New York State Cell Phone Ban in Schools
 

New York is finally attempting to correct the cell phone issue in schools. They are now banned in all public educational institutions from “Bell to Bell”. I guess that’s like “Saved by the Bell”?

Anyway, the permission of cell phones in classes has really caused problems. Social media posts and bullying, cheating via phone, unauthorized recording, distraction as well as all the other negatives will be curbed. Kudos NY!

NY school phones: Hochul'''s proposed '''bell to bell''' ban draws mixed reaction across New York districts - ABC7 New York

A great start!

The next mass school shooting incident should be interesting.

Personally - I think students should have flip-phones, where the only thing they can do is text and call, nothing else. There's no need for them to have smartphones. But in the world we live in now where there are school shootings every year, some kind of communication with the world outside the classroom is imperative.

Teachers
 

Educational staff and administrators can have phones. I can’t think of an incident yet where a smart phone saved someone’s life in a school shooting. I guess it could happen someday.

It going to be hard to cut the umbilical cords. Cell phones are like pacifier’s and are attached by umbilical cord to brain. The brain will not function without texting and being pacified by iPhone. People can not stay off for 5 seconds let along 5 minutes.

NY legislature and governor have only ONE state mandatory job to do. Pass a budget on time. It is late again, contains boatloads of new laws and new regulations that have nothing to do with a budget.
If people approve or disapprove the cell ban, it had no business being shoved into the budget. Just another horrible example of how dysfunctional NY government is. It's a backdoor way to hide representative's actual voting opinion about that law.
One more reason why anyone that is smart enough, and can afford to leave that stench, has already moved away. Nice of them to have brought their wealth here.

My grandson lives in Pennsylvania; I had bought him a smart watch about two years ago.
The watch has the capability of keeping track where he is at all times, also if he leaves a prescribed area, the ability to alert his parents in case of emergency and a number of other features but does not have the ability to make or receive calls. Last year they banded these watches during school hours. Now I understand these watches can be a distraction and the children should face discipline action if the interrupt the class. But comes the day one child gets kidnaped and the very people who made this decision to band this type of watch will be nowhere to be found.

Ahh another opportunity for students to learn. How to communicate face to face and appropriately socialize. Just saying.

The "problem" here is that the kids don't need their "phones" for any of the above issues. They have computers that are used (and necessary) in class. If you have a Mac Book and some other computers, you don't need your phone to text or be on social media - it's on the computers too! Don't be naive and think this is a good thing, its just hype and absolutely nothing is different to the kids.

Quite easy to block any program other than school business on school owned computers.

Cell phones in NYC
 

There is a program/pouch (yondr) now being used in some NYC schools that locks the cell phone up while the student is in school and unlocks when the day is over. I’m not sure how it works but it does.

My son is a K-8 Principal and though all the above problems mentioned above are real, not having cell phones is beneficial in other ways. It cuts down on social media usage, bullying and going to the bathrooms to meet other students, rampant texting during lessons and so much more.

He has used this pouch for two years and it works.

My first thought was, how will they report a shooter in the school? How will they call their mom, for comfort and to maybe say goodbye. What a country.

There will be exceptions for those that don't speak the language???

THIS is your concern? There's a rule of logic called "The 2% Rule", i.e., if there's less than a 2% chance of something happening, you shouldn't concern yourself with it. What is the likelihood of a school shooting? 1/1000th of 1%?

Primary focus should be keeping kids focused on schoolwork.

I am pretty sure that the teachers and other school staff will be calling 911 if they see anyone caring a firearm and probably would be easy to turn the phones back on with a push of a button.


And they would probably be having drills for what happens with a school shooting in their school.

School shootings are a real worry to anyone with kids in schools as well as anyone who works in one.