My philosophy is a child can have a cell phone when he or she can buy it and pay the monthly bill with money earned on a job. If not, n-o. No family plan either. I started working at 16 when cell phones did not exist, and we had one phone line in the house. I never called a student in high school by phone even once. In an emergency a child can go to an adult.
Some years ago, I was subbing in a 7th grade math class at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Academic Middle School, San Francisco. That’s a mouthful, but they had a uniform, so that was good. I told a boy who was talking and fiddling with the window shades next to his desk to be quiet and repeated my admonition several times. Suddenly, I became frustrated and shouted at him to shut up. I got nervous for a few seconds, but nothing happened. Both of us knew that the principal was very strict. If the boy had repeated my words to the principal, I can imagine their conversation.
“What were you doing?” the principal asks.
“Talking,” the boy answers.
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
“Get out of my office.”