Having a phone in school would have been incredibly helpful to me. My middle and high schools got rid of pay phones but did not allow students to use the office phone. I accepted car rides from strangers multiple times because I was unable to get ahold of my parents and also unable to walk home due to distance and not knowing any routes that avoided walking along a state highway.

I also sat through most classes with a genre fiction paperback book in my lap because I needed something to catch my interest and I’d already read ahead in the text book.