Texting is a must, so it shouldn't be a fuss.

           Beaverton school district has a rule, off and away for cell phones, most students do not follow this rule. In class we are not suppose to text, but what about lunch? Lunch is a time, where students get away from schoolwork, kick back and take a break from their studies, so really what's the harm? Well, we interviewed teachers and students about what their thoughts are about this issue.

         First we interviewed Mrs. Baas, we asked her some basic questions such as, why do you think the off and away rule applies during lunch? Her answer was "To enforce the off and away rule, it's not a harmful thing during lunch." As students we brought up the question if she is aware or not of all the texting during her class. Her answer consisted of two words "Umm… Yes." Along with Mrs. Baas, we also interviewed another teacher. We asked her the same questions. The first question was why do you think the rule off and away is enforced during lunch? "Because students are still in school and students might be making inappropriate choices such as sexting.” She extrapolated that the school can be sued for such actions. Next we asked her if the off and away rule didn’t apply to lunch periods would it decrease the amount student text during classes. The anonymous teacher responded “yes and no.” She further in depth explained her answer that it would because they would respect the rule more and get out whatever they needed to say during lunch. She said it also wouldn’t because maybe once a student got into a conversation they wouldn’t be able to stop and continue texting into their next class. Another question we asked her was are there people in your class that text and if so what do you do to stop it. She stated that yes she has noticed people that text throughout her class but if they are texting in there pocket or under the table she can’t take the phone away and there’s not much she can do about it, because once she comes forward you will put it in your pocket until she walks away. We then asked her what do you think the benefits are of using cell phones during class. She said there are things on your phone that could help you work during class such as a calculator. Many students forget there school supplies but very rarely forget their phones so with a phone you would never forget it and always be prepared to class with the needed materials. Lastly we asked the teacher what are the disadvantages to using your phone during class. She said most students would get to caught up in their phones and not pay attention causing those people’s grades to drop. But we decided we should not be biased and interview two students that attend Stoller middle school.

           The first student interviewed is Julie S. We asked Julie what are the benefits of texting during lunch? She stated “people texting during classes would be less common because students would get out what they needed to say during lunch.” Our next question was why do you think there is an off and away rule during lunch? She replied saying “I honestly don’t know I don’t see how it helps student at all.” Followed by that question we asked her do you believe people sext message during class if not why. She responded saying “it’s not even possible because teachers are always stalking you and you can’t just randomly take you clothes off and take inappropriate pictures during class.” We then interviewed our last student Asia h. We started interviewing her with the question what are the benefits to texting in lunch. She said, “We can contact our parents and wouldn’t have technology anxiety for the rest of the day. We continued this by asking our next question which was if students were able to text message during lunch would they text less during classes, please extrapolate. She pleaded yes we could say everything we needed to say during lunch instead of class periods. We informed Asia h that if a student was caught sexting in school the school could get sued. Then we asked her if she believes people sext during school. She replied say “No, because people could look over your shoulder.” The last question we asked Asia h was do you think there are any disadvantages to texting in lunch? Please explain your answer. “Well the only thing I can think of is students could be bullied by other students using their phones. But really kids are getting bullied anyway in school whether it’s at lunch or in the classrooms.”

            Furthermore, there are many pros and cons to texting during lunch and class periods. Texting during lunch can be spun as good or bad but it really is a matter of opinion and point of view. But ultimately the school makes the final decision.