As a busy student consumed with homework and long classes, I look forward to my free hour. In fact, many students throughout the day anticipate their free hour, awaiting the chance to sit down, relax and take a break. All we want to do is have some time for ourselves to catch up on homework or scroll through our phone: the hard thing that we can’t have phones out during the school day.

In my personal opinion, I believe students should be able to have their cell phones out, during times when they are not learning. This luxury would give students the chance to indulge in social media and personal lives while giving them a break from the busy school day.

Even though school is always a learning environment, I think free hours should be a time where kids are allowed to take a break from the strict no-phone rule. As of now, most kids during this period either catch up on homework, complete homework for the next night, or just socialize with friends. I think giving students access to their phones would give them the opportunity to see what is going on in the world around them. After all, it is the students’ responsibility to get tasks finished. It is up to the students to choose if they want to be off topic and scroll through their phones, or use their time wisely and complete homework.

Of course, I can completely see why teachers do not want students to have their cell phones out during the school day, let alone during their BSM hour. First, I believe teachers tend to want to keep students away from their phones so that they will not be on the school’s in-house wifi while using their own personal devices. Allowing students to have phones out, gives them entry to any site or app on their phones without being monitored. I think the idea of this scares faculty members, convincing them to just say no to the use of cellular devices as a whole. While the teachers may believe this about our access, we should be allowed to have them in class because this is the way it is in the outside world.  

The other reason I think teachers dislike the use of cell phones is they believe they are a distraction. They believe if students have them in their back pockets throughout the day they will stray away from the purpose of school. Even though I do believe this statement can be proven true, I think it is our choice to make our phones a distraction or not.

I think the use of cellular devices is a major privilege, and students would be able to handle it maturely being that they are in high school. It is the students’ responsibility to learn, pay attention and get schoolwork done, and if they choose not to, that is not the teachers’ issue. I believe students should be allowed to have their cellphones out in their BSM hour, so they can sit down and relax.