New York schools and cell phones

New York will soon lift its longstanding ban on cellphones carried by students in schools. After years of tolerating a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in some schools while practicing strict enforcement in others, the Education Department is working out the details of how and when to allow phones in schools.

A month ago the Education Department was ready to lift the ban, but the principals’ union, the Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, pushed back with concerns about students using the phones to arrange fights, or to record videos of students or teachers and post them on social media. Department officials decided to put off the change until they could work out more details.

Banning cellphones from schools is increasingly seen as counterproductive.  Teachers are experimenting with technology and finding that the miniature computers many students carry in their pockets can be valuable classroom tools.

Schools are trying out various policies. Some are allowing students to use their phones only during breaks or at lunch. Others are encouraging students to bring cellphones to school, where teachers invite them to conduct web searches or view educational videos. Even in districts with bans in place, educators realize they cannot stop students from using their phones.

When the ban is lifted, NY schools will face many challenges. Many parents are concerned about a rise in cyberbulling. Schools fear that students will use their phones to cheat, as was the case in a scandal at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan two years ago when school officials caught a student, identified as Nayeem Ahsan, taking pictures of a Spanish exam. One of the officials took the student’s phone and discovered photos taken previously of the Physics and English exams. The student had delivered the answers to other students via cell phone. The cheating rink rocked the elite school that eventually expelled Ashan.

Children and teenagers are also easily sidetracked by texting, games and social media. However, some education experts say schools have a responsibility to help students learn self-control over devices that will be integral to the rest of their lives.

 “Blaming the cellphone or laptop for kids being distracted is kind of silly” said Sylvia Martinez, former president of Generation YES, a nonprofit group that helps schools integrate technology, and co-author of “Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom.”

 “Part of becoming an adult is learning how to use your time wisely and making good choices,” said Julia Talbot, a manager at the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services.

Many school districts all over the USA have updated cellphone policies as students can take laptops and tablets into classrooms. For instance, Los Angeles schools students can bring cellphones to school, but the devices must be stored in lockers or backpacks.

In Miami, as part of a “bring your own device” policy put in effect two years ago, students can bring cellphones to class and teachers ask students to use phone apps to answer quiz questions, take surveys or snap pictures of class notes.

The cellphone ban in New York also disproportionately affects low-income students. 88 of the city's 1,200 school buildings -- serving roughly 120,000 minority students -- have permanent metal detectors.  They were installed in schools with high crime rates to find weapons but also have been used since 2006 to confiscate phones.
The students pay $1 a day to store their phones in trucks that park around the buildings. The cottage industry has become so profitable that it rakes in $22,800 a day from some of the city's poorest youngsters. In other words, New York City's ban on cell phones in schools is taking an amazing $4.2 million a year out of low-income kids' pockets.

The cellphone trucks appear to be unique to New York City.

edited from The New York Times