Cellphones Banned Effective August 22
AUGUST 19 - San Juan National High School administrators announced that they will prohibit bringing and using mobile phones and any of its kinds in the school premises starting this August 22, Monday.
All students were instructed not to bring any kind of electronic gadgets. Mr. Reynaldo Laurio, Assistant to the Principal for Discipline announced that they will ban and forbid the use of electronic gadgets in the school campus.
He also added that there will be confiscations if the students are seen using or even just hiding these gadgets in their pockets, and that parents are the only ones allowed to retrieve it.
He said that the reason for this was because there were incidents where cellphones of the students got stolen or lost.
He said in an interview that every week since the month of July up to present there were cases of phones missing.
Mr. Laurio then said that the highest number of gadget getting lost per week is 3; minimum 1.
He also came to observe that Pokémon Go, the leading game in the application market for smartphones will also be a future cause for the disallowing phones in the school. His reason was that students will tolerate the trend and it will reach into the campus which will then lead to students losing their interest in class.
"The cellphone destroys the education of students because youths today are not equipped with proper knowledge in handling modern technology.” Mr. Laurio asserted.
“Technologies are using the youths, not the youths using the technology," he even added.
With this issue, most of the parents are expected to raise some concerns regarding the matter.
Mr. Laurio responded and said that “Bawal naman talaga yan ‘eh. Paano ka magrereklamo kung pinag-bawal talaga ’yan ng DepEd.” (But it is really prohibited. What will they complain if DepEd itself prohibits it.)
He then added that if they want to protest they should go to the Department of Education so officials can hear their objections.
Lastly, he said that:“Kung matigas ang ulo mo, ‘edi magdala ka, pero itago mo. Kasi kapag hindi mo tinago at nakita namin ‘yan kukumpiskahin namin yan.” (If you dare then bring one just make sure to hide it. If you won't and we see it, we'll confiscate it.)
