{"id":208891,"date":"2025-09-08T00:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208891\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T00:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T00:22:09","slug":"kathy-hochul-hides-cost-of-cell-phone-ban-mascot-frankie-focus-who-gets-called-tone-deaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/208891\/","title":{"rendered":"Kathy Hochul hides cost of cell phone ban mascot ‘Frankie Focus’ — who gets called ‘tone deaf’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Kathy Hochul is refusing to disclose the costs of using a fuzzy \u201cFrankie Focus\u201d mascot <\/a>unveiled last week to promote the \u201cbell-to-bell\u201d school cell phone ban, a Sesame Street-type character that even supporters flunked as \u201ccompletely tone deaf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mascot <\/a>is more appropriate to connect with 4-and-5-year olds than the phone-obsessed teenagers the \u201cbell to bell\u201d prohibition is intended to help, educators said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely tone deaf,\u201d said Queens high school teacher Moshe Spern.<\/p>\n

Gov. Kathy Hochul speaking at MS 582 in Brooklyn with the mascot \u201cFrankie Focus\u201d on Sept. 4, 2025. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all agree that the cell phone ban would be great for students and learning. But having a silly cartoon character be the focus of the promotion loses the target audience: middle school and high school students,\u201d the veteran teacher said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cHaving a cartoon character thrown in their face is not going to make them happy. It insults their intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe use of a mascot doesn\u2019t appeal to parents and certainly not high school students. It doesn\u2019t appeal to me,\u201d said high school parent Yiatin Chu.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure the mascot helps her cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the ban, which she supports, is a serious issue. There\u2019s a lot of debate in high schools about students not having access to their laptops or phones that could be helpful during free study periods.<\/p>\n

The governor\u2019s office has declined to say how much was spent creating the mascot for the state\u2019s cell phone ban in public schools. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is more successful than the mascot,\u201d said another proponent, who requested anonymity. \u201cI don\u2019t know any 13-to-18-year-old who could be convinced with a mascot like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hochul showcased Frankie Focus at a Brooklyn middle school last week.<\/p>\n

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Sources who back the ban said former New York Sen. and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton <\/a>and her camp were in discussions with Hochul on implementing the cell phone ban.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s office on Sunday would not explicitly say how much it\u2019s spending on Frankie Focus, other than the character is part of a state public service campaign to promote the benefits of distraction-free learning and that it has spent $13.5 million to help schools comply, including $4 million to the New York City Department of Education.<\/p>\n

Frankie Focus posing with school children in Brooklyn. Paul Martinka<\/p>\n

It\u2019s being funded by public, not private funds, the spokesman, Sam Spokony said. <\/p>\n

But Hochul defended Frankie Focus, who has his own social media accounts<\/a>, as a valuable promoter of the ban.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankie just kind of showed up at our office last week and did this perfect double backflip, which was pretty wild,\u201d the Hochul spokesperson quipped.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut after that, he made two things clear: He\u2019s not affiliated with any companies or brands, and he really, really doesn\u2019t like smartphone distractions at school.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hochul rep said the furry mascot could help \u201cspread the word\u201d about how distraction-free learning helps students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Governor\u2019s always said, our kids succeed when they\u2019re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling \u2013 and that\u2019s why we\u2019ll keep working to ensure distraction-free learning delivers the best results for New York schools,\u201d the governor\u2019s spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul is refusing to disclose the costs of using a fuzzy \u201cFrankie Focus\u201d mascot unveiled last…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":208892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,17441,5371,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,40852,3060,22598,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-208891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cell-phones","10":"tag-kathy-hochul","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-public-schools","19":"tag-schools","20":"tag-teachers","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-news","27":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115165825847368938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}