Cell Phones in class

For all four years that I was in high school, there was a fully enforced rule that cell phones were not even allowed to be brought into school. If you were caught, your phone was taken to the principal and you had to get it at the end of the day. While I do believe that phones should not be on ringer during class because it is distracting, I think that there are certain instances where cell phones are acceptable, such as in an emergency. Now in college, there really is no rule about cell phones in class. If there is an emergency, we can leave class and take the call. I believe that if I were a high school teacher in this situation, that I would allow students to keep their phones on. If I caught them texting or just not paying attention, I would take the phone away, but I believe that just having it on just in case is okay.