New York, NY – Parents are calling on Mayor Bloomberg to lift a ban on cell phones in city schools after he said Friday that mobile devices are the best tool for keeping tabs on kids.
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On his weekly radio show, Bloomberg said, “If you want to have something that a parent can know where their child is – cell phones. A lot of the smartphones have that technology.”
In the wake of the killing of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky, parents want the DOE to lift the ban. The Department of Education has enforced the ban since 2006.
“The mayor has no authority to ban cell phones – it’s a safety issue,” said Mona Davids, president of the New York City Parents Union.
Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said the mayor won’t reverse the rule despite parents’ concerns.
Look, I understand the concern about kids yapping and texting on phones instead of learning. In my day, beepers were confiscated by the DOE because of the potential to be used for drugs. In the 1980’s and early 1990’s drug dealers used phones.
But Bloombag is a member of the ruling class and doesn’t want others to know what’s up. You can buy your kids a cell phone that restricts who they can call and without all the texting features – something so they can be tracked by the signal if they are lost and something for them to use in an emergency.
Just think how much harder it would have been to find this precious little angel who was taken from us, if we didn’t have technology.
Why shouldn’t there be a cell phone with “only” 4 contacts let’s say home, police, grandfather and whatever… Only the parents will be able to register the numbers and they will be able to call only this numbers. Don’t see what’s wrong with this.
I wonder if Bloomberg would have the same ban for his children and grandchildren.
You voted for him a third time. Live with it.
Do what i did on school. you put the cell phone in your clothes. i dare a teacher or school security guard to unjustly touch you.
Maybe Leiby and all other kids at cheder and yeshiva should have cell phones? Maybe he could have called home rather than asking a stranger who turned out to be a murderer?
Even if achild has acell phone if someone takes them they will also take the cell phone.
Unless kids will walk around with cell phones glued to thier ears.
You people in NYC voted for this clown for a third time. You’re stuck with him. So what if he pays senators for vote for gay marriage? So what if he wants to publicly perform a gay marriage? You Frummies and Agudah types will continue to kiss up to him and honor him at your functions and give him Kavod becau$e we all know what matter$.
no matter if thier is a band on cell phones or not my 12 year old daughter will be taking a cell with her to school & when she goes out even just to the grocery near by there are cell phones with no texing and accually the school if they find a cell on a student has a box in the office where the student can drop off the cell in the morning and pick it up when leaving the school. It is necesery to equipt our kids with any safety tool beacuse a cell phone can be traced by the cell comp.
#4 and #11 : I voted against Bloomberg and so did a lot of other New Yorkers. Remember, his margin was small, especially given his lackluster opponent (whose name I can’t even remember) and the amount of his own money that he spent on the campaign.
As to the question of cellphones in schools, they’re yet another distraction. If you want to try a system whereby kids hand them in when they arrive at school and get them back when they leave (which should solve the safety problem raised by the article), good luck. I taught at a yeshiva where this was the practice, and the students found ways around it.
I think that the major reason Bloomberg put a ban on cell phones is because of cyberbullying. It is a recent phenomenon, and is harder to target than stam bullying. It is, by definition, difficult to contain because of the use of cell phones and e-mail. Teachers and personnel don’t have the rights to check a kid’s cell phone or email. Children have committed suicide R”L because of it.