Last updated April 12, 2019
Students cannot get enough of texting one another on their cell phones – even in class. With four out of five teenagers in the United States believed to own a cell phone, this means around seventeen million teenagers, most of whom bring those cell phones into school according to Marketcharts.com.
At Woodbury Senior High School in Woodbury, Minnesota, school policy bans them from being used in class, but the majority of the students use them anyway. “I see texting them every day in class and chronically in the hallways,” says teacher Ms Nichols.
Assistant Principal Mr. Herber says, “I see one to two students per week (using a cell phone) in my section of the alphabet (A-G). I think the students who know the policy follow it.” Students are allowed to use the cell phones at lunchtime and between classes but still the in class texting continues, with punishments for those caught doing so varying. “If it is out in class for the first time, it is to be confiscated and returned at the end of class,” Herbert notes. “The second time, it is confiscated and turned it into the office and the student must go to the office. The third time the student is caught texting, their cell phone is taken to the office and the parent or guardian must pick it up. That student is assigned detention.” “Kids shouldn’t be texting in class,” Nichols adds. “Texting in class takes away from what they are doing in class.”