 I just became aware of something this morning that actually horrified me when I read about it. So this morning I got up and I was reading a local news story about a high school in my area. And this high school had all of their students walk out in protest because the school had banned the possession of cell phones during school hours. The students are no longer able to have a cell phone on them while in class. And for me, I had just always assumed that was standard practice. It makes sense. If you possibly learn anything or focus on a class or presentation or if you're doing something at a job that requires your undivided attention, obviously you should not have a cell phone on you at all and banning the use or the possession of a cell phone again makes logical sense to me. Now it would seem I'm a little bit out of the loop on this because I don't have any kids so I don't have any kids that attend public schools. So I just always assumed that these kids, they shouldn't feel entitled that they can just bring anything they want to school. I know when I was in school, when I was in high school, for example, of course, we're doing many, many years ago, right? Way before cell phones and things like that. But still, I couldn't just bring anything I wanted to school, right? It would actually get you kicked out of school, get you suspended. The ladies, you couldn't just wear anything. If you wore something that was a little too sexy or risque, right, they would actually send you home, make you change clothes to come back to school. Same thing with the guys, you know, certain articles of clothing. You couldn't wear anything that might suggest you were a member of a gang. You couldn't wear hoodies, especially in the warmer parts of the years. Like, why are you trying to hide and cover up? It just seemed that was normal operating procedure and they could check your lockers. They could check your backpacks. Obviously, you couldn't bring weapons of any kind to school, which kind of made sense. Why would a minor, I mean, most laws prevent minors from even being in possession of knives and brass knuckles and things like that. But still, you know, you just couldn't bring anything you wanted to school. There were rules. There were rules on how you could dress and what you could bring. And I just assumed that that was the way it is today and probably one of the things that every school should ban because it's a dangerous item to be in possession of at a school is a cell phone. And what really shocked me is I started doing some research on the internet. After I read about this local high school in my area, I just did a Google search. I searched for high school walkout protest cell phones. And this is happening in hundreds of high schools all over this country right now in this school year and many of them last school year as well because I guess this is kind of a new phenomenon of these schools all of a sudden starting to ban the possession of cell phones. And apparently the students pretty much across the board are outraged. They're all in protest. They're all walking out these entitled brats that feel like this possession of theirs, which it is their possession. They should be able to carry it anywhere they want, even if it's at school. And wow, are they in for a rude awakening because eventually these kids, they're going to go to college maybe or they're of course eventually going to be employed somewhere. They're going to be at a workplace and a workplace damn sure isn't just going to let you dress any way you want or bring any item you want to work. There have been many scientific studies done, research done, about the cell phone addiction in adolescence. So these high school age kids, it's estimated that somewhere around 16% of them are actually addicted to their cell phones. They suffer from this mobile phone addiction. And just the eye test tells you this. I have teenage nieces and nephews, a bunch of them. And anytime I try to have a conversation with them, I notice some of them have this cell phone addiction because they have to have this phone on them. They're addicted to social networking, social media. Every time they get a notification, they have to look at it and respond. And it's difficult sometimes to have a conversation with these teenage nieces and nephews of mine because I'm trying to talk to them and then all of a sudden they're no longer focused on what I'm actually trying to say, the conversation we were trying to have because now the phone has blown up. They got some Twitter message or Snapchat or whatever the kids are into these days. And they have to immediately give their full attention to that. So obviously this would be a problem in school. It would also be a problem in the workplace, right? Because you can't have that. School and work demand your undivided attention at all times. What I found truly horrifying was some of the comments made by these students that walked out in protest of some of these schools. Students were saying things like they don't feel safe at school unless they have a phone on them. They're really paranoid that something's going to happen at school and without a phone they can't actually protect themselves in some way. This is actually a sign of mobile phone addiction. That's one of the symptoms is this kind of paranoia and the fact that you feel an unease without that cell phone, without being connected all the time that you're somehow in danger. Some of the students said that the decisions made by their school to actually ban cell phones caused them anxiety issues, that they were having trouble sleeping at night knowing that they weren't going to be able to bring their phones to school. And that's just weird to me. That's obvious that something is wrong with these kids. And what's even more horrifying is that these kids' parents are actually defending their kids protesting. Many of the parents are also protesting the decision of these schools banning the use of cell phones. And some of the parents make the same complaints. They don't feel safe if their kid doesn't have a phone and some of the parents also are talking about their suffering from anxiety issues and can't sleep at night knowing that their kid might not have a phone on them during class. And of course that begs the question, what the hell is wrong with these parents, right? Well probably some of the parents are also mobile phone addicts and thus they suffer from the same kind of mental issues that their kids are having. I think one of the most unfortunate parts of these stories is these schools. They have all of their kids walk out in protest, all of them, right? They're all in agreement that banning the possession of cell phones during class is wrong. Have you ever seen a group of people, any group of people, any large group of people where they all agree on something that never happens, right? There's no way that the entire school, an entire high school is going to walk out in every single child actually thinks that having a cell phone in class is a good thing. You know there is a large percentage of those kids that are not addicted to cell phones don't like cell phones or at least they're there to actually learn because when I was in school I knew a lot of nerds, right? I was kind of a nerd, right? In class I actually wanted to learn and anything that got in my way, students talking, you know, playing music, whatever it happens to be, anything that distracted me in any way from what I was trying to focus on which was that teacher presenting whatever it happens to be they were presenting, that annoyed the hell out of me. That hasn't changed as far as I'm sure there's kids like that today, many kids just like that today who actually don't want those phones in class but they have to also walk out in protest because they're actually peer pressured, right? They would be afraid to ever speak out in support of a cell phone ban because they know how it would make them look from the other kids because these kids that would be for a cell phone ban they're certainly going to be a minority and obviously when you're at that age you really can't stand out from the crowd, right? Conformity is kind of the order of the day in high school and I think because of some of those kids, the ones that want cell phones to be banned in school but can't speak out about it, I think that is the number one reason why they should be banned. We often talk about, you know, protecting minority groups and I think this is a situation where people should actually think about this is that these kids are actually being harmed, the nerds, the ones that want to go to school, the ones that actually want to learn, they're being harmed by the ones that just want to goof off and play on their phones and these kids deserve protection, they deserve our support, not just the broader community support, they also deserve support from their own parents and it is strange that so many parents don't back up these kids the way they should. So I'm making this video today because it was a topic again, I wasn't that aware that some of this stuff was going on but now that I am aware I would implore anybody, especially anybody within the educational system as a teacher, a principal at high school, college, whatever it happens to be, if you are in a situation where phones are actually allowed at your institution, I think you should actually push for them not to be and don't worry about what kids say, what the kids think about this really doesn't matter, you're the teacher, you're responsible for their well-being, they are minors, what they think is irrelevant, you are the one that's ultimately responsible for them so you make the responsible choice for them and the same goes for those of you that are parents, put down your phone, make your kids put down their phones because you see what these schools are doing, these schools are trying to protect your kids by taking their phones away confiscating phones, banning the use of phones, they're trying to do what is right for your child, why are you not also trying to do what is in your child's best interest? Peace.