They are more of a nuisance than anything else...some of my more stern professors have thrown kids out of a class if their phone happens to go off during a lecture.

I barely use my phone as it is, and have it shut off or silent for most of the day (since I spend the vast majority of it in a library or lecture hall). I guess since I'm not into the text messaging thing (why send someone a message in coded/broken English when you could just call and talk to them instead :p ) I really don't use it, and if I'd just prefer to use my home phone.

As far as the "ban" goes, with all the activity related to gangs and theft, I can see why they would try to keep them out of the schools. When I was in high school, though the cell-phone craze hadn't caught on quite yet (where only a few people had them), they were enough of a pain so that teachers put explicit instructions into the syllabi that they'd be confiscated if the phone went off in class. Personally, since I don't use it, I don't understand the umbilical-type attachment some people have to the damn things, and unless you're a lawyer, doctor, or day-trader, I don't think you really need to have your 50 Cent ringtone blasting during lecture.

I can see banning them from the classroom environment, and confiscating them if they are being used during lecture or when classes are in session, but I don't think necessarily they should be taken away if someone has it in their locker and they use it to call home at the end of the school day or something.

Bloody hell, since I've graduated from my high school, we've had kids caught with heroin and other designer drugs in the bathroom, tampons laced with cocaine, and girls having sex in the bathroom (all of which have been documented either in the local news or in the school safety report). Crazy shit goes on in these schools nowadays.