A lot of teachers talk about how students shouldn’t even bring their phones to school and are very strongly against the idea of giving kids the chance to go online while they should be working. However, have they thought about all of the positives of giving students wifi? Have they thought about the negatives of not having it?

A lot of students borrow and lend things to each other. In some situations, when plans change and someone needs something back that they gave to a friend of which they can’t get in contact with because the school doesn’t have wifi. It can be very frustrating and distracting. Students who do after-school activities can also be affected by the lack of wifi; sometimes schedules change and kids need to get in contact with their parents but aren’t able to. By allowing kids to have wifi during school, it would help a lot with the stress of situations like those.

One of the biggest reasons Wifi isn’t accessible to kids during school hours is because of the distractions it can cause. “I catch almost two kids each class on their phones when they aren’t supposed to, and this is still even with no wifi,” a freshman history teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

It is a known fact that children these days spend way too much time on their electronics, so school hours can be a good time to get their eyes off of social media.

A big problem that has gotten worse since the start of 2019 is school shootings. There have been over 20 this year already. Centre County has opened up a program where it allows people to text 911 in dire situations. If something were to ever happen in school and the police needed to get involved, students could jeopardize their safety by talking to a 911 operator and texting is the only option. It could also really help the police catch any threat in the building by texting them giving information on the location of the perpetrator.

There are a lot of reasons why wifi be beneficial in school and they overrule the negative of kids getting distracted from class. All schools, not just State High, should give wifi to students for free.