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.

My school (Stuyvesant HS) has been one of the schools that has come under the microscope here. We've had a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in place for a while. You're warned to keep electronic devices away and turned off during the day, whether you keep it on you or in your locker. Some teachers these days will still give warnings, but for the most part, a lot of teachers will take a cell phone away if it goes off in class, no questions asked. Then, there is a three-day waiting period before the student can have the phone back (if the student wants it back earlier, a parent has to come to the school to pick it up.) That policy has been working so far (although I still see the one or two people texting in class). Many schools, such as mine, don't have the gang/violence/weapons/drug problems that a lot of the other city schools have, so we shouldn't be forced to turn our school into a prison. From what I've seen, safety and security is the number one objective for the whole random searches/scanning policy, and I fail to see the threat posed by cell phones and iPods.

Yea, that's it.

Michael, it's not fair that you make more sense than I do... Grrr.

in NY, where the taking away of the cellphones thing is actually occuring, the punishments aren't that ineffective. sometimes, the Dean just never gives back the cellphones. but most of the time, you get it back only when your parents go to school to get it, meaning that you'd have a really, really long lecture about not taking your cellphone to school or a lecture about keeping it off and on silent/vibrate.

I got to Stuyvesant with DrNick (except I don't know him) and I think this is a vast waste amount of time and money.

first of all, i agree with everyone that cellphones that are on are a complete distraction. students in my school like to play scratchy music on it and it really distracts you when you want quiet during a free period. however, cellphones aren't the ONLY distraction. 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.

also, these metal detectors will be random (at least at my school). the metal detectors they'll using are portable but enormous. what a waste of time and money to just set it up on random days.

i can understand for weapons and drugs. i fully support that. however, it's going to slow things down. and also, things like ipods and cellphones. they might be distractions but they mean no harm.

btw, doesn't nyc have like a huge defecit? where is the money coming from?

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.

QUOTE(anheuser @ May 2 2006, 4:49 PM)

free free to post here my answer: of course no!
bloomberg is creating sumting stupid. well he's trying to put metal detectors in midle and highschools. he's doing this so it can prevent use from bringing yur cellphones in school well isnt that a wrong thing to do like for example if there wuz an emergency wut would happen and if wanted to call yur parent what would u call them with so ... i just need a minute of yur time and jsut type in yes or no and u can and maybe type in sum feed bac about wut u think about it.. thxs for all your time all cb users!

We have something called a "signal dropper" its this stpid little box that drops the signal all over school campus and i think its retarded. I HATE it... LMAO a bunch of friends are getting the little stick on antennas you but inside your phone behind the battery. That mskes em work even with the dropper thingy.

I think they should keep cell phones in schools. If a few students are not responsible enough to not use it during class, take their phones away, not the whole student body's. Some emergency may happen when you would really need that cell phone. The student should be responsible about using it and not abuse the priveledge.

My classmates and I attend school at 4pm until 9pm. Many of us work and go directly to school after work. The school we use during its after hours is a scanning school so all the electronics (except calculators) are taken away. We need cell phones for work, to call if we're late or if something came up or whatever. It's very time consuming to run home, drop off the cell and go to school. I can't accomplish that because I'd end up half an hour late.

Plus, I have a restraining order against my ex boyfriend. What am I going to do when I see him? Throw the restraining order at him? Run to a pay phone where he'll catch up with me before I find a quarter or before I find the number of the detective?

For me, the iPod restriction is annoying. My commute to work takes about an hour or more and the trains are packed in the morning so what am I supposed to do to amuse myself? Stare at the wall and get even more tired (which is what I do now)? But I can live without it. I need my cell phone for protection.

i wouldn't do that at all.
when i was in public school
i always had a cell phone.
Also i seem to be really sarcastic
and if something happens with a teacher
just because i said something
also a lot of teachers didn't like me
when i never said anything
im a really quiet person
so i use to sit in the back corner and just do my work
and i would get in trouble randomly.
so if i ever got sent to the office or something stupid
my mom always told me to call her.
hah or if i just wanted to leave school randomly because i got mad at someone
to just call her

also emergencies
what if you saw something that no one else did
and something bad was going to happen
then i would think you need to call someone.

I don't agree though with people that like text during class though
or play games or something
thats the only reason i see for them to actually do that

Pathetic. Lack of moral, and senses. Or maybe adults are just too old.

School is wasting money.
School/staff are not trying hard enough to enforce student to abide the rules and to maintain the privileges. Old adults viewed cell phones and ipods in a negative way.

Hey, i dont even have cell phones or an ipod ... and i'm supporting it. lame, isnt it?

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



I've answered that already.


... 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.

That's a really good point. 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). Each single cell phone cell is capable of supporting a finite number of calls, and can easily become overloaded in an emergency. There's a good chance that, should something like 9/11 happen again, it wouldn't even be possible to place a cell phone call (or not conveniently, at any rate).

If parents are so concerned about the welfare of their children, they should emphasize an emergency plan, rather than relying on cell phone communication.

I think cell phones are good to have just in case. If my mom forgets to pick me up from school it's helpful to have a phone at hand. (That happened to me one time and the schools payphones were broken)

But if a world thing happened like 9/11 that's another story.
Gosh, this topic gave me a dream last night where I couldn't contact the police because I didn't have service.

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.

You took a tiny snippet of my quote out of context in such a way that it seems to support your argument. I'd like to point out that it really doesn't.

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...

that's not the whole reason. don't assume. gosh, people these days...
anywaysss... it's not only cell phones, it's iPods/MP3 players/beepers too. it's mostly because electronics get stolen a lot in school and the parents are complaining and stuff. also because kids cheat on City/Statewides (standardized tests) with phones.
besides, we almost always keep our phones on silent. only those few days when we're running late and forget to silence it.

... Er, I've been on the trains; they aren't that bad, but losers can't be choosers. HISD (Houston Independent School District) school buses aren't great either, but I rode on them, too. But honey, with OR without cellphones people get raped, mugged, and killed. 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. If you have statistics to contradict this in order to support your statement, I'd like to see it.

If someone is after you on the train, are you the only other person on the train? If you are, why are you riding the train that late or at times that you KNOW danger lurks? Kids shouldn't be out by themselves during those times. Or at least, smart kids shouldn't. If you don't have a choice, then find other people to stand with as soon as you get on the train. You don't get signal until you get out of the subway anyway. If someone attacks you and your signal is out... the best thing your cell can do for you is as something to throw at 'em.


... yes, people were scared, I have no doubt of this. However, in those times, people band together. They were scared, but someone could have understand your sister's situation. I just think that it's stupid that a group of girls can't ask to use a phone. Did they even think to ask? I doubt it.



People aren't friendly. Agreed. But are you saying that having cell phones will make you safer?




That is a point brought up by Micheal and I yet you agree, though it contradicts your argument? What? So you agree with me or you don't? If you do, then why the hell are we wasting our time?

I really dont have a problem with it, but when you say someone can not do it, they will do it. Here is how it works at our school

First Time: Taken away and you get it back at the end of that class period.

Second Time: Taken away and you get it back at the end of school.

Third Time: Taken away and parents are called to come get it.

Fourth Time: They keep it for a while. By a while I mean 3 or more days.

The problem with the fourth offense is that kids have actually sued the school, and open police reports of the school stealing cell phones.

According to local lawyers, we can use our cell phone whenever we want. It does not matter if you are in class or not. It is illegal to deny anyone phone use, in any kind of situation. No matter it be a emergency or not. But, the idea that you cell phone can get taken away keeps kids from doing it. I have gotten too the fourth problem and filed a report with the police. I feel that taking it away and keeping it is ok until the end of the day. But for over the night, or over an period of days is completely wrong.

Then putting up cell phone jammers will not do anything at all as well. That will create a HUGE problem with the cell phone companies and that is something schools can not deal with.

In the end, the students wins. No matter what the school district or teacher does.

That's true. Alot of my female friends are so addicted to talking on the phone. At the end, they end up being sad because they used countless of minutes from just walking on the sidewalks. sad stuff. they have no pepper spray, no tons of keys, no hidden knifes, and nothing to protect themselves.

however, most of them walked with someone else. does that really increase their safetly too?

Well how they do it at my school is during before school, passing periods, lunch time, and after school is when we can have cell phones out, but not during class because everyone could like text message each other answers on test and quizzes and such. & it doesn't seem to be a problem, so I think that's just what they should do at every school.

I can't believe that so many of you who feel that living in NYC is potentially violent and in the same post are complaining about the use of metal detectors in schools. Along with finding cell phones and ipods, they identify weapons! Metal detectors are a far greater deterrant to crime than using a phone to tell someone you are being mugged.

In a post Columbine and 9/11 world, not addressing policies and procedures that can effect a more orderly and safe school environment is not only careless, it is downright negligent.

hello fellow createbloggers! thank you for all your opinions in this forum. keep up with the news and keep posting lol thanks

.. now wut should i post about now?? any sugesstions?