Dearest Mayor Bloomberg,

Hi, how are you? So this is a letter written by one student, soon to be signed by many, letting you and the board of education know just how amazing your idea was to place metal detectors in schools. Scanning for weapons such as cell phones and ipods will definitely be effective in keeping our schools safe. I will be able to attend school knowing that I can walk through the halls without being brutally murdered with those little metal charms often seen on g-strings. Then again, the metal detectors are a random thing, so every other day that they aren't there I have to worry about someone shooting me in the face with a gun. Or, god forbid, murder with a cell phone. How dare a student bring a cell phone to school. I mean, come on, what kind of idiot gets kidnapped on their way home from school and uses a cell phone to call their parents so that they aren't killed and raped by some psycho?

People don't need cell phones for those kind of things. Duh.

Mr. Mayor, I completely agree with this idea. It's definitely an effective way to get every New York City student to hate you. I'm beginning to realize your plan of action in running our city, first get the firemen and every other union worker to hate you, and then move on to the kids. You're a sharp one. You're my role model actually, starting today I'm making everyone who enters my house go through a metal detector.
I can't trust my own mother, she owns a cell phone. And my own father owns an ipod. Satanic, I tell you. I've disowned my family for their evil ways of life. Music and communication just do not slide with me.

Then, and get ready for this, I've been hearing that students have been listening to MUSIC on IPODS? IN SCHOOL?! Outrageous. What nonsense is this, a kid listening to an ipod on his/her way to school and then placing it in his/her backpack until he/she gets out of school so that they can listen to it on their way home. Kids these days. That whole policy of "If we don't see it, we don't take it" is just a waste of time. Every child must pay.

Finally, I'd just like to give you a few ideas on how to further your "Let's protect our schools no matter how much everyone already hates me" operation. I would say making bulletproof vests, helmets, kneepads and elbowpads a requirement for school uniform would definitely keep our students safe. Or, even better, attaching pillows to the clothing of every NYC student. Shoes shouldn't be allowed either, because someone can get a serious concussion from being smacked in the head with footwear. Then again, isn't it possible for a child to rip off his/her shirt and strangle an enemy with it? Ban all clothing as well. Wait, can't someone strangle a person with their hands? We should definitely be getting rid of those too. Better yet, limbs should not be allowed in school at all.
So this is a thank you for being my hero.

Sincerely,
The World.

Cellphones in high school should be a no-no. Try going to class and sit through a lecture with 10 different phones with 10 different ringtones going off (not at once). BIG ANNOYANCE and distraction.

It's ridiculous that kids think their world will end without cellphones in school. Yea, they have cheerleading, sports practice... blah blah... they need rides... blah blah... What did we older kids do without cellphones? We suck it up and use the office phone!

I think this is more enforced on high schools though.

I think that in the few *rare* cases of an emergency, you should have a cell phone with you. However, think about the many distractions in class that both you and the teacher will experience when you're using your phone. I mean it's alright if you carry along a cell phone, and even if you use it outside of class, but all I'm trying to imply is that cell phones should not be used in class.
Metal detectors for cell phones though? Wack.

I agree in questioning the intentions of how confiscating iPods and cellphones will keep students safe. Putting up metal detectors will cost the school district(?) money and what happens if a student is placed into a bad situation, and needs to make an emergency call?

I understand how not having cellphones on campus will eliminate the distractions brought up during class when a phone goes off, but that's why the teachers take the cellphones, yes? And at the end of class, the student should be able to retrieve it.

Some of you seem to be annoyed with how other students use their cellphone during inappropriate times during school hours. If you're not the one doing it, then why does it bother you? I mean, yes if a cellphone starts ringing in the middle of class, it's a nuisance, but that's why the teacher confiscates the cellphone. If not, then I'm wondering why don't they?

Another question I have, is why do they only bring up the idea of setting up metal detectors for iPods and cellphones? What happened to the possibilities of weapons bringing brought into school? Is it all such old news now, that Mr. Bloomber seems to have forgotten all about this?

Then about the iPods, I think that the "If we don't see it, we don't take it" rule really fits as a consequence for having an iPod out during class.

I understand how not having cellphones on campus will eliminate the distractions brought up during class when a phone goes off, but that's why the teachers take the cellphones, yes? And at the end of class, the student should be able to retrieve it.

Some of you seem to be annoyed with how other students use their cellphone during inappropriate times during school hours. If you're not the one doing it, then why does it bother you? I mean, yes if a cellphone starts ringing in the middle of class, it's a nuisance, but that's why the teacher confiscates the cellphone. If not, then I'm wondering why don't they?

Day 1: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 2: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 3: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 4: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
TEST DAY: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.

And each time that happens, class is interrupted. If there is no punishment, what is taking away the phone and giving it back going to prove?

Day 1: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 2: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 3: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 4: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
TEST DAY: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.

And each time that happens, class is interrupted. If there is no punishment, what is taking away the phone and giving it back going to prove?

The teacher making a scene for five minutes about a cell phone ringing is more of a distraction than the ringing in the first place, don't you think?

If the teacher says nothing about it, then that will only embolden students to allow their phones to ring during class, which will become a distraction.

Day 1: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 2: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 3: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
Day 4: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.
TEST DAY: Cell rings, teacher picks it up and give it back at the end of the day.

And each time that happens, class is interrupted. If there is no punishment, what is taking away the phone and giving it back going to prove?

Well surely if that happens then the punishments should become more severe with each disturbance.

You're missing the point of Spirited Away's post; she was doing an analysis of one poster's suggestion for punishment. The fact that you found the obvious flaw in the sequence of events reinforces her point that the suggested punishment (taking the cell phone, then returning it at the end of the class) does not resolve the problem.

Well surely if that happens then the punishments should become more severe with each disturbance.

[font=Arial][size=1]Spirited Away made a good point that older generations made it fine through school without cellphones by using office phones. but, when you have to deal with the new york city metro system and the unpredictability of the city, i desperately need a cellphone. on several occasions, i had to abandon the subway completely and walk home. i need to at least let my parents know that.

and in case of an emergency, you cannot have all 3000+ students of my school waiting for the office phones.

How often do these emergencies occur? Then again, if you're suggesting that to have cell phones in case of emergencies is "better safe than sorry", I whole-heartedly agree. However, how many kids out of that 3000 would only use their cell phones in case of emergencies? And aren't school officials trained for such emergencies? Don't they have cell phones?

Per your problems with the subway... don't they have public phones? If you'd really need to call home on the occasions that you have to walk home, wouldn't public phones work just fine? I was in Manhattan last summer and I recall seeing phones in the stations.

Sorry to be so staunch about this, but I'm one of those kids who rode the bus all four years of high school, who stayed for the late bus often enough, and who sometimes miss the late bus and had to call home with the office phone. Of course, I do not mean to make light of your situation because everyone knows NYC is that much more complicated than Houston (my town), but I feel that whatever the case, cell phones aren't necessities, they're conveniences that everyone assumes to be necessary.

i've seen many pay phones at train stops that were cut off the cord thingy.

and what about the people who go to school in Manhattan? say what if the UN or Chrysler Tower goes down. what would they do?

my sister used to go to school at Stuy and when the Twin Towers went down, they had to evacuate the building immediately, so she couldn't use a phone. [she didn't have a phone of her own at that time.] she ended up walking across the Queens Bridge with her friends, who also don't have cell phones, to Eastern Queens, which is about 10 miles or more miles away from the city.

sometimes in extreme emergencies, they are necessary. and i agree with you, those types of emergencies don't occur often, but after 9/11, parents seem think that cell phones are necessary. they're just scared that something like 9/11 might happen again.

Yes, in extreme emergencies, they are a great convenience, and again, it is better to be safe than sorry. However, in those emergencies, do you have any idea how much more worst off it is for so many people to be calling around? On the day that Hurrican Rita was supposed to hit Houston, it took me TWO HOURS to get a clear line to call my family and friends because the network was busy. I tried my home phone as well as my cell phone. So in an emergency like 9-11, real emergency calls may not be able to get through because non-emergency users would be jamming the networks.

Right, and there are no working public phones in Manhattan subways. Why do I find that hard to believe?

... They couldn't find a phone? They couldn't went in a restaurant, or ANY business to plea for use of a phone? In that kind of emergency... and they couldn't, for the life of them, find a phone? Are you effing kidding me? I've been to NYC and I know people can be mean at times, but during that calamity and your sister couldn't get a sympathetic soul to lend a phone?
Yes, in extreme emergencies, they are a great convenience, and again, it is better to be safe than sorry. However, in those emergencies, do you have any idea how much more worst off it is for so many people to be calling around? On the day that Hurrican Rita was supposed to hit Houston, it took me TWO HOURS to get a clear line to call my family and friends because the network was busy. I tried my home phone as well as my cell phone. So in an emergency like 9-11, real emergency calls may not be able to get through because non-emergency users would be jamming the networks.

I remember that during 9/11, it was almost impossible to call in or out of Manhattan, because so many people were using the phone system (and the collapse of the WTC had taken out a lot of landlines).

exactly what i was about to say.

look guys, i think that you should just keep your cell on viberate... if you did that, it wouldnt't interrupt class, and you could sneak a peak if you wanted to see who called... ;) the only reason they are getting banned is becuase stupid kids are iterrupting class with them... stupid kids... sheesh...

the train is crap. trust me. it normally smells of hobos, rotting soda bottles, garbage and most of all, piss. i've seen a few working, but a lot are cut off. and what if someone on the train is out to get you? what do you do? run to the nearest payphone and hope that s/he doesn't find you? when i was little, i used to think that the payphones were for killing people.

and besides, people were too busy running in terror. even the restaurant owners, business owners, ect. i mean, who wants to be the next to die? everyone was scared to death, watching people jumping out of buildings, body parts all over the place [that's how my sister described it to me.] my sister came home crying her eyes out.

you may have been to the city before, but i bet you've never been to western Queens or LIC. my sister walked across the bridge into LIC, a bad neighborhood. the train stop may seem nice and all, but that's 'cause they redid it a while back. (my friend almost got jumped there.) LICs crime rate is pretty high too (compared to some parts of Manhattan and eastern Queens). people aren't really that friendly there.

and yes, cell phone lines can get extremely crowded. especially T-Mobile around here. and most of the phone lines in the city were down.
exactly what i was about to say.

Having a cell doesn't lower your chances. In fact, in articles by Cosmo magazine AND others, it is said that women make themselves an easy target for attacks when they're chatting on cellphones instead of paying attention to their surroundings when walking.

EFF NO! if they do that, i'll just cut school.
just something that has been circulating around myspace. i didn't write it though.
they're also planning to put in metal detectors in my school! i mean, WTF do they need it for? everyone in my school has a phone and if they just randomly decide to use the metal detectors, they'd have like 1,000 phones. and dozens of angry parents planning to sue the BOE.

i mean, a lot of people in NY go to school miles away from their homes. some people have to take the subway to school! parents give their children phones for a reason-safety. and if the BOE starts banning phones in school, then that just takes away the whole purpose!

edit:;
some links:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/nyregion/27schools.html
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article//20050413/6/1383
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/mdaly/
http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/9543