**Please include the name of the school that you or your child attend next to your name when signing. The site is not allowing a comments section for that info.**

As students, this cause is deeply personal to us. We do not want to experience the difficulties of not having immediate communication with our parents during emergencies due to enforced use of phone lock up-systems like Yondr bags. While we understand the intention to create a distraction-free environment, the repercussions on personal safety cannot be overlooked.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center, 96% of Americans own a cell phone and regard it as a critical tool for emergency situations. Imagine being in a dire situation, needing to contact your family for help, but unable to do so because your phone is locked away.

We support a bell-to-bell “Off and Away” phone policy for the middle schools - which has been successful since its implementation just 4 months ago. Allowing phones to be used during lunch and nutrition is invaluable at the high school level. Coaches often communicate last-minute changes for practice times and/or locations. Some of us have jobs that send scheduling updates.

We believe parents and students deserve the power to decide their own communication availability, instead of it being dictated by institutional policies. Simply, this is about our safety and peace of mind. Some of us in high school are old enough to vote and enlist in the military. It’s not right to take away our access to phones. 

As parents, we want our kids to have uninterrupted, distraction-free instructional time, as well as quality social time with their peers during breaks. This is why we support the “Off and Away” policy. If enforced, this policy solves those problems and doesn’t cost anything. We simply just don’t want our kids’ phones locked up and inaccessible during emergencies, such as the Woolsey Fire, Palisades Fire, Kenneth Fire, earthquakes, etc.

Please, consider our stance. Support our cause to prohibit the mandatory use of phone lock-up systems. Sign our petition.

**Please include the name of the school that you or your child attend next to your name when signing. The site is not allowing a comments section for that info.**