NEW YORK — Top leaders in New York City say a blanket cellphone ban will return to city schools.
The impending ban will make a comeback as phone and social media bans become increasingly popular nationwide. Last week, Los Angeles announced the ban and New York Governor Kathy Hochul is considering a statewide ban.
Hundreds of schools in the five boroughs have their own cell phone restrictions, rules created at the school level after New York City Public Schools. lifted a citywide ban on phones in 2015.
‘Children are now completely addicted to phones’
Schools Chancellor David Banks said a new ban could come into effect as early as January 2025. He discussed the issue on a TV news program on Tuesday morning.
“Not only are they a distraction, kids are now completely addicted to phones,” Banks said.
He shared very few details about how the policy will work.
“We will work through the issues in the coming weeks,” Banks said.
Mayor Eric Adams weighed in a few hours later.
“Everyone knows that cell phones are a distraction. A lot of young people see that it is a distraction. Sometimes used as bullying and other things at school,” Adams said. “One of the biggest problems, believe it or not, is parents. They want access to their children all day long. We have to find a good place.”
CBS New York has reached out to the United Federation of Teachers for comment. Leaders said the union will have a say after the ban is officially announced.
The policies of individual schools in NYC are variable
Some schools in New York City collect phones and others do not.
Of those that do, some individual school leaders have been criticized for being inconsistent, or so lax that some students find ways around them.
Student Wyatt Fowler explained how things work at Martin Luther King Junior High School on the Upper West Side.
“When we come in, we swipe our cards and then we put our phones in the bins and then we walk through the metal detectors and then we go to class, and at the end of the day they bring it,” Fowler said.
Some parents said they worried they might lose contact with their children during emergencies, and some students who work part-time or help their families with care said they need their phones all day.
Keyonna Mitchie, who has four children, said she supports a citywide ban.
“It’s a distraction,” she said. “If I know they’re at school, I’m fine with their phone being confiscated for the time being, but after that they need their phone back.”
