Phone In A Safer Environment For Our City’s Students

Everyone says today’s world is “different than it used to be” for children. What does that mean? Are there more kidnappings? More youth involved shootings? More crime? Yes, the increase is true – but which decade are we comparing today’s level of “safety” to? The 1980s when crime in New York was at its highest?

Some say our schools are more dangerous now than they ever were in the past – and that parents need to know what’s going on at all times. I’m not sure what has specifically changed or when, exactly, we began to fear sending our children to school without a communication device. The ability to provide children with a cell phone, in the event of an emergency, has become a frame of mind that no one thought about before the 1990s.

Students didn’t start carrying cell phones to school until recent years. Almost out of nowhere, parents felt there was a need to keep in touch with their children and keep tabs on their status before and after school. What did we do with our children before cell phones – back in the old days when kids went to school and hung out afterwards?

Now that Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña gave the okay for students to bring cell phones to school – lifting the ban that they said infringed on students’ safety – we can rest easy, right?

Looking back at my school years, I don’t think we missed much by not having cell phones, which are mini-computers in today’s society. We called our guardians from a pay phone or our friends’ home phones to let them know where we were. It was a bit frustrating when we couldn’t reach someone, but we managed.

During last week’s press conference, Chancellor Fariña also said, “Lifting the cell phone ban is about common sense, while ensuring student safety as well as high-level learning in our classrooms…As a parent and a grandmother, I know that families and children feel safer when our students have access to cell phones.”

Let’s get real! Students’ safety has gotten WORSE since kids have been carrying cell phones. When a child gets attacked and robbed of their cell phone while they’re on their way home, how is that making matters safer?

When I walked home from Bildersee as a teenager, I didn’t own or carry any gadgets that some rugrat could steal, hack into and use to compromise my information. If city officials are saying students’ safety isn’t ensured without cell phones, that’s pretty sad!

How will kids communicate with their parents without a cell phone?

While I understand having a cell phone is now a necessity, as opposed to being a luxury, it sounds like the Chancellor and Mayor are saying students didn’t feel safe before. Aren’t our children supposed to feel safe in and around schools even if they don’t have cell phones? Aren’t children, in the event of an emergency, supposed to be able to count on educators? You mean to tell me that if a student had an emergency at dismissal time, they can’t use a school phone to contact their guardian? 

Suddenly technology is safer than a school official!

The good thing is, each school can make their own policy on where students should keep their cell phone – whether it’s in a book bag, locker or a “designated area.” The best “designated area” for a kids use their cell phones is AT HOME – where their phone won’t be a distraction from their studies (despite the fact that the new ban lift states the phones will be prohibited during exams and other vital academic drills).

I don’t think cell phones should be banned from schools – but I also don’t think it’s necessary for students to take one to school in the first place in order to feel “safe.” Kids have been attending school for centuries without the assistance of technology. How did their parents, grandparents and ancestors make it through all those years?

When you think about all of the school massacres which took place over the years, cell phones didn’t save too many students who were victims of a madman’s rampage – whether it was in a prestigious college or suburban elementary school.  Students were able to use their mobile device to tell their friends and family they were okay – but how “safe” did those phones really make anyone’s life?

Call me old fashioned, but let’s get kids to focus on their studies and the importance of undiluted education instead of them worrying about a communication device!