{"id":226006,"date":"2025-09-14T11:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T11:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226006\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T11:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T11:11:10","slug":"from-bring-it-on-to-this-policy-is-crazy-nyc-parents-react-to-cellphone-ban-the-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/226006\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018Bring It On\u2019 to \u2018This Policy Is Crazy,\u2019 NYC Parents React to Cellphone Ban \u2013 The 74"},"content":{"rendered":"

One year after I reported<\/a> on New York City parents\u2019 reactions to a proposed ban on cellphones<\/a> in the classroom, students and teachers have returned to schools with that ban in place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When I asked families on my 4,000-plus-member NYC School Secrets mailing list<\/a> how they felt about the new restriction, I received answers ranging from enthusiasm to concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPhones and smartwatches in classrooms and school hallways are more than just a distraction \u2014 they\u2019re a barrier to learning, focus and social development,\u201d according to Manhattan\u2019s Arwynn H.J.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBring on the ban,\u201d cheered Bronx parent and teacher Jackie Marashlian. \u201cMy high school students were ready to air-scroll me toward the ceiling with their fingers, so bored with whatever it was I was trying to impart to them. One day we had a WiFi glitch and I saw my students\u2019 beautiful eyes for the very first time. Bring kids back to face-to-face interaction and socializing during lunch breaks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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RelatedNYC Parents Sound Off About Plan to Ban Cellphones in Schools<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs a middle school teacher in the Bronx and parent of an eighth grader, I think the cellphone ban is fantastic,\u201d agreed Debra. \u201cWhile my son is \u2018devastated\u2019 he can\u2019t have his phone, it scares me that he\u2019s said he doesn\u2019t know what to do at lunch\/recess without a phone. Kids have become so reliant on technology, even when they are with their peers, that often they are not really WITH their peers; they are all just staring at their phones. I hope the cellphone ban leads more students to be both physically and mentally present.\u201d<\/p>\n

For mom Elaine Daly, the phone ban affects her more than her special-needs daughter. \u201cMy child is 11 and knows she is not to use the phone in school. My parental controls blocks, locks and limits access. But I need her phone to be on so I can also track her, since the NYCSchools bus app always says: Driver offline.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jen C., who reported the ban has been going well with her child in elementary school, sees a bigger issue for her high school-age son. \u201cHe has homework online and likes to get started during his free periods. However, he\u2019s not allowed to use his laptop, and there are not enough school issued laptops. I feel that teachers should give off-line work, or the school needs to give access to laptops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents of older students were the ones most likely to be against the blanket edict.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have the same policy for kids 6 years old and for 17 years old,\u201d mom Pilar Ruiz Cobo raged. \u201cThis policy is crazy for seniors. Yesterday, my daughter had her first college adviser class, and only five kids could work because the rest didn\u2019t remember their passwords to Naviance and the Common App. The verification code was sent only to their phones. Children who don\u2019t study, don\u2019t study with and without phones, now the children who actually work have to work double at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

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RelatedSupport for Phone Bans in Schools Is Growing, but Is It Enough to Help Kids?<\/p>\n

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A Queens mom pinpointed another problem. \u201cMany high school students leave the premises for lunch, and my son\u2019s school is one of those. He said they\u2019re not allowed to take their phones. Children need to use phones outside of school for various reasons; to use phone pay, to contact their parents for lunch money or any updates, etc\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The policy varies from school to school. At some, students are allowed to request their phones back when temporarily leaving the premises. However, the larger the school, the less likely it is to have enough staff to handle such exchanges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn interesting aspect of this policy is that although it was presented as a smartphone ban, it\u2019s actually much more expansive, including tablets and laptops,\u201d pointed out dad Adam C. \u201cThis presents a challenge for high school students who rely on laptops for receiving, completing and submitting assignments through Google Classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say parents have to provide their own laptop pouch (there are none similar to Yonder), and they can\u2019t store laptops in backpacks,\u201d confirmed Queens mom Y.N. \u201cMy son has afterschool sports activities and likes to do his homework on his laptop in between. I think he\u2019ll have to take it with him and hope they don\u2019t confiscate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m not opposed to keeping students off platforms like Snapchat during school hours,\u201d Adam continued, \u201cThey should be able to connect a laptop to a school-managed Wi-Fi network for school-related purposes, and the current policy doesn\u2019t provide the schools with much leeway around this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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RelatedKids Shouldn\u2019t Access Social Media Until They\u2019re Old Enough to Drive, Book Says<\/p>\n

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But Y.N. doesn\u2019t believe that\u2019s accurate. \u201cI already voiced my concern to the Student Leadership Team (SLT). At the Panel for Education Policy<\/a>, they said these rules are fluid. Because the regulations came after the SLTs were done for the year, the chancellor said they should be able to change them. She said a plan had to be made before Day One, but it doesn\u2019t mean that adjustments can\u2019t be made at the school level. \u2018Tinkering\u2019 was the word they kept using.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, perhaps NYC can pull back from its traditional one-size-fits-all approach and allow individual schools to \u201ctinker\u201d and set limitations based on the needs and feedback of their community, adjusting policy based on grade level, academic requirements and a multitude of other factors.<\/p>\n

Get stories like these delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year after I reported on New York City parents\u2019 reactions to a proposed ban on cellphones in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":226007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,122238,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1269,122239,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-226006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-cellphone-bans","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-newyork","13":"tag-newyorkcity","14":"tag-ny","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-opinion","17":"tag-parent-voice","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115202352150106950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226006","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=226006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}