text: If we're not allowed to have phones at school at all (even if their off) and something bad happens, like the school catches fire or something, we would need a way to contact our parents quickly. Tell them what happened, assure them everything is fine, tell them we need a ride home because school can't continue because of what happened. Information like that wouldn't get through very fast. With a couple teachers phones and many, many students. We could pass the information faster if we had our own phones.