It is a glorious time to be a student at CHS. The constricting bonds regarding electronic use during school hours have been loosened.

According to the CHS website, a new policy allows students to use electronic devices between class periods and during class with teacher permission.

Thanks to this new rule, security staff no longer have to stress putting phones away and can focus on more important things.

According to security guard Terry Bell, administration made the decision to cut down on the number of cell phones being dealt with during the school day. Since instituting the policy, the number of phones confiscated dropped dramatically and Bell and the other security members are free to be more present observing students and helping out around school.

Students now have freedom to do what they want their free time during the school day. They can use this time to send texts to friends and make plans or listen to their iPod. With this new found freedom, students must be careful not to get out of control, however.

Students can contact parents if they forgot a lunch. Students can also study notes and Quizlets for last minute studying before lunch. Students can communicate and prepare for classes where they work with other students, and lunch time plans can be arranged. In between class we have the world at our fingertips, which is a good thing; we just need to remember to respect the guidelines.

As has been said countless times before, with great power comes great responsibility. We must not abuse the freedom given to us. Some teachers opposed the new rules because they thought it might lead to the overuse of cell phones in class.

Rather than students taking out phones in the halls and returning them to their pockets before entering the next class, the phones could begin to linger after the bell rings, and pop up in anticipation of the bell about to ring. Students may abuse the power to have them out and it will mess with the steady flow from class to class.

Students: do not ruin this for everyone. Just as the school officials were so reasonable as to institute this new policy, they can just as easily take it away if students abuse it. Everyone must treat the rule with respect and not push its boundaries.

Bottom line, these new rules allow for enough slack without the learning process being negatively affected, and we can accomplish much more.