September 11, 2007
Mayor And City Council Continue Fight Over Student Cellphones
Ah, the legislative process at its best. The City Council approved a bill to allow students to bring cellphones to school in July. Of course, this flew in the face of Department of Education policy, which has had a ban on cellphones for years (and the ban has been found to be constitutional), because city and school officials believe that phones are disruptive in class.
Families, including City Council members and their public school-attending children, cite the fact that cellphones are a "lifeline" between students and parents (see these tales of cellphone-less horror). Mayor Bloomberg stuck to his guns and vetoed the bill, only for the City Council to override the veto yesterday. Bloomberg said, "This is a bill that doesn't change anything. You just don't have the right to bring it into the school, and that's not changing. Our teachers have a tough enough job."
So in the end, it's unclear that the City Council bill actually advances the right of the students to bring phones into school, as it comes up against the DOE's rules. City Council member Lew Fidler, who co-sponsored the bill, suggested he might sue the DOE. From the Daily Politics:
"The only time a cell phone becomes an issue is if it's seen or heard," Fidler said. "It's the same under this bill. We're not asking teachers to do anything DOE isn't asking them to do now...Why are we penalizing kids who know how to abide by the rules. Kids who know how to obey rules should have a cell phone for any emergency."The DOE was going to install cellphone lockers outside a few schools as a pilot, but that program has been delayed (of course) as well as criticized by some.
Students who attend schools that have security and metal detectors to look for weapons sometimes have stores babysit their cellphones or hide them in their clothes. And when the traveling metal detectors come to school, well, hundreds of cellphones can be confiscated.
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No gum in classrooms. No cellphones either.
There is something called discipline and students must demonstrate it. When are we going to have school all year around and make these kids wear uniforms?
the fight should be about reading and a btter education so these kids can go onto college and not be the next jailbirds.
i think this battle is just a part of winning that war.
if the millions of kids went through school during the 70s,80s,90s without cell phones then the children growing up now could do the same.
and really how many kids do actually abide the rules? it's probably like under 15%.
If cell phone tracking was allowed, any student who uses their cell phone in school without due reason should be shot. It's a simple solution to inappropriate cell phone use. No judge jury or anything, just a firing squad.
Steven, I guess they don't need computers either.
After we walk five miles in the snow to school and finish smokin' in the boys room...let's put on a show!!!!
kids who follow the rules shouldn't be penalized, and since I know how to handle myself on skates - i should be allowed to wear them on the subway.
Look - I ain't even gonna begin this "when I was a kid" bullshit, but for real - why do kids need cellphones at school?!?! People gonna quote "..what about 9/11..."? Guess what, asshole, practically nobody's cell worked that day.
Cells are not conducive to anything remotely educational so far as H.S goes, so what's the big deal?
There is no good reason that a child (birth - 18) needs a cell in school - UNLESS he/she plans on cheatin', textin'/callin' friends at inappropriate times or playin' games. If they are that good a student, then why do they need a cell? School's have pay phones or official phones that students are allowed to use for calling parents for rides or emergencies; the only reason we're told by entitle-minded parents that the cells are needed for.
EVERYONE CALM THE FUCK DOWN.
#9, nobody's saying the kids need the phones in school. The problem is, in New York the majority of kids spend a considerable amount of time commuting. Some kids spend two hours traveling one way to school, and it's reasonable to expect they should have a way to reach their parents if they need to.
Also, the "schools have pay phones and they'll call if there's a problem" line is a complete myth. As we've seen this week with the student who had a stroke at Jamaica High School and waited two hours for teachers to call EMS, administrators are sometimes explicitly instructed NOT to call for help. If a student had been able to pull out his or her cell phone and call 911 immediately, that poor girl might have had fewer longterm complications.
Students shouldn't be using cell phones in class, but those who handle them responsibly shouldn't be punished for the transgressions of those who can't.
i have a question. this crossed my mind. maybe some teachers out there can answer this...
is there an underlying racial tension thing going on here? when i watch this story on the news its usually angry hispanic parents and kids vs. white principals and teachers. i ask this because i wonder if there is some deeper underlying reason this dispute. by the way im not taking sides either because i dont have kids and i dont teach, i just wonder if there is some cultural clash going on here.
Yes, I will do the "when I was a kid" crap-- why not? I wasn't a latchkey kid. My mom stayed home. But she pretty much didn't see me from 8 AM to 8 PM, weather permitting. I was in school, then out playing, and so were all my friends. That's what kids did. In the summer, your mother threw you out of the house in the morning, and screamed and screamed at you to come back in the house when it got dark.
The point is we spent all day untethered to each other. All damn day. And I don't understand the amount of electronic tethering I see all the time now among adults, never mind between adults and children. When I was fifteen, I stopped telling my mother where I was going every minute, and I just don't see the sense of going back to that.
I just think this is more about the parents' separation anxiety than about what the kids really need.
I'm not a teacher, but I am married to one and we've discussed this topic extensively. Most teachers favor a sort of 'Don't ask Don't Tell' policy for cell phones. If the teachers don't see the phone, and the kids don't use it in school, and have it turned off in their bag, it isn't an issue. However, the minute a teacher sees a phone, it gets confiscated. All this hoopla and passing of extra rules is just a big show and a waste of time that distracts people from real educational issues.
#9: You're right about the commuting angle, it makes a lot of parents feel more comfortable if there children can commute with a cell phone, and almost no teachers and principals have a problem with this. The second part of your argument is a bit bunk. That incident is an absolute extreme, and extremes are a bad example to base policy on.
#11: That's just the way the media spins things honestly. The NYC school system is comically diverse. There are students, teachers and administrators of every stripe who are on all sides of every educational disagreement.
# 10 - OK, now I have to pull out the 'old man' logic - we didn't have cells and we were fine. Let's stop babying children and let them grow up. Sometimes, kids make the right choices.
It's amazing how many people comment on schools who have no connection to them and therefore little knowledge.
There's nothing in this situation that couldn't be solved by a good teacher who knew how to manage his/her classroom ("if I catch you using a cell I'll not only take it away I'll read out all your text messages"). The problem here is a micromanaging mayor and a school chancellor who is innately distrustful of his own employees.
If teachers can't manage their classrooms, that's a different issue. But this is a self-created problem.
[12] wrote:
And if separation anxiety is, indeed, a factor here, then it's aligned with the desire of kids to have a cool new phone to show off to their friends, be able to send texts, etc.#14, I'm all for letting kids be independent and make their own decisions. I WAS a latchkey kid, and I certainly had a fair amount of freedom growing up (and this was the 1990s). I didn't have a cell phone either, but you know...there were really times I could have used one.
Giving kids cell phones isn't babying them. It's not keeping tabs on them every single minute. It's making sure they have a means to contact someone if they need to do so.