Cell phone ban is a wise idea

As I listened to the Weston County School District No. 1 board of trustees mull over the idea of implementing a cell phone ban at Newcastle Middle School, I found myself thinking, “what is there to think about?”
In my opinion, and those of the editorial board at the News Letter Journal think the decision should be simple, ban the cell phone, restrict the cell phone usage and focus on school. 
Only 10 to 15 years ago students were able to function throughout the entire day without having a cell phone connected to their hand at all time. Students learned just as much as they do now, possibly even more because distractions from the school work were less frequent then the constant buzzing in students’ pockets today, students and parents were still able to address emergency situations with the use of the school’s land lines. 
Believe it or not, the schools in the district still have landlines, they all have emails and they all have access to your child at any moment. So, in the case of emergencies the parent still has access to their kids immediately and the distraction is not in the palm of their hands. 
When I was in middle school roughly 16 years ago, computers were sparse and students with cell phones were even fewer and far between. And back then, cell phones had significantly less of the capabilities they have today, like texting and phone calls only. 
Not once did I struggle with not having access to my parents while at school. Not once was there an issue of how to get ahold of a student in an emergency, and not once was there an issue with students being bullied and harassed online.
In fact, bullying and harassment, as far as I saw, was miniscule to what is seen today and the issues with mental health were not nearly as prominent as seen in schools today. 
So, to the parents that may find the need to fight back on this policy, we say cut the apron strings, let your kids be kids and let them focus on school.
To the school district, we support your restriction on cell phones in the middle school and the focus on curriculum and learning. We support the fact that cell phones are unnecessary for learning, especially with every student having their own computer, and we believe that representatives of the school are accurate in their thoughts that restricting the devices would improve the overall atmosphere at the school.