NYC mulling pay-per-use phone lockers for students
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jan 2nd 2007 11:38PM
posted Jan 2nd 2007 11:38PM
In our formative years we were kept on the straight and narrow with wireless leashes, and we got in touch with our folks the old-fashioned way -- two cans and a string -- and that's the way we liked it. Modern high school students, though, have a decidedly different take on the best way to drop a line, ditching pay phones (or, heaven forbid, the principal's office) in favor of trusty cellphones. Yipes, seems we've got a little hiccup: New York City's public schools have recently started clamping down on its longstanding ban on wireless goodies on school grounds, leaving a healthy percentage of tech-savvy pupils in the lurch. Parents aren't too happy, either, noting that it's the most effective way to keep tabs on lil' Johnny and Susie from afar in the event of an emergency. School officials are responding with the standard arguments, distraction and the threat of cheating, and are coming to the table with a proposal to install lockers outside schools for the sole purpose of housing phones during the school day. Sounds to good to be true, right? A rare case of taxpayer dollars being put to exactly the right use at exactly the right time, you say? Well, there's a catch: thanks to the crushing cost of said lockers, students would likely pay 25-50 cents a day for the privilege of being separated from their technology for a few hours. Needless to say a legal fight seems inevitable, though parents, teachers, and the school board will try to iron things out on the 18th of this month with a little face-to-face time. Of course, they could just give in and make texting a school subject, but we're not really seeing that happen.
Seems to me that the education establishment (and parents) should be focusing on more important issues, Cell phones have no place in class. If a student wants to have/use one around campus on their own time there is no use preventing them from doing so.
If schools can take a "no tolerance" policy with regards to weapons, why then would they not apply the same to cell phones, ipods, and all electronic devices.
Arguably this problem starts in the home where parents set a poor example for children with regards to the importance/role of communication devices.
As far as emergencies go, would it be too much of an inconvenience to call the office, or go down to the school and allow the school administration to facilitate communication between you and your child?
It almost makes you long for the days of real discipline when passing a note in class would get you detention. Unfortunately that would never work without reinforcement of said values in the home.
George,
I think you're going a little overboard with this. Cell phones really are the easiest way to keep in touch with children.
I'm in that gap where I didnt have a cell phone when I was really young, I eventually got a page (and a quarter for my sock), but I got a cell when I started travelling by myself more often. I also live in NYC and if I didn't have my cell on 9/11 I dont know what I would have done. I immediately got a call from my dad and we made a plan about what to do.
Now if you take this instance into consideration, all the back-ups that you mentioned wouldnt have worked. First of all, no one in the building was watching the news, or anything like that, so no one knew about the attack. Second, all the subways in new york were shut down. It would have been hours before my dad would be able to come to the school and get me, and my mother was supposed to be out of town so she wouldnt have reached me no matter what.
Third, calling the school would have been very difficult. The 2 receptionists on staff would never have been able to cover the thousands of calls from parents.
So a cell phone really helped me out, it was my first day at a new school, i knew no one, and without a cell phone, it would have been hours before I had heard from my family. For a kid that can be a very scary time.
There is a problem with cell phones being used to much in schools, especially during classes, but banning them entirely is not the way to go.
posted 3: hopefully 9/11 will be a once in a lifetime event, so it is a poor example.
it does seems that the easiest way to stop a cell phone from being used is to stop it from working. to stop it working just fit jammers to class rooms. out-of-class areas could be made "clear" such that children can still use their phones in break times.
surely when they goto work they won't be allowed to be on the phone when they should be working?
I don't see what the big deal is. If a student whips a cell phone out in class and starts talking, give them detention. Who cares if a sixteen year old kid has a cell phone in their pocket?
As a student, many of us couldn't care less what the policy is. Our school hunts our phones down, but that doesn't stop many people from using it. It's become a sort of game for everyone, devising insidious new ways to deviously text under the table.
And if you older people recall, you used to pass notes in class all the time. Ours isn't much different.
Jason: "I don't see what the big deal is."
The big deal is ring phones in the classroom or even vibrating ones (at times). This is a big distraction if 20 phones are going off class after class. And I guarantee you that someone will forget to turn it off or silence them more often than not. Secondly, if it is on vibrate, the student will stop what he/she is doing to check the text msg or see who is calling. This is just natural instinct. Then of course you have the cheaters.
I don't believe in a full ban or to take away the privilege from the "good" users for the mistakes and carelessness of others that always seem to ruin it for everyone else. But drafting rules to fit everyone and each circumstance is just too much work. So, I do understand the reason for banning the phones. What I'm saying is we can require students to turn off the phones once they enter the building and not turn them on until they leave or between classes. But who will enforce this? And what will be the violation for failing to comply? Detention? Confiscation? What about the he said/she said blame game? Maybe a teacher even lies about it? Just way too much b/s to deal with...
The educators' gripe is not with the phones but with those who use them without good manners or ethics. Logically then, these educators should be teaching kids how to properly use their mobile phones!
Not only would this improve the school environment, cellphone education would then pass a generation of truly responsible and capable phone users on to society at graduation (wouldn't it be nice to have such a generation?)
Start with phone etiquette and work up from there. Put the kids on a points-based honor system and take away points for poor cellphone choices, add them for remedial efforts.
Ideally mobiles would be made part of lesson plans in Language, Math and Science and refurbished loaner phones would be provided for those who don't own one.
Whatever you do, don't punish the kids for the faults of an education community that got caught flat-footed and clueless by a technology devised during the Truman Administration and in practical use since the Ford Administration.
Xman:
Well, every student nowadays has a phone with them at all times, even during classes. I just leave mine on silent, while most of the other people I know leave them on vibrate, or even on full blast. With that, maybe theres only a few that I've seen go off in a YEAR. Thats just not enough to propose a law stating that students should not be able to have them in class. Heck, I use mine during class, and still nobody notices. There is a policy in my school stating that if a phone goes off, the teacher has to confiscate it, and the student receives a 3-day suspension, but that policy is NEVER enforced. Its not even a big distraction that a phone goes off in class. Who cares? Ive seen some go off during tests, and the teacher just tells the student to put it away/turn it off.. There. Done. The problem is solved.
students will continue to use their phone no matter what measures are introduced.
students and parents will complain if they're taken away during school citing concerns over contact during an "emergency".
I say...jam the whole lot.
Are cellular jammer legal in the US?
Why not get the little kiddies the Firefly from Cingular? There's no SMS, no cameraphone, and it's limited to calling mommy and daddy. Sounds a little *too* childish? Then maybe these stupid teens could show some responsibility and grow up. If they can't handle the technology (and therefore be treated like adults), then they should be treated like the infintile kids that they are. Suck it up, punks!