School Bans Cell Phones in NY

[Dobbs 3K 0]

If I were a parent (and I'm not), I couldn't see letting any of my kids have a cell phone until they turn 18 (when they're legally an adult), and then I'd make them pay for their own bills. The only exception might be those set ups where you get two phones and they can only call each other. That would fulfill the supposed emergency or after school needs the kid might have.

[Brett Favre 0]

Kids don't need it in school, but they may after school. It's not like it will magically teleport to them after school, so might as well bring it for the day.

 

Thats also a load of crap. Kids don't need their cell phones after school. You can not tell me kids can't find a phone after school. There are a ton of buissness that have no problem letting kids use their phones and there are still pay phones out there. If they don't have any money to use a pay phone, dial 1-800-collect and make a collect call or be cheap and do what I did and leave a message when the collect call asked you to record your name. There isn't a valid excuse on why kids MUST have a cell phone before, during, or after school.

 

Now thats just a hassle. Listen, you adults need to get off your high horse with this adults could use cellphones, but since kids are kids, they don't need shit. If theres a girl whos being looked at funny by some guy walking across the street, what is she going to do? Go dial 1-800-collect on the next block, to reach her family? Isn't it just easier to pull out her cellphone and be done with? Theres a lot of shit that happens. A while ago, this woman was walking down a sidewalk, and a man in a van was following her. She took out her cell, called up her brother I think it was, and he immediately came over to scare the guy off. It also happens to turn out that this is the same guy that raped and killed a girl weeks or months later. So please. Everyone needs to get over this sterotypical "oooo i need to call carla and timmy and tell them about my day" crap that you may think cellphones are only used for. They are useful in other situations.

[sfaJack 0]

If theres a girl whos being looked at funny by some guy walking across the street, what is she going to do? Go dial 1-800-collect on the next block, to reach her family? Isn't it just easier to pull out her cellphone and be done with? Theres a lot of shit that happens. A while ago, this woman was walking down a sidewalk, and a man in a van was following her. She took out her cell, called up her brother I think it was, and he immediately came over to scare the guy off. It also happens to turn out that this is the same guy that raped and killed a girl weeks or months later.

 

I'd say that's not a typical, everyday situation facing today's teens. If it is in your neighborhood, you need to move.

 

I have no facts or figures to back me up, but I'd be willing to bet that 80% of calls made on cell phones are not really necessary at all. Like it or not, most of the time people are using them just to bullshit and waste other peoples' time. Just look around the video store some time: how many people are reading the back of a DVD case to somebody over their phone trying to figure out which crappy movie to rent? How many people are at the supermarket calling home every 10 seconds "Do we need milk?" or asking "Orange or grape juice?" Or look at how some folks are going without standard land line phones in their homes, opting instead for just a cell phone. You're telling me that most of those peoples' calls aren't superfluous?

 

And seriously, how many kids actually need to call someone at the end of the school day? Most kids either drive, ride the bus, walk, or take a train or whatever to school everyday. They already know how they're getting home from school the vast majority of the time. On the days they don't or there's an emergency or some other "crisis" situation, they can use the phone at school or hitch a ride with a friend or something. It's worked for years.

 

While they do have their practical uses, cell phones are by and large unnecessary and a social annoyance. We might get over that "I MUST CALL TIMMY AND CARLY NOW" stereotype if it weren't actually true...

[Brett Favre 0]

Cellphones are also necessary for parents to reach their kids. You can't call a pay phone.

 

And i'm not saying people don't make those calls, but just because they do, why mess it up for the people who actually do need the cells?

[Scroby 0]

Cellphones are also necessary for parents to reach their kids. You can't call a pay phone.

 

And i'm not saying people don't make those calls, but just because they do, why mess it up for the people who actually do need the cells?

 

I have a question for you, I think you said earlier you were a senior in high school. Now when you were in Elementray school or Jr. High (middleschool for some), what did you parents do to get ahold of you while you were in school? Did you NEED to have a cell phone back when you were in elmentary school and Jr. High (Middleschool for some)?

[Brett Favre 0]

I didn't get a cellphone till this year. Trust me, i'm not a cellphone guy. But there's a difference between elementary/middle school and high school. Usually elementary/middle school is closer than high school, and there are also less problems near elementary/middle schools.

[Henry Spencer 0]

What a non-issue. If this ban passes in any school district, it'll be ignored, as it should.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I didn't have a cell in high school and I never found myself in a situation where I needed one either.

 

Class of 2002, on the cusp of the cell revolution.

[super_tigris 0]

Couple of things:

 

-Cellphones in school are annoying if not for the fact that no one seems to be capable of putting them on either silent or vibrate. Everyone in high school wants everyone else to know they've got the new cellphone with the new ring tone. Not only that, but they're incredibly obnoxious about it. It's not discrete, it's not hidden, they're walking around with it clipped on their belts, talking loudly, putting their ring as loud as possible, and texting like you can't tell they're looking two inches to the left and down at the floor to what appears to be an invisible object that they're reading. Furthermore, it's a HUGE distraction because people pressing their god damn buttons and genuinly fucking my ability to learn because they can't wait to talk to their boyfriend or girlfriend in 2 hours at lunch. It's not that I hate them or can't stand them, because they're usefull in the right place, but giving a teen a cellphone is giving them access to instant messaging and the internet while in class. Now, if you've got a free period or lunch and no one is being bothered by what you're doing, sure, knock yourself out, but if the cellphone is there during class it's a distraction.

 

-As far as iPod's and CD players go, that's a bit less obnoxious if not for the fact that it actually HELPS inclass work. Having ADD myself, I know, because there are times when it's beyond distracting and I can't do inclass work, so I put on music and the problem of teachers helping students or people talking to each other is gone. However, if people are listening to their music really loud while the teacher is teaching, I understand the distraction. But that's very obvious and no one is that stupid. That doesn't stand. It's a much different situation than cellphones. It's not even close to being the same issue.

 

Anyways, I fully agree with the cellphone ban because students are like kids, you can give them a toy and tell them not to play with it, but they'll still play with it when you're not looking, and no teacher can individually watch each student to that degree. It's the newest way kids cheat, if you're testing and it goes off than you automatically fail (at least in my school), and it's just a problem that's far less contained than it should be. If the ban is loosely implimented, as I'm sure it will be, then it'll let kids know that you can't do it now but in the right instances that it's okay. It takes the cellphones from the ignorant and stupid kids but I doubt they'll strip it from the kid with no money in need of calling home to get a ride.

[SuperJerk 0]

As far as iPod's and CD players go, that's a bit less obnoxious if not for the fact that it actually HELPS inclass work. Having ADD myself, I know, because there are times when it's beyond distracting and I can't do inclass work, so I put on music and the problem of teachers helping students or people talking to each other is gone. However, if people are listening to their music really loud while the teacher is teaching, I understand the distraction. But that's very obvious and no one is that stupid. That doesn't stand. It's a much different situation than cellphones. It's not even close to being the same issue.

 

Is there a risk the music would become the distraction for your ADD? I had a kid in my 1st hour that couldn't take medicine because he had a heart condition. I'd totally bend the rules on headphones if I thought it'd help him shut up for more than 5 minutes.

 

I hate to say this, but given the effects caffeine has on ADD, I've given kids diet soda before to help them out.

[Guest Felonies!]

Here's another interesting chapter of "cell phones vs. teachers" from my old high school, just happened this month. This math teacher had been sleeping during classes: just putting assignments on the overhead, going to his desk, checking his e-mail, and napping for the duration of the hour. After a few days of this, some kids whipped out the cell phones, snapped pictures of him sleeping through the class he was supposed to be teaching, brought them over to the principal, and got said math teacher fired. Good. Oh, and power2thestudentz

[SuperJerk 0]

Off topic, but I hope you don't think that kind of behavior is representative of the majority of public school teachers.

[Guest Felonies!]

Oh I know. It is representative of my old math department's poor quality and disregard for student performance, though. Another one got fired when some people did the math (chortle!) and realized he had far and away the highest failure rate in the last six years or whatever.

[Damaramu 0]

Punk kids need to be taught some respect. Think they can just talk on their phone in class and do whatever they want. A good paddling is what they need!

[SuperJerk 0]

Oh I know. It is representative of my old math department's poor quality and disregard for student performance, though. Another one got fired when some people did the math (chortle!) and realized he had far and away the highest failure rate in the last six years or whatever.

On the bright side, at least he wasn't just passing kids for no reason (as in my statistics class from my senior year of high school).

 

Seriously, though, I fucking hate that shit. I'm not saying I pass kids who don't deserve it, but I feel like my job is to make sure the kid knows everything he or she needs to know in order to pass. That means (in addition to teaching kids at a level they understand) progress reports on grades and missing work, test reviews, and feedback on assignments. It also means testing at the level I teach at. If I write a test question expecting kids to explain why Pres. Truman fired Gen. MacArthur during the Korean War, I sure as hell better have gone over it in class or given them an assignment over it at some point.

[super_tigris 0]

Well, here's an issue. Some of the kids that I have school with don't bother to pay attention because cheating is so high that all someone has to do is ask the lonely outsider kid for their homework in order for them to feel like they fit in and then just copy it and pass it around to all their friends. It's like that in my school and I'm sure everywhere. Education is ridiculous and my school is more concerned with taking CD players and hats away than making sure that students don't skip, cheat, smoke cigarettes on school grounds, get in fights, among other things. They're also more concerned with making examples of the kids they don't like rather then enforcing their policy for the entire student body. Someone's cell phone who needed it to call home is taken but the guy with it strapped to his side gets to keep his? The point is, these rules don't work because they're only enforced when the adminstrators or educators see fit, and I'm not saying that works for every school or every principle or every teacher, but that's the way it works at my school. If a stoner gets busted with pot on or off school ground, he's gone. If the star running back does (AND TWICE, this happened) he gets a slap on the wrist. The rules aren't followed, and all they are are means to hurt kids with good reputations. That's trully how I see it, though, I'm all for banning in-class texting and calling.

[vivalaultra 0]

A ridiculous addendum:

 

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article....S00010000000001

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Or you could just get a phone that vibrates and put it in your pocket. It rarely if ever is loud enough for another person to hear.

[Slayer 0]

If all the teens can still hear it, even if teacher can't, a couple will probably blow the whistle on the ringer, either out of good conscience, or because it's probably annoying as hell to those who can hear it.

[Dr. Zaius 0]

What a non-issue. If this ban passes in any school district, it'll be ignored, as it should.

Probably by the teachers, as if they already don't have enough rules to enforce.

[SuperJerk 0]

http://www.thatvideosite.com/view/2121.html

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I don't even see how this is an argument. You, basically, don't have any rights when you're in school. You do what the school says, and that's the word. If they say no phones, then guess what? No phones. Didn't y'all get that swank, handy lil' rule book at the beginning of each year? You know, the pamphlet with the do's and don't?

I rolled joints on mine.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

As far as the phone "issue" goes, it should vary between classes. Were I a teacher, my rule would be that if your phone went off in class, I'd get to answer it, and give them a detention or whatever.

 

What I don't get is why one can't use a cell phone when checking into customs.

[EricMM 0]

Cells are fine as long as they don't ring in class. If they do, they're taken until the end of class, I suppose. And the kid should get an extra page of problems for his trouble.

 

Is the issue still a drugs thing or not? That was the concern with beepers...

[Slayer 0]

Not unless every kid today is on dr...

 

Nevermind

[Guest Felonies!]

You do what the school says, and that's the word. If they say no phones, then guess what? No phones. Didn't y'all get that swank, handy lil' rule book at the beginning of each year? You know, the pamphlet with the do's and don't?

Coffey is talking like a street-smart black kid with a deep reverence for rules and policies. Also, what's with the Walter Winchell subtitle?

[Slayer 0]

I love his donuts