Kids can carry phones to school

By Kate McNeil

Parents hoping to keep their kids on speed dial got some support from the City Council, which passed a bill July 25 to allow students to carry cell phones to and from school, but despite the legislation, a defiant Department of Education is standing by its ban of cell phones in schools.

The council approved the bill with a 46-to-2 vote, but left to education officials the decision on what happens with cell phones during the school day. The bill, proposed by Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., a Queens Democrat, came on the heels of several cellphone crackdowns.

Cell phones have been banned in the city's public schools since the late 1980s, when mobile phones, the size of bricks, rarely made it into children's hands. Now the tiny gadgets have become ubiquitous in the teen crowd and, according to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, synonymous with trouble.

Even so, schools without metal detectors, such as the David A. Stein Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy, MS/HS 141, and the INTech Academy, MS/HS 368, often ignored the ban as long as the phones did not disrupt class.

"Our local schools have an 'If we don't see it, we won't take it away' policy," said Randi Martos, co-president of the parent association at MS/HS 141. "So most students turn off their cell phones and keep them in their backpacks."

But since May 2006, city police officers have started to crackdown at schools without metal detectors. Unannounced, the officers use mobile scanners to detect weapons - but they also confiscate cell phones, iPods and other banned gadgets.

On May 31, parents were outraged when more than 400 student cell phones were confiscated without warning at MS 54 in Manhattan.

"I don't believe the school system should dictate how I keep in touch with my child. As a parent there's no greater gift than being in touch with your child," Ms. Martos said.

She is happy the council is addressing the issue: "It's very important for parents to be in touch with their children," she said. "Have you ever tried to find a pay phone these days?"

Recent John F. Kennedy High School graduate Diego Morella said his cell phone, which he has owned for two years, is "essential" in his daily life.

Diego said his classmates would go to great lengths to get their phones inside Kennedy's doors - binding them with calculators, sticking them in boots, some even stuffing their underwear.

Diego, former president of the school's environmental club, said he and his friends would lock up their phones during the day in the shed in the school's enchanted garden.

"Having a phone makes things easier," he said. "What if there was a snowstorm or the subway stopped and I didn't have money for a cab?"

But Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein stand behind the ban, saying cell phones cause distractions in the classroom and are frequently used to cheat or organize gangs.

Chancellor Klein has proposed storing student's phones in small lockers outside schools for a fee of 25 to 50 cents a day.

Diego thinks this is a "good idea," and "a lot cheaper" than the dollar a day local bodegas charged his classmates for cell phone storage. Some restaurants, he said, required students to purchase food to store their phones.