The fight over the right for school children to bear cell phones in schools moved to the Appellate Court, where lawyers for NYC and public school students' parents appeared before a five-judge panel. This comes after the City Council passed a bill allowing cell phones in schools, which the Mayor vetoed.
Many parents believe cell phones are critical for keeping in touch with their children, in case of an emergency or just to check in with kids who walk in dangerous areas. Yesterday, Justice David Saxe said, "I suspect that in a smaller school district, if the school superintendent tried such a ban, they’d probably fire the whole school board...[But parents] can’t easily fire the chancellor." But they probably wish they could!
Justice Luis Gonzalez wondered, "Because they are potentially disruptive, does that justify the broad policy?" But Justice Richard Andrias said, "You could spend the whole day disciplining people because the phones go off." And when one justice suggested that principals could decide on a cell phone policy for their own schools, the city argued, per the NY Times, that it would be "unfair to law-abiding students at troubled schools."
The students' parents' lawyer, Norman Siegel, told reporters that banning cell phone use would be more reasonable than banning cell phones overall, suggesting that the DOE just wants to make security guards' jobs easier. It could take months for the appeals courts to make a decision.
Cell phones have technically been off limits in schools since 1988. Last May, a Manhattan State Supreme Court judge ruled that there's "no constitutional right" to bear cell phones last May.
