Mayor de Blasio to Lift Cellphone Ban in School, Secures Tween Votes
Students of New York City, rejoice: You’re soon going to be allowed to bring cellphones and other electronic devices to schools. On Wednesday,Mayor de Blasio is expected to end the current band on phones, etc. in schools, allowing the principals and teachers of each campus to decide what to do with handling cellphones in schools. The default rule will now allow students to bring phones into school, but require them to keep them hidden. Smart thinking, De Blasio: The Tweens of today are the voters of tomorrow.
De Blasio is removing the ban because the kibosh on cellphones often lead to a system that unfairly taxed poor families, the Daily News reports. The ban was not enforced equally across all schools. In schools with metal detectors, which tend to serve lower-income families, students would often be forced to shell out $1 to $1 a day to store their cellphones at local shops. But students like Dante de Blasio, the mayor said, often brought cellphones to school and just kept them hidden.
“Parents should be able to call or text their kids,” de Blasio told the News. “That’s what this comes down to. It’s something Chirlane and I felt ourselves when Chiara took the subway to high school in another borough each day.”
The lift on the ban will also allow teachers to use phones and iPads for educational instruction, an increasingly popular practice.
