Cell phone ban draws angry response in N.Y. schools
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 13, 2006
NEW YORK - Elizabeth Casanola carries her cell phone everywhere - even through the metal detectors at her school.
The high school senior puts the phone under her pants by her waistline, where she knows she won't be patted down. Or she smuggles the phone into school in pieces - the battery separate from the main body.
A ban on cell phones in the nation's biggest school system is creating an uproar among parents and students alike, with teenagers sneaking their phones inside their lunches and under their clothes, and grown-ups insisting they need to stay in touch with their children in case of another crisis like the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Parents have sent angry letters and e-mails, staged rallies and news conferences, and threatened to sue. Some City Council members are introducing ordinances on their behalf.
But Mayor Michael Bloomberg and schools chancellor Joel Klein have staunchly refused to drop the ban. They say cell phones are a distraction and are used to cheat, take inappropriate photos in bathrooms and organize gang rendezvous. They are also a top stolen item.
Some students won't give up their phones, saying the devices have become vital to their daily existence and to their parents' peace of mind.
"My mother, she needs me to have the cell to call me and check up on me," said Steven Cao, 16, who lives in Staten Island and attends Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan.
Some parents say they would prefer a policy that merely prohibits using cell phones in classes.
New York's 1.1-million-student school system has banned beepers and other communication devices since the late 1980s. But schools have long used an "out-of-sight, out-of-trouble" approach. Then, late last month, city officials began sending portable metal detectors every day to a random but small set of schools to keep out weapons. Hundreds of cell phones have been confiscated.
New York has one of the country's toughest policies on student cell phones, and also bans other electronic devices such as iPods.
Detroit bans cell phones, and a two-time violator will not get the phone back. Boston relied on a school-by-school approach until recently, when it changed the policy to let students have a phone, but only if it is turned off and out of sight. Los Angeles lets kids have cell phones, but they can use them only during lunch and breaks.
Kenneth Trump, president of Ohio-based National School Safety and Security Services, said his research indicates most schools ban the phones. Others require students to turn off the devices.
New York principals said the ban is tough to enforce, especially in large schools without metal detectors.
"Every kid today does carry a cell phone," said Howard Lucks, principal of New Utrecht High in Brooklyn. "The kids keep them in their backpacks, their pockets. As soon as they see an administrator or teacher, they put it away very quickly."
Students say most classmates use their cell phones responsibly.
"It's kind of ridiculous that we think we can't survive without a cell phone when people did it for thousands of years," said Elisa Muyl, 14, a freshman at Stuyvesant High. "But now that they have this invention, we should use it."