Wait a second, the Department of Education is trying to find a compromise in the neverending fight over whether students can bring cellphones to school? Apparently the DOE was approached by Celstor, who said that they could build a prototype that, as the Post reported, "could be built and maintained at no cost to the city." Hello, magic words! And Celstor is very clever, following the heated debate between school officials on one side and students and their parents on the other.
The DOE is putting a call out to other vendors to see who can build tiny storage locker units - sort of like small P.O. boxes - outside a few schools for a test to see if it's a feasible plan. To remind you, many schools have metal detectors at school entrances, so cell phones would have to be deposited prior to being checked. (And the DOE has had a rule banning cell phones for two decades or something and also say they are distractions during the school day; parents and students say cell phones are necessary in case of emergencies.) The DOE thinks they would charge 25-50 cents for storage, which brought mixed reactions from students who gave the Post some choice thoughts today:
"It sounds retarded. My parents would not want me putting a phone in a locker outside." - Aaron Noorani, student at Beacon High School (he sneaks his phone in!)
"Hell, yeah, I'd pay it. I'd pay $1 for that. People who can sneak their phones in don't know what it feels like to have no way to communicate with your parents and friends." - Mayte Gonzalez, student at High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice
This does seem like a decent alternative to paying $1 for bodegas to hold onto cell phones or to hiding them in strange places, but our question is whether the storage units will be guarded, because isn't a cell phone storage area a huge calling card for trouble?
