Editor’s note: Today’s letters to the editor are from Southwest Junior High students learning about persuasive writing.

To the editor:

What’s the big deal about having cell phones in school? Some phones are a life line between parents and children, in cases of emergencies says the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). If something bad happened to your child and you had no idea, you might not be able to help the child in time. Pittsburgh’s district officials say keeping parents in the know of where their kids are is safer for everyone’s well being.

Randi Weingarten, president of UFT, agrees that cell phones should be accessible in cases of emergencies. She thinks cell phones are a distraction in the classroom, so her compromise was cell phones should be kept in lockers, turned off. But if all cell phones were in lockers and something bad happened in the classroom the students wouldn’t be able to reach their phones. So what was thought was that cell phones should be in classrooms turned off in backpacks instead of lockers. Then if something bad happened like the roof collapsed, an intruder came, or even the class was locked in a classroom when the teacher left, a child could turn their phone on and call for help. Even if phones might be a distraction to students, I think in the long run it’s worth it.

Ashley Hocking,

Southwest Junior High