Appellate judges hear cell phone suit

After listening to appellate court judges grill representatives on both sides of the school cell phone ban, Queens mother Ellen Weisman said she was somewhat hopeful that the judges might issue an opinion that would pave the way for students to carry cell phones into schools.
“Most of the judges understood the parents’ positions that we felt that banning the cell phones was completely too overboard and an infringement on the parents’ ability to keep their children safe,” said Weisman, who is one of eight plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the city.
The plaintiffs in the suit, which a Manhattan Supreme Court judge ruled against in May of 2007, contend that parents should be the ones to decide if their children can bring cell phones to school - not Department of Education Chancellor Joseph Klein.
However, lawyers for the city believe that the suit has no basis.
“Petitioners are asking the courts to engage in an impermissible review of the Chancellor’s pedagogic judgment,” according to a brief prepared by Michael A. Cardozo, counsel for the city’s law department. “The challenged policy is an effort to eliminate the disruptions, cheating, breaches of privacy, etc., made possible by modern cell phones, with their capacity for text messaging, computation and photography.”
Although the cell phone ban has actually been in effect since 1988, the issue began gaining greater attention during the 2005-2006 school year, when schools began conducting random metal searches before students entered the building hoping to prevent weapons from being brought to school.
If school officials found a student with a cell phone on school grounds, the official could confiscate the phone and hold it for a week before a parent could come in and pick up the phone.
Weisman, who decided to participate in the suit after a dangerous stalking incident involving her daughter when she was in high school, said she and her co-plaintiffs do not dispute that students should not use cell phones in school - only that they should be allowed to bring them to school.
“Our concern is more before and after school,” Weisman said.
Meanwhile, Weisman said she did not buy the city’s excuse that allowing cell phones in schools would lead to more cheating.
“I don’t think there is an overwhelming amount of kids abusing their cell phones during the day,” Weisman said. “Cheating didn’t originate with cell phones, and it won’t end with them either,” Weisman said.
In July of 2007, the City Council passed legislation that allowed students to carry cell phones to and from school; however, some believe the legislation had little or no effect since students could already carry cell phones to school, just not bring them inside.
Weisman said that she was hopeful that if the appellate court issued an opinion in the plaintiffs’ favor, the two sides would come together in search of a compromise on the issue.