The City Council is poised to override the mayor's veto of a bill giving city kids the right to bring cell phones to school. This being the twenty-first century, many, many kids already do so, but if we pretend it's not happening, city hall reasons, perhaps they will simply stop doing so, thus moving us back into the eighties, when such problems did not exist.
The mayor can still opt not to enforce the bill on the basis that it violates state of federal law. However if he does so it may wind up in court again, and it would be fairly tough to prove that cell phone use violates existing statutes. I'd like to hear the arguments, though.
Those of us who were in classrooms six years ago today remember the hardships of kids and parents trying to get in touch with one another. We remember the lines of parents coming to take their kids from schools.
And we all know that the little security a cell phone provides is important. Hopefully, common sense will prevail, and kids will be able to bring their cells to school. Of course they should turn them off in classrooms, and of course they should keep them in their bags or pockets.
But it's ridiculous to say kids can't have cell phones in school. You might as well say it's not allowed to rain on school days.
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