A group of parents are urging lawmakers to support the government's ban, which suggests banning school cell phones as concerns have risen that politicians are gaining cold feet in their plans.
The 11-hour ground swell comes as state lawmakers moved to allow local districts room for the ban.
“At this crucial moment, legislators should not go the wrong path,” supporters said in pointy letters to lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins and Congress President Carl Heaty.
The letter blows up state legislatures and Senate Democrats due to separate proposed legislation that would increase latitude rather than a complete ban on New York City's public school system and other school districts. It could mean cell phones between hallways, lunchtime, breaks and classes during study periods, supporters warned.
“The ban in the classroom simply prohibits the use of phones during class, which may seem reasonable in theory. [the Senate and Assembly bills] It would make the governor's proposed policy pointless,” the letter said.
“The Bell-to-Bell policy is extremely important as it creates vibrant engagement in schools, hallways, cafeterias and playgrounds. A classroom ban means that children will continue to succumb to the appeal of cell phones and social media when class bells ring.”
The governor's plans included in the 2025-26 executive budget proposal require that mobile phones be stored until fire. Lawmakers are expected to adopt the 2025-2026 budget by April 1st.
This letter was signed by representatives of the parent group, including Parent Group Inc. Free phone action; free school moves and many others.
“The discussion of local control in education is generally persuasive, but mobile phones create unique issues,” advocates for free telephone schools said. “The research is rich and clear. School mobile phones pose a serious threat to children's ability to learn, mental health and social development.”
Additionally, unsupervised mobile phone use in schools could lead to risky and threatening interactions involving fentanyl-covered drug purchases, social media, bullying, online gambling, and even soliciting from predators engaged in child sexual abuse and trafficking, as well as buying addictive drugs and watching the promotion of attitudes with addictive drugs, the group said.
The letter also points to a decline in reading and mathematics students' performance following the Covid-19 pandemic as another reason to support the ban on calls within schools.
They also argue that enforcement of banning smartphone access only during class hours is “difficult to enforce teachers to play telephone cops at the top of every class period.”
“In contrast, Bell-to-Bell policies like Governor Hochul can remove this burden from teachers so that they can do their job and not waste valuable educational time,” advocates said.
They further argued that Bell2Bel's policy would not prohibit students from contacting parents.
“Children are not neurologically developed, are highly impulsive and more susceptible to addiction than adults. Schools must be a place where students learn and are free from these powerful and addictive devices.
But Congressional School Board Chairman Michael Benedetto (D-Bronx), who received the letter from the group, defended a law that would determine what smartphone policies should look like in school districts rather than in Albany.
“Schools may want classroom devices for educational reasons,” said Benedetto, a retired school teacher.
He said Hochul's proposal to ban Bell from Bell is well-intentioned, but “completely wrong.”
“Everyone should have a voice that includes students. There are multiple ways to deal with the situation,” the lawmaker said.
