| Re: NYC Students and Parents Want Cell Phone Ban Lifted |
|---|
But since my kids go to schools nearly 10 miles from our house in
opposite directions and participate in after school activities, cells
phones are almost required.
When I grew up, most of us in my high school of nearly 1000 kids lived
within 2 miles. Hitching a ride or even walking in a pinch was no big
deal. If my kids need to get a hold of me, it is a really big deal.
Christine Kearney wrote:
> By Christine Kearney
> New York may be a city of incessant cell phone talkers, but students
> vowed on Wednesday they would hit the "off" button during classes as
> they battled a ban on cell phones in schools.
> Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill
> aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael
> Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against
> the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy.
> "I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class,"
> said LaGuardia high school student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about
> students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents
> need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from
> school."
> Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg
> introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's
> 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's
> 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000
> cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades.
> Detroit and Philadelphia also bar cell phones from schools while Los
> Angeles, Boston, Chicago and Las Vegas allow them in the schools but
> prohibit their use during classes.
> During the hearing, Bloomberg's representatives said the policy dated
> back to a 1988 ban on pagers and was needed to prevent students from
> using phones to send and receive text messages, taking photographs,
> surfing the Web and playing video games.
> "Cell phones, with their multiple capabilities, are not just phones,"
> deputy mayor Dennis Walcott told the hearing. "Students have used cell
> phones to summon friends for fights, to cheat on exams and to take
> illicit photographs."
> But city council members said crime and disruptive behavior would
> occur regardless of the ban and any new law passed would allow
> students only to use phones before or after school and not during
> class.
> "Kids pass notes back and forth but that doesn't mean we take away
> pens," said council member Belinda Katz.
> Carmen Colon, a mother of three, said her kids needed phones so she
> could "juggle their lives" and keep track of them.
> "This is a big city, it's tough and a whole lot of things go on," said
> her son Andre Green, 13. Asked if he had heard phones ring during
> class, he answered: "Yes, but sometimes it's just their mother
> calling."
> Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.
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