Picture your daily routine. Maybe you grab your phone first thing in the morning when you wake up to scroll mindlessly before you face the challenges the day has to offer. When you eat breakfast, your eyes are glued to your screen as if eating is only a side task. As high school students, our phones have become such an essential part of our everyday lives. Not just to connect with friends and stay in the loop, but also to organize our lives, Google quick questions, stay safe, and more. 

When we walk into class every morning, most rooms have the all-so-familiar 36-pocket, blue fabriced, cell phone holder hooked onto the wall, that we all must (unwillingly) abide by. Reluctant to give up their smartphones, students unenthusiastically drop their devices in each slot. Dozens of cellular devices live in these storage pockets for the majority of the school day, a truth that has become the norm for most students at Lexington High School. Now, just one of the many problems that comes up is, what would happen in case of an emergency?

For starters, students need cell phones to communicate: it’s the reason why these devices were created. For members of LHS’s activity-rich community, there are a plethora of clubs, sports teams, and other extracurriculars that consume their lives. As high school students balance these responsibilities, they must keep themselves on the same page as their guardians, as any misunderstanding in communication would be chaotic. Shooting a quick text in class before you forget is sometimes the most effective way to get on board with your home figures.

Furthermore, in case of an emergency, communication with guardians is essential. Smartphones are the quickest, most accessible means in this case, and something that many students struggle with while their phones live in numbered pockets. Not to mention, whether it be a quick check of your schedule or writing down a reminder for a big homework assignment, there are plenty of other things that make having access to a smartphone valuable. 

That’s not to say that cell phones don’t pose problems. In a classroom setting specifically, the presence of a screen itself is distracting. For any student with a long, seven-hour school day, the temptation of knowing you have access to social media or video games with just the click of a few buttons is not small. Students miss the educational value of school lessons when they are “half-present” in the room with the other half of their consciousness glued to their phones. 

Maybe with more lenient phone regulations though, this would change. Ultimately, we can’t completely ban or completely remove all limits on phones, as that would cause chaos both ways. But by giving students the freedom and power of having a cell phone present in their possession in class, they would feel comfortable and safe. My two cents is that establishing this environment would make students feel less tempted to go out of their way and sneak screen time, and instead help to balance the level of distraction and safety they get from their phones.