Parents Like Their Kids to Be Cell-Outs

Kids have been going to school for well over 100 years in New York without cellphones. Their argument "to stay in contact to know if they are safe" is feeble. Cut the cord, they are there for an education and to mature.

i had a cell phone in school and while it was useful in letting my parents know that play practice was running long or i needed to get picked up, what it was used for most was calling myself out of gym so i could go around the corner and have breakfast with my friends.

the thing about getting mugged, though is that the mugger will probably take the cell phone. at times, that's why people are mugged in the first place.

a kid always having money for a payphone seems like the easiest way around this whole mess.

"they are there for an education and to mature."

well, if you squint really hard i guess you could call it that.

it's nice to see that "for your own goodism" doesn't always get a free pass in new york; it's just sick and sad that it's over something as pointless as cell phones.

Sounds to me that "anon" isn't old enough to have kids. More like he is a kid who loves his cell phone and hates being "locked away" in school.

News flash: Most civilized adults don't have a cell phone permanently welded to their ears. It's not about an "internet age." It's about an "ego age" where people don't know when and where cell phones are inappropriate and unnecessary. School is one of those places.

However, if they are going to confiscate cell phones and other gadgets, they should at least have some kind of gadget check-in or lockers at the entrance, so kids can drop off their phones until they're ready to leave. That would be fair to the kids and to the educational process.

Not only did i not have a cell phone in school, I didn't have my own phone line at home. Because kids abuse the phone. They will talk with their friends all day if you let them. Not to mention the added distraction of cell phone cameras, cell phones that play music and cell phones that play video games. Kids don't need cell phones to stay safe. To compare going to school without a phone to driving without an air bag is asinine.

Something going around Myspace about this whole thing:

This was at the bottom of the frontpage on the NY Times today. They WILL confiscate cell phones, iPods, and CD players.

Solution?

If you see the detectors set up, simply stand outside the school. Don't cause a commotion. Just stand there. Hopefully enough people will get this message and this can work as a protest. They have NO right to take away our cell phones or electronics and I for one will not put my personal possessions in their hands.

1. This entire thing was put in place for safety purposes. Confiscating objects that threaten no one is defeating the whole point.
2. Since we are so overcrowded, this search will only furtherly disturb the educational process. Much moreso then Cell Phones and other Electronics which are never used in the building to begin with.
3. Cell Phones have become a necessity to all those who own one. It's a blatant disregard for the student's convenience and in some cases even safety.

If you go to a NYC Public High School, please repost this or reword and post. We need as many people to take a stand as possible.

spoiled? I DONT THINK SO, i have a cellphone, and i am a highschool student I NEVER ONCE asked my mom for a cellphone, it was convienient and more affordable SO we got a family plan, so we can stay in contact, and i shut it off when i get to school, and for the kids that use it during class they should get kicked out of the class,BUT MY REAL QUESTION IS why does every student have to be penalized? yea and for you older folks, you have to understand that times have changed, and random searches that's incredibly stupid! a kid can just carry a knife that ONE day the cops don't come, and then what! that kid stabs someone.... it's ridiculous. Mike Bloomberg.. is full of it.

my problem is not with this post but the aforementioned jab at nyc school teachers. get out from behind your laptop, your pjs and bunny slippers, and come teach in flatbush for a few days and then you can make a moronic comment such as that. it's amazing how this psuedo-liberal hipster website can still manage to consistently incense its readers with its unfailing ingorance.

As the father of a middle school student and the husband of NYC high school teacher I am convinced that the ban on cell phone is schools is both wrong and impractical.

Mayor Bloomberg is right when he says that no student needs to be on a cell phone in school. However, they do, at times, need to be on a cell phone before or after school. My daughter travels from Brooklyn to Manhattan and over the last two years she has had to call a couple of times because the trains were not working and she needed to be picked up. Also, it is not uncommon for her to call to ask if she can go to the library and do homework with a friend; yes she is that kind of kid.

As far as being practical, so far I have talked to a few parents and not one of them has any intention of taking their child’s cell phone away. My daughter’s school has 1,500 students and I estimate that well over 80 percent of the students have cell phones. Using the 80 percent figure, that would be 1,200 cell phones. If the police decide to voucher that many phones it would take forever. If you figure that it will take a minute to voucher a cell phone, and considering that the police will have to bag it and get and write down the student’s name, home-room, the parent’s name and phone number and generate a receipt a minute is very optimistic. 1,200 minutes is 20 hours. I think that civil disobedience will work very well indeed.

OK I am a New York City high school student at the Academy of American studies located in Long Island City. I am not a snot nosed 17 year old kid who wants his phone so I can text my friends pictures of a hot teacher, I use my cell phone as my primary number and primarily and for contact with my parents. First off my parent's are divorced so I spend time between households its much easier to have a solid number where I know I can be reached also my school is located in a terrible neighborhood. My School is surrounded by 4 major businesses; Strip clubs, Prostitution, illegal cable box sale, and illegal drug sale, LIC is a heavily industrial area and its not a place you want your kids weather they are 6 foot 5 and 225 lbs with a beard like myself or a young girl, there are prostitutes out in broad daylight there is a bad housing project nearby and I know it sounds silly but I would assume guys looking to pickup high school girls, they drive around the school in dangerous manners trying to pickup young girls. A key problem is MTA school metro cards are made like shit I have had 4 bend and break on me and there are no booth people to help you out. I came to realize how important phones are when last December I got stuck in the dark with no metro card it bent to much I luckily called my mother and she picked me up promptly, it just got dark but I spotted already not kidding several prostitutes. Now the iPod thing I have no understanding for I really don't see a security risk in an iPod its just an example of the NYC BOE treating students like they are in daycare, and don't give me that distraction crap if someone has their stuff off it doesn’t disrupt class and if they do disrupt class then lay the hammer down. I have a 45-50 train ride to school and I enjoy listening to music on the way in I am a musician and I can use that time to do really tedious stuff like decipher guitar parts, write tab, and listen to some tracks my friends send me I don't see Joel Kline’s problem with this I think I would rather have kids listen to music on their commute than do homework on the train again kids who listen to their iPods in school should definantly have them taken away same thing with phone use. My school used to have an out of sight out of mind policy which basically was keep your phone off and away and its fine, that policy worked great in fact the teachers phones went off more than the students I mean there are always a few bad apples in the crowd that are going to sit back and play games and listen to music but most students don't do that. Personally I will bring my things to school and defend my right to have a cell phone and iPod I will try to sneak it through but if I get caught I can raise a little hell I think this ban won't last long some Bloomberg sponsor is probably on the board of a verizon or something and they will have a little talk about his fundraising. But I think overall people shouldn’t view students as second rate citizens again as I said "I am not a snot nosed 17 year old kid who wants his phone so I can text my friends pictures of a hot teacher" I am a kid who goes to school in a dangerous neighborhood and would like to use my phone as a safety net. And on the thought of child abuse of phones my fathers friends son had 55 dollar charges in text messages alone he took the kids phone away for a month and this kids ceased overuse of the phone, if you’re kid is abusive with his phone use guess what you are the parent it’s a good time to get active.

I agree the thing is kids should be able to use phones AFTER school they should be able to listen to iPod's on their commute. And this cheating thing I have never seen people use their phones to cheat I know many teachers they have never seen kids cheating with phones. Kids today cheat by writing answers in the lable of a water bottle or on gum, if a teacher cant find a kid pulling his or her phone out and texting cheats then they are incompetent.

A major reason why the quality of most (not all) NYC schools is poor is because teachers and administrators do not have the ability to discipline students and enforce the rules. Most students are good kids, but aside from temporary suspension and other slaps on the wrist, there is no way to alter behavior. Well behaved students should not have to put up with badly behaved students, they shouldn't be afraid to use the restrooms or walk down certain hallways, and NO ONE should fear being assaulted in school.

If you want to engage in civil disobedience, why don't you enforce a zero tolerance policy for violence in the school? Violent students should lose the privilege to attend school with non-violent children. Make them attend a separate school, or separate classrooms. If you make the schools safer, there will be no reason to have a cell phone turned on during school hours. Of course, kids will still need to use phones to and from schools. But when you can actually enforce rules, they won't turn them on in school.

The quality of life for good kids has been destroyed because no one will marginalize the bad kids. Private schools can do it, and that is partly the reason they are such a compelling alternative. A cell phone is simply a band-aid.