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Many parents of New York City schoolchildren are fed up wit the Department of Education's ban on cell phones inside schools. NYPD officers regularly show up at random schools with portable metal detectors and then confiscate phones along with other electronic devices. One parent said, "A knife is contraband. A gun is contraband. Drugs are contraband. To me, a phone should not be considered contraband." The ban goes back to 1987 and has been fought in recent years by a group of parents who unsuccessfully tried to sue to stop it. The DOE says that the policy is there because phones "inevitably disrupt the learning environment." Parents' next step may be taking the fight to City Council, in hopes of forcing the DOE to at least allow phones that could have a school-controlled sleep mode. Many say they still send their children to school with phones in case of an emergency, contraband or not. One parent told the SI Advance, "9/11 happened. People died. Why are they setting our kids up for something serious?"
Parents Sick of NYC School Ban on Cell Phones
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"The ban goes back to 1987..."
Umm, I thought only Gordon Gekko types owned those encyclopedia sized cell phones in the late 80s. I can't image children carrying those phones. Beepers, on the other hand, were big in the early 90s. I still don't know how to "beep" somebody. Weren't you supposed to hit * or # after dialing the number?
and some of those gordan gekko types had children
Hahaha I know, 1987?? That's when I attended high school!
I can easily say, "oh these kids today...I had to walk to school in 7 feet of snow uphill both ways and I survived without any stinkin' fancy cell phone," but times were different even 20 years ago. I'm sure they can be distracting, but it's probably a good thing for kids to have something in case of emergency outside of school hours.
Its possible to exist without a cell phone. Really. It is. Think 1996.
Seems to me that you could kill two birds with one stone by allowing students to use old-school-style pagers. That way, parents could still keep in touch with their kids and teachers would be able to control the cell-enabled distractions. These things are so old-school, they have to be dirt cheap.
http://www.oit.duke.edu/phones-pagers/student/pagers/index.html
cell phones are not the issue. bring back school uniforms.
When the first WTC bombing occurred, those kids at Stuy didn't have cell phones!
And sadly, Cell phones failed that day anyway.
In 1993, when the first bombing happened, the new building wasn't yet open and Stuy was located on the other side of town, so it's a moot point.
And when we had that bad storm in 1993 and a lot of kids ended up trapped at their specialized schools for hours because they couldn't get home and couldn't contact their families, cell phones would have come in very handy.
I know ADULTS who can't sit through a half hour meeting without fidgeting with voicemail or texting or whatnot. Do kids really NEED that distraction?
Oh, but 9/11 happened...
Can we please make a law banning news outlets from using clueless people's nonsensical 9/11 references?
wouldn't a more likely headline read:
"Parents Sick of Listening to Kids Bitch About NYC School Ban on Cell Phones"
sub: Students Wonder How They'll Swap Naked Pictures of Classmates without Access to Proper Technology
who cares anymore? the way this economy is tanking, the malthus prophecy is coming true. let the kids have their cellphones. It's not like they are going to do anything worthy in the future anyway. We don't have a future. Didn't you guys see Nicolas Cage's Knowing? the earth is gonna gets blowned up by aliens.
Seriously, talk about misleading with that gratuitous 9/11 reference. Was that parent Rudy Giuliani or something? Saying "People died" as if that somehow would've been prevented if your little Gossip Girl clone had her iPhone in school with her. Gimme a break.
I had a beeper in high school in '87. Went to school uptown, on East 94. Yeah. Just wanted y'all to know -- keeping it real.
Peace.
I don't buy the "cell phones are so important for safety" story.
That said, in today's world, for many people they are important for life. So this ban seems bad to me. Very bad.
If a cellphone is used improperly in a classroom environment, the phone should be confiscated and returned at the end of the day to the student. If it happens twice it will be returned the following day, If it happens again... I guess you get the idea.
Eventually the student will get the idea. But then again some wont, it's the nature of being a kid.
Most parents are NOT teachers who have had no less than 6 kids in a class of 30 who are on their phones stealthily texting. Its a pain in the ass and when 2 of them refuse to give up their phones, sends that whole lesson into chaos. Keep them out of school. Kids will survive. During 9-11, those POS phones didn't work anyway.
Those parents are the same POS workers in the post office who ask me to wait while taking a call. Or cops on the corner on their cell while they are protecting and serving. When I'm @ work, my phone is in my bag and I can't hear it.
Don't even get me started on the USPS.
Like I said, baby monitors for idiots.
I'm fine with kids texting instead of listening in class, thats the parents job to make sure they're taking advantage of a service provided to them by looking at report cards and such, maybe hearing from a teacher that they're not paying attention....its the DAMN RINGING that disrupts the whole class that is really obnoxious, being a teacher is hard enough.
And I'm definitely giving too much credit to parents nowadays...no cell phones, grab 35 cents for a pay phone if you need to make a call.