Jul 25, 2007 8:09 pm US/Eastern
Battle Looming? Council OKs Cell Phones In Schools
Bloomberg Has Said There's No Way That's Happening
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
New York City students may soon be allowed to have their cell phones in class, but there's a catch.
On Wednesday, the City Council passed legislation that would prevent schools from confiscating phones, as long as students do not use them while on school property.
However, the bill isn't in the clear just yet.
It now goes to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has said there's no way phones will be allowed inside schools.
Bloomberg's administration has staunchly resisted recent attempts to reverse the ban on cell phones in the nation's largest school system, outraging parents who say their children need mobile devices for safety and to connect with guardians before and after school.
The council passed a measure that gives children the express right to carry cell phones to and from school, which won't change the ban inside school buildings but could provide parents with a legal boost.
The law could help buttress legal challenges to the policy or help force the education department to compromise and find a solution. One suggestion is that schools provide special lockers to store the phones while students are in class.
"We recognize that those cell phones should not be on in school or during the school day," City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, "but they need to have them to and from, and we believe the Department of Education has to go out and figure out a way to make that happen."
It did not appear there would be an immediate compromise. The Department of Education said Wednesday that the policy had not changed, and a spokeswoman said Bloomberg would veto the measure.
The measure passed by a vote of 46-2, and Quinn said the council had enough votes to override a veto.
A number of council members said Wednesday that their children sneak phones into schools -- and as parents, they encourage this because they have no alternatives.
"We're creating a generation of little prohibition smugglers now with this ridiculous policy," Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. said. "The priority is protecting the kids."
The city's ban on cell phones has been in place for years, but until recently students carried the devices without much consequence. When the city began random security checks as part of a crackdown on weapons, it began finding and confiscating hundreds of cell phones, which sparked a fierce battle over the policy.
Parents and students have written letters, staged rallies and repeatedly called on the mayor to reconsider.
Bloomberg, who founded a financial information company before entering politics, has a certain obsession with technology and communications, but he has a similar love for efficiency and order. He is known to become irate about cell phones that ring during meetings and news conferences and once said he fantasizes about stomping on them.
He says cell phones are a distraction in schools, where students can use them to cheat on exams, take inappropriate photos and waste time chatting and text messaging instead of learning.
In a speech on education policy Wednesday in St. Louis, Bloomberg reiterated his opposition to cell phones before his audience of National Urban League executives, who exploded into applause.
"You come to school to learn, he declared, "not to play games or send text messages."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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