I had a cell phone in high school (my parents gave it to me right before I got my license) and I just don't recall it being a problem - I'd usually keep it in my car during the day, or if I brought it into school it'd be in my backpack on silent.

Apparently they now have a policy where after being busted for the third time for inappropriate cell phone use, they keep it for a year. It must be a bigger problem now. I never minded keeping my phone in my car because I'd see all my friends at school in the halls - we had our "meetup" spots.

i dont understand the phone rule. anything could happen at a school. and there are not enough phones at the school for us to call our parents so i keep my phone in my pocket on vibrate. they cant do anything to you if they dont see it or here it.

When I was in HS (I graduated in '03), we were not allowed to have them on our person in class, they had to stay in our lockers on silent. We could use them at lunch and break (and in between classes if we were low key about it), and I don't recall there being any problems about it. My little sister is a sophomore at the same HS, and if they can have them with them as long as the phone is OFF. Not on silent or vibrate, they must be OFF. She told me one teacher even does random "cell phone checks" to make sure the phones are actually off. I think if you're caught with them, you get them taken away and you have to go pick them up from the secretary in the office. After getting them taken away so many times, your parents have to come in to pick them up and sign some notice saying their kids are disrupting class with the phone before they can get it back. I think there's a clause on the thing the parents sign that basically says "Your kid keeps interrupting class with this damn thing, and if he/she does it one more time, we're keeping the phone the rest of the semester. We understand you may have spent a small fortune on this phone, but you've been made aware of the situation and rules, your students know them as well, so make sure your kid keeps the damn thing off. kthnxby."

they keep ours for 5 days on the 1st offense. There is no such thing as a warning at our school.
2nd offense 3 day suspension and taken for the semester
3rd offense 10 day suspension and taken for the remainder of the year.