To the principal:

(I'm assuming that, in policy 2, students will not be able to keep cell phones at school, even if they're off and in the lockers)

I believe that the idea of banning cell phones in school at all is absurd. What if the students need to call their parents or a friend for a ride home or to an event after school? They would be forced to use a phone provided by the office, which would undoubtedly have a long line leading to it. Based on the amount of people I see that use their cell phones to contact home, it may take a good fifteen to thirty minutes for all students to use the one or two phones that may be provided. Personally, I don't think I'd make it without my cell phone, with all of the events going on that I forget to tell my dad about, or that I wasn't even aware of (such as when I had to go to UIL or tennis practice, but I was unaware of it)

Allowing students to use their phones during free time could allow them to contact home as well, to tell parents at an even more convenient time that, yes, they will need to be picked up, or no, that they will not need to be picked up, before the parent has left the house (or not left the house) to do one of these two, or the parents would be notified in time to bring something up to the school that the students have forgotten. On the other hand, students could use this policy against the teachers and claim that they conveniently 'forgot' to turn off their cell phones, and were 'just checking if it was important'. However, I don't think that this would be a huge problem. After a week or two, you could stop giving students the benefit of the doubt, and start enforcing the punishments.

Without cell phones in school altogether, they would be useless. The main reason adults buy their children cell phones is so they can be contacted after school, in the case of an immediate change in plans. This will no longer be a possibility, and cell phones would not serve their main purpose. Parents may avoid purchasing cell phones for their children until they are much, much older.

In conclusion, I think policy 1 is better, but it isn't perfect. It has minor flaws (misuse of phones, etc.), but not as many as policy 2 has (inability to contact home easily, etc.). Policy 2 would make many students use the school's phones, which would have long lines anyhow, and it may take a long time to tell your parents something that is immediately important. Too much (freedom, in this case) is better than too little, and that's a philosophy that I apply almost everywhere.