The Department of Education meant business when they started their new random scanning system - cops found a knife, boxcutter and some mace at the Acorn High School in Brooklyn. Plus the scanning set-up made a kid run away only for the cops to find that he had pot on him! But the real haul was 129 cellphones (and 2 iPods), which Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says the kids will get back. Cellphones have been banned since 1988 in NYC public school systems, but many parents believe they are critical in knowing their kids are safe and are even threatening civil disobedience in order to have their kids pack some portable communications. Klein says he understands, but, hey, when kids are taking pictures in locker rooms and cheating on tests, parents need to understand - and parents can always call the office. Ha! We're sure the office workers will love that. If school officials want to keep this ban, they should at least give kids a chance to call or email their parents during the day. Or maybe parents should microchip their kids.
National School Safety and Security Issues website says that there are some reasons for schools not to cave into parental pressure - for instance, kids call in fake bomb threats with cell phones and during emergency, cell phone carrier overload anyway. Mayor Bloomberg said cellphones are distracting from the wonderful teachers NYC public school students have.
