No matter what school you go to, you’re bound to have teachers telling you to act like an adult, but then treat you like a child. From taking away cell phone and bathroom privileges, to having seniors who worked extremely hard on their senior t-shirts being forced to take them off, teachers overuse their authorities and overstep boundaries of the student’s basic rights.
With summer coming to its final stretch in the end of August, students dread going back to school and being stuck sitting in insanely uncomfortable desks for eight hours a day. Not only are we stuck sitting in these desks, but now, most teachers don’t even allow us, as students, to feel the warmth of our cell phones in our pockets anymore. Instead, our phones are forced to sit on tables or in cell phone cubbies for an entire class period, and in most students’ cases, for multiple periods a day. The idea of taking away phones for the students’ time in their classroom seems to be becoming more and more appealing to teachers throughout the school.
While a lot of teachers will ask what the difference is between students having and not having their phone when it is not in use anyways, it’s more of the idea of having it by your side, with the comfort of knowing it’s something that belongs to you, rather than using it.
Not only are we giving up more of our phone privileges this school year, but we also are being told by many teachers around the school that we are limited to using the bathroom a specific amount of times in a semester. Students of all ages can agree that when you have to go, you have to go. After all, it’s a basic human necessity to use the bathroom when you need to. Being high schoolers, it’s pretty embarrassing to have to answer in front of the whole class if it’s “an emergency” or not.
Teachers are always telling us to act like adults because soon, we will be. But, if we’re being expected to act like adults, shouldn’t we be treated like adults? Adults are allowed to use their phone and use the bathroom when they feel the need to, so why can’t we?
