April 4, 2005
Tough Cell in NYC Schools
The Department of Education is going to review its stance on a cellphone ban in city schools. Cellphones have been banned in the classroom since 1988, but some parents are complaining that their children need cellphones for emergencies. Mayor Bloomberg got into the act, by noting the NJ girl who sent thousands of text messages during school (costing her parents over $1,000), and said in his radio show:
Surprise, surprise. If you spend your time e-mailing all your friends and not learning, what do you think? I think they are such a detriment...distraction is the word I'm looking for, let's focus on what that wonderful teacher at the front of the room is trying to teach you, rather than trying to surf the 'Net or e-mail your friends at the back of the room.According to the NY Post article, parents and advocates have been trying to get cellphones back into students' hands, but Gothamist is suspicious that some of these cellphone-in-school advocates are representatives from cell service providers. And what of the public school kids who admit to using their cellphones to cheat on tests, from texting for answers to taking pictures of the test and emailing it to friends? Having parents contact the school to get in touch with their kids worked totally fine for the first few hundred years of kids being educated in public schools.
What do you think of cellphone use during school classes? We know that some professors fine students if their phones go off in class. Maybe kids should dump their cellphones into a bin upon entering a class to ensure they aren't using them.
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Call me paranoid, but I think kids will abuse Cell Phones in school.
IMO, it would be too distracting.
There is absolutely no way to keep kids from bringing cell phones to school. And why shouldn't they? Cell phones aren't just for drug dealers anymore- every kid has one; mostly because their parents buy them for them. Let the kids bring their cell phones to school, with strict rules about keeping them off and out of sight during classtime.
The emergency thing is a complete red herring: in an emergency you call the school office, and an overworked secretary or intern goes and grabs your kid from whatever classroom s/he's in.
Points to Jen for pointing out the very obvious: this is a phony crisis being planted in the press by cell carriers who see all of their revenue growth in the 15-21 year old market. (And hey, a little PR hustle and maybe they can convince some parents that their 4th-graders need to carry cell phones for "emergencies!")
Whatever. You reap what you sow. The dad who got the huge bill for his daughter's in-class text messaging seems like an out-of-touch dad to me. Pay attention to your kids, stop trying to be their friend, and exercise a little discipline when it's warranted. Why do we need to overcomplicate things all the time?
As for cell phones in schools, ban them entirely. There is no reason to have them.
wow, props to gothamist readers for seeing through the bullshit of this "issue". it's about as much a non-issue as parking meters in front of churches. what i wonder is whether any of the mayoral candidates will attempt to latch onto it to beat up bloomberg. if so, we'll have to check for campaign contributions from Verizon.
And what's wrong with bringing them to school & leaving them in a locker? do they HAVE lockers in NYC schools? (i'm constantly shocked to learn the things i took for granted growing up don't exist here)
As my little brother pointed out when our high school first banned cell phones, if you keep them turned off and tucked in your backpack/pocket, no one knows you have one anyway.
This is all part of people buying into this idea that you have to be available to everyone all the time. If you (are supposed to) turn off your phone when you are at the movies, why shouldn't you do the same at school?
"Call me paranoid, but I think kids will abuse Cell Phones in school."
Kids will abuse cell phones everywhere, and so will many adults! Once upon a time, it was tough to get your own landline if you were a kid. Nowadays, all the kids are so damn spoiled. I don't see the cell industry stepping up to help parents take control. How about a cell phone that has only three speed dial numbers programmed at the store (plus 911) and no keypad so kids can't call their friends? But of course they would never put out something like this. They wouldn't get big money from the kids who can't control their calling.
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no one *needs* a cell phone, but double goes for kids in school *supposed* to be paying attention to their teachers. those teachers have it tough enough!
Call me an old fart, but when I was in school, kids didn't even HAVE cell phones! We were living on the edge. What if there was an emergency?!
Thank goodness my school was full of adults called "teachers" who had access to quaint touch-tone telephones that were connected to the walls by wires. God, those were the dark ages.
I'm currently a highschool student, the general unspoken policy is cellphones are to be kept off, its logical. I mean parents are as spoiled as kids, the idea of calling the school office and waiting on hold makes parents cringe, simple as that, your seeming to push all the blaim at the students? I can kind of see both sides. I keep mine off and what not, however there are many who don't some may have lagitamit reasons to i don't know. My brother atends a private highschool in the city who bans cellphones but allows pdas