Calcutta: One of the few schools in town to allow senior secondary students to carry mobile phones on campus has revoked that permission for unspecified "safety and security" reasons.

The buzz is that Loreto House decided to bar the use of mobile phones by students of classes XI and XII because some girls had allegedly started misusing the freedom to do so. "Henceforth, no student is allowed to carry a mobile phone," states a text sent to parents by the missionary-run school recently.

Nobody from the school would officially say what triggered the decision.

Loreto House isn't the only institute to see the mobile phone as an intrusion on campus discipline. The La Martiniere schools have become stricter about not allowing students to carry mobile phones because there is no way of ensuring that they are used only for communication with parents.

"If they are allowed to carry mobile phones, they can easily get on the Internet and we do not know what they are looking at. A mobile phone is a distraction because it can be used for Instragramming, WhatsApping or even to play games," said John Rafi, principal of La Martiniere for Boys.

At La Martiniere, students sneaking in mobile phones risk having them confiscated and returned only at the end of the academic year.

Many parents who feel the need to be constantly in touch with their children find the restrictions on use of mobile phones on campus unjustified.

"I used to book an app cab and send the car details to my daughter to return home from school every day. That's no longer possible, although the arrangement was safer than she hailing a cab that I can't track," said a mother whose daughter is in Class XI at Loreto House.