FINALLY...doing something about #$@! cell phones

The city school ban they mention here in NY is bordering on all out war (maybe that's an exaggeration), but I assume most efforts to ban them will result in the same arguments being proposed. I personally hate cell phones (mine primarily) but some of the arguments against a ban are quite valid IMHO.
 
strathmeyer said:
Oh, do go on.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, I probably wasn't clear. I meant many of the arguments being used in the NYC schools debate were valid. As I said it's turning into quite a heated debate and there are many points being made on both sides. I didn't want to get into detailing each one since I don't really have time for long postings today.

The primary one for me is that it is important to be able to contact people wherever they are in case of emergency. That's as far as I really have time to go today. If you are interested in more of the debate, please feel free to look it up on any NY news site. It has received a great deal of coverage. I hope that helps.
 
I read a story once about how cell phone users walk and stand just like zombies.

Take a look next time you are outside and there is a cell-phone user or two near you. It's really creepy.
 
There's really no excuse for banning all cell phones, even those that are turned off, from school. If you catch someone using a cell phone, fine, discipline the student. But what harm is there in carrying a phone? And this effectively means that students aren't allowed to have cell phones on the way to or from school, which presents safety issues.
 
Why do students even HAVE cell phones anyway? What sort of parent decides they need to pay for such a luxery item for their kids?

I see no problem with this either. And, turning a cell phone "off" is something you can do in two seconds, and you can also turn it right back ON too. Besides, this isn't a legal ban. It's just something like company policy it seems, and a school policy. No issues here. They ban Gameboys too, and those can be turned off.

My issue is with the "hands free headsets" people use, or more accurately the attitude these people have. Ever have someone say something while looking right at you and you respond to their odd broken sentence as best you can to be polite and suddenly they get ANGRY at you and say "I'm on the PHONE you jerk! I can't believe how unbelievably insensitive you are to interrupt me in the middle of a PHONE CALL! What possible reason in the entire universe could you have to actually TALK to me? Isn't it totally obvious I'm TALKING TO SOMEONE?". Okay that's a blatant exxageration, but a much milder form seems to take place. Guess what people? Hands free headsets are practically invisible, so if you say words and look at me while using one, I have no idea you are on the phone! Stop getting upset when people respond to you when you use them, or actually make it clear you are on the phone by wearing a sign or something.
 
MWare said:
I'm sorry, I probably wasn't clear. I meant many of the arguments being used in the NYC schools debate were valid. As I said it's turning into quite a heated debate and there are many points being made on both sides. .
Click to expand...
Yeah. The logical ones by the banners and the moronic ones made by the CP junkies. I wish they'd at least be honest and just admit they're addicted to yapping on the stupid things because it makes them look/supposedly feel important, not this "I need it in case of emergencies" BS.

The primary one for me is that it is important to be able to contact people wherever they are in case of emergency.
Click to expand...
lol

Amazingly, this wasn't an issue BEFORE cell phones.

I guess something crazy like "call the main office and they'll get hold of you" is just too archaic eh?


Art Vandelay said:
There's really no excuse for banning all cell phones, even those that are turned off, from school. If you catch someone using a cell phone, fine, discipline the student. But what harm is there in carrying a phone?
Click to expand...
lol - pls tell me you're joking.

Hey I have an idea: let's ban the USE of automatic weapons, tanks, and missiles from private citizens.........but you can walk around with em. Then if someone uses them, fine, discipline them. Don't do something crazy like outlaw them in the first place.

:boggled:

And this effectively means that students aren't allowed to have cell phones on the way to or from school, which presents safety issues.
Click to expand...
If by that you mean it's safer, you're right.

If not, that's one of the most laughably ridiculous things I've ever heard.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
Why do students even HAVE cell phones anyway? What sort of parent decides they need to pay for such a luxery item for their kids?
Click to expand...
The kind w/far more money than sense, of course. duh.

Guess what people? Hands free headsets are practically invisible, so if you say words and look at me while using one, I have no idea you are on the phone! Stop getting upset when people respond to you when you use them, or actually make it clear you are on the phone by wearing a sign or something.
Click to expand...
Or here's a REALLY radical idea:

Instead of flapping your gums to someone ELSE all the time, since obviously they're more important to you than wherever you are, go THERE and hang with THEM. ie go away, moron.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
Why do students even HAVE cell phones anyway? What sort of parent decides they need to pay for such a luxery item for their kids?
Click to expand...

Cell phones aren't a "luxury" item, they're a necessity.

They ban Gameboys too, and those can be turned off.
Click to expand...

Apples and oranges. Gameboys are toys, cell phones are tools.
 
bigred said:
Yeah. The logical ones by the banners and the moronic ones made by the CP junkies. I wish they'd at least be honest and just admit they're addicted to yapping on the stupid things because it makes them look/supposedly feel important, not this "I need it in case of emergencies" BS.
Click to expand...

Spoken like a real old fart. Lemme guess, you also bitch this much when you see someone wearing a baseball cap backwards?

Amazingly, this wasn't an issue BEFORE cell phones.
Click to expand...

And running out of gas wasn't an issue before people drove cars. What's your point? Or are you just a luddite?

The kind w/far more money than sense, of course. duh.
Click to expand...

LOL

You're stuck in 1965.
 
Last edited:
Tony said:
I know!! Let's also ban computers, in fact, to hell with progress and technology. Tiny blinking lights and beeping sounds are the bane of humanity. We're better off in the stone age.
Click to expand...
:)

Buck Murdock: Oh, cut the bleeding heart crap, will ya? We've all got our switches, lights, and knobs to deal with, Striker. I mean, down here there are literally hundreds and thousands of blinking, beeping, and flashing lights, blinking and beeping and flashing - they're *flashing* and they're *beeping*. I can't stand it anymore! They're *blinking* and *beeping* and *flashing*! Why doesn't somebody pull the plug!
Click to expand...
 
bigred said:
Yeah. The logical ones by the banners and the moronic ones made by the CP junkies.
Click to expand...
There have been 16 posts in this thread, a no one has prestented a single reason why cell phones should be banned. Not one.

Hey I have an idea: let's ban the USE of automatic weapons, tanks, and missiles from private citizens.........but you can walk around with em. Then if someone uses them, fine, discipline them. Don't do something crazy like outlaw them in the first place.

:boggled:
Click to expand...
Boggled by your own stupidity? You're seriously comparing cell phones to guns? What harm can someone do with a cell phone?

If not, that's one of the most laughably ridiculous things I've ever heard.
Click to expand...
Really? The idea that people may have valid safety reasons for having a phone outside of school is "one of the most laughably ridiculous things" you've ever heard? Did you read your own post?
 
Tony said:
Cell phones aren't a "luxury" item, they're a necessity.
Click to expand...
Geezus H. on-a-pogo-stick Krist. You gotta be kidding me. So the overwhelming majority of kids who don't have cell phones are missing out on a "necessity"? How, dear god, do they survive?
 
Tony said:
And running out of gas wasn't an issue before people drove cars. What's your point? Or are you just a luddite?
Click to expand...

So you're saying that having to get hold of people in case of an emergency is an issue that's only arisen because of cell-phones?
 
Focusing on cell-phones is sidestepping the real issue. What we need to ban is conversation. That's what people are objecting to, right?
 
Leif Roar said:
So you're saying that having to get hold of people in case of an emergency is an issue that's only arisen because of cell-phones?
Click to expand...
No, he's saying cell phones = cars.

:rolleyes:

PS the ignore feature is your friend.
 
Leif Roar said:
So you're saying that having to get hold of people in case of an emergency is an issue that's only arisen because of cell-phones?
Click to expand...
No, it's an issue that's no longer an issue due to the availability of cell phones.
 
tkingdoll said:
No, it's an issue that's no longer an issue due to the availability of cell phones.
Click to expand...

So it wasn't an issue before cell phones were commonplace, and now, because of cellpones, it's no longer an issue? Right. Gotcha.
 
SezMe said:
So the overwhelming majority of kids who don't have cell phones are missing out on a "necessity"?
Click to expand...

"Overwhelming majority"? I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about. It's the overwhelming majority who own cell phones.
 
Tony said:
"Overwhelming majority"? I'm afraid you don't know what you're talking about. It's the overwhelming majority who own cell phones.
Click to expand...

I think you need to come to some of the poor school districts in South Carolina and see if thats still true.
 
Leif Roar said:
So it wasn't an issue before cell phones were commonplace, and now, because of cellpones, it's no longer an issue? Right. Gotcha.
Click to expand...

You still have a problem with getting hold of people? Perhaps you should tell them to get cellphones...
 
tkingdoll said:
You still have a problem with getting hold of people? Perhaps you should tell them to get cellphones...
Click to expand...

No, but then I didn't have much of a problem getting hold of people before cellphones became commonplace either. The whole "getting hold of them in case of an emergency" argument is just an artifical fish. We didn't, and don't, need cellphones for that.

Hell, it's a hookey premise anyway. With the exception of profesions who, by and large, use more reliable means of communication, we rarely actually need to get hold of people immediately in emergencies.
 
Last edited:
Art Vandelay said:
There have been 16 posts in this thread, a no one has prestented a single reason why cell phones should be banned. Not one.
Click to expand...

Banned in schools? I can think of quite a few. To prevent cheating via text messages or utility programs. To avoid disrupting class. To encourage children to pay attention to what's going on around them (an increasingly common problem among the adult cell-phone-using population -- two students at my university have been killed in the last few months because they walked in front of buses while yapping on their phones). To avoid annoying the staff.

I think banning them completely is overkill, but I can see plenty of good reasons to disallow their use inside the school, and to ban them altogether inside classrooms.

As for cell phone use in businesses, that's up to the business owners.
 
Leif Roar said:
No, but then I didn't have much of a problem getting hold of people before cellphones became commonplace either. The whole "getting hold of them in case of an emergency" argument is just an artifical fish. We didn't, and don't, need cellphones for that.
Click to expand...

So before cell phones, when you had to get ahold of someone in an emergency you did what? What magical methods did you use to get ahold of someone sitting in traffic? Or, in the case of you being stranded/lost/broken down in the middle of no-where what magical methods did you use to get help?
 
MWare said:
The primary one for me is that it is important to be able to contact people wherever they are in case of emergency. That's as far as I really have time to go today. If you are interested in more of the debate, please feel free to look it up on any NY news site. It has received a great deal of coverage. I hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Gee. You mean there is no other way to reach someone at work or at school than by cell phone? You can't think of another way? Try really, really hard.

I'm sure it is better for a kid to get the bad news their dad just fell off a skyscraper in the middle of a test over their cell phone than to be summoned quietly from the room by the principal and taken down the hall to his office and given the news.

Banning them in school is a good idea.

Banning them at work will just result in their regular phone ringing.

I will now pause while everyone recovers from slapping their head from missing the obvious.

A simple ban of personal calls at work, on any kind of phone, should alleviate most of the problems.
 
Last edited:
toddjh said:
Banned in schools? I can think of quite a few.
Click to expand...
Really? Care to share them?

To prevent cheating via text messages or utility programs.
Click to expand...
Gee, I guess I need to learn more about these "cell phone" devices. I had no idea that putting one in your backpack could help you cheat on a test. Do calculators also have this ability? What about paper?

To avoid disrupting class. To encourage children to pay attention to what's going on around them (an increasingly common problem among the adult cell-phone-using population -- two students at my university have been killed in the last few months because they walked in front of buses while yapping on their phones). To avoid annoying the staff.
Click to expand...
If the class is disrupted, or the staff is annoyed, by a cell phone in someone's backpack, I think that there are issues other than the cell phone that need to be addressed. As for the middle one, that's not really the school's business.
 
Art Vandelay said:
Gee, I guess I need to learn more about these "cell phone" devices. I had no idea that putting one in your backpack could help you cheat on a test.
Click to expand...

And I had no idea that teachers could keep an eye on every student during every minute of a test to make sure they never took it out and held it under their desk.

Do calculators also have this ability?
Click to expand...

I have no problem with calculators also being banned from classrooms during tests for which they could be used to cheat. Other than that, I see no reason to ban calculators, since they're unlikely to cause any other disruptions or problems, and are in fact necessary for certain classes.

As for paper, the information which it can contain is limited by its size. Any piece of paper large enough to contain more information than the kid could easily remember would be easy to spot. And, even in this digital age, I also imagine paper is still a requirement for a lot of classes.

Also, unlike the examples you mention, cell phones can be used for communication between students during tests, which is, in my opinion, the real danger.

If the class is disrupted, or the staff is annoyed, by a cell phone in someone's backpack, I think that there are issues other than the cell phone that need to be addressed.
Click to expand...

Maybe, but those issues may not be the school's concern. Maintaining order and a constructive working/learning environment is, and keeping cell phones out of the picture is a perfectly legitimate way to do it.

ETA: I'd also wonder why, if the student has no intention of using the cell phone during class, he'd care if it was in his backpack as opposed to his locker.

So, the short answer is that schools should be allowed to ban cell phones because doing so might help solve some practical problems, and does not represent an unacceptable violation of the students' rights.
 
Last edited:
toddjh said:
And I had no idea that teachers could keep an eye on every student during every minute of a test to make sure they never took it out and held it under their desk.
Click to expand...
So... these teachers are so unobservant that they don't notice students HOLDING a cell phone, but they are able to somehow see cell phones hidden in backpacks? If a teachers can't come up with a good testing procedures, that's their problem. It's unfair to take away students' rights because of it.

As for paper, the information which it can contain is limited by its size. Any piece of paper large enough to contain more information than the kid could easily remember would be easy to spot.
Click to expand...
So these teachers can't see a CELL PHONE, but they can see a piece of paper?

Also, unlike the examples you mention, cell phones can be used for communication between students during tests, which is, in my opinion, the real danger.
Click to expand...
Some calculators have IR. And paper can be passed between students, especially since we're apparently in a classroom where everything under the desks is invisible. Heck, a student could just look at someone else's test.

So, the short answer is that schools should be allowed to ban cell phones because doing so might help solve some practical problems, and does not represent an unacceptable violation of the students' rights.
Click to expand...
Yes, it does. Additionally, it teaches kids that rules are arbitrary, stupid, designed with their maker's interests in mind, and should be freely ignored. Not exactly something we should be teaching our children.
 
Art Vandelay said:
So... these teachers are so unobservant that they don't notice students HOLDING a cell phone, but they are able to somehow see cell phones hidden in backpacks?
Click to expand...

They're not omniscient. There's no problem with adding additional safeguards on top of the teachers' eyeballs.

So these teachers can't see a CELL PHONE, but they can see a piece of paper?
Click to expand...

Are you perhaps thinking of the 1980s-style cell phones that weighed ten kilos and were attached to brick-sized battery packs? Modern cell phones are, in fact, quite small and easy to conceal in your lap. Kids do it all the time. In fact, just the other day there was an article about a special high-frequency ringtone that was supposedly designed to be inaudible to adults. I doubt something like that would be effective, but the fact that there's demand for it should tell you something.

And paper, in order to hold a significant amount of information, must have a large surface area. In addition, in order to be legible, it must also be relatively high-contrast, which means it will be especially easy for the teacher to spot.

Some calculators have IR.
Click to expand...

I'm all in favor of reasonable restrictions on what type of electronic equipment is allowed for tests.
 
Tony, I am beginning to believe

Tony said:
Spoken like a real old fart. Lemme guess, you also bitch this much when you see someone wearing a baseball cap backwards?



And running out of gas wasn't an issue before people drove cars. What's your point? Or are you just a luddite?



LOL

You're stuck in 1965.
Click to expand...

based on the above and previous comments that you have a modest knowledge level and limited abilities in debate.

As for me, I make no assumptions about a ten-year old or lower wearing a reversed baseball/gimme cap - beyond that, I am forced to assume they are trapped in the 90's. Same for baggy pants - though I support them for members of the social elite (feel free to roll your eyes here - sarcasm ahead) as it frequently causes them to trip while fleeing crime scenes - I do support that (especially if important bones/organs are damaged in the process.

But, as to the primary topic, you may well see a reason for cell phones in student possession at school. Oddly, I agree with you iff (not an error, hopefully you know what it is)the school has approved it, it can only be used for calling/receiving calls from home (where there is an invalid needing constant monitoring) and has no photographic or texting capability and no signal but a simple quiet ring. Since few students wish to have such a phone at school, I see no reason for their presence otherwise.

Although I am of the proper age for your designation, I would much rather be an old fart than a young srule8.
 
Beleth said:
I read a story once about how cell phone users walk and stand just like zombies.

Take a look next time you are outside and there is a cell-phone user or two near you. It's really creepy.
Click to expand...

This was, of course, based on a very serious scientific study conducted by the Institute for the Study of Undead Human Phenomena.

bigred said:
Instead of flapping your gums to someone ELSE all the time, since obviously they're more important to you than wherever you are, go THERE and hang with THEM. ie go away, moron.
Click to expand...

You realize that you are talking to someone via telecommunication right now instead of being "THERE." I don't see why talking to someone via a cel-phone should be considered more of a bother than talking to someone who is physically near you.
 
UserGoogol said:
I don't see why talking to someone via a cel-phone should be considered more of a bother than talking to someone who is physically near you.
Click to expand...

You have never noticed how much louder people speak when they are talking on cell phones? As though the rest of us want to hear all about their day? People talking face to face can lower their voices and talk discretely. For some reason, I have never seen that courtesy extended by people talking on cell phones.
 
Ban phone use while driving: YES
Ban hands-free phone use while drive: YES
Ban phones at school: Undecided. At least discipline for class disruption
Interrupting current conversation to answer phone: Rude.
Phones beeping alot at work: irritating. Use quieter ringtones, or vibrate only.

Best ringtone I've heard here at work sounds like a cricket chirping at night. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom