughter of son home.  Students also bring up that their phones can be used in place of their computer, whether the computer is broken, lost, or the student forgot it.  Newer models of smartphones are becoming more advanced and almost all of them are capable of using the internet.  This gives students another reason to try and allow S.I.S to ban the no cell phone rule.  In many other schools on Saipan, students get the privilege to use cell phones during school hours and S.I.S students claim that this is unfair and that if S.I.S wanted to be a better school they should gives students the equality of other commonwealth students. 

                With many arguments from the student’s side, the teachers and specifically the headmaster are able to counter the students’ arguments.  First of all, if there was an emergency, the parent should call the school instead of the students’ cell phone.  The faculty could then tell the student about the emergency.  If the power was out or the schools land line was not working, then the parent could just drive to school and pick up the student.  Most of the student body does not drive and therefore makes it more realistic to pick them up.  The internet argument also is countered by the demanding of the students to come to class prepared.  If they don’t have their computer or it broke, they owe it to themselves to borrow a family member’s or buy a new one.  If they can’t afford a new computer, then they should not be attending S.I.S in the first place; with the high tuition of the school and such.  Finally, S.I.S reminds students that it is a private school, so the headmaster and the board can make decisions based on their ideas and not the ideas of the P.S.S system.  A private school makes its own minor rules and if the students don’t like the rules, then they should switch schools. 

                With many arguments over the issue of cell phone use during school hours in S.I.S, students complain and give reasons for their complaints thus wasting some of the faculty members’ time.  In my opinion, students should just drop the subject because in a school like S.I.S, I can’t see the use of cell phones during school hours being approved.  Although the school has allowed cell phones after or before school hours, they most likely won’t allow them during school hours.