Ring, ring, ring, “Whose cell is that?”

Despite a citywide ban on cell phones in schools, students are still finding ways to bring them into the classroom.

This has caused a problem for the administration, the students, the teachers and the parents of the student.

“I bring my phone to school even though I’m not allowed to because I want to keep in touch with my friends and sometimes I have things to do after school, and I live in Brooklyn. The traveling time is long,” said sophomore Akiyle Gittens.

The only way students are allowed to bring cell phones to school is if the student has a doctor’s note giving medical reason for the student’s need to bring their cell phone to school.

“Upper classmates understand, because they have longer in the school and they know how their system works”, said Ms. Musculino.

The administration has seen a pattern in which students bring their cell phone in, they have seen the lower class-men bring their cell phones to school more than the upper class-men or because they have a order of protection.

According to assistant principal Ms. Musculino,in our school only five to 10 students try to sneak their phones in one week, at the beginning on the school year this number is double.

The excuse the student use the most, when found trying to sneak their phone are: “I don’t remember having my phone with me” or “I have to pick my little brother (sister) up from school”.

Many students want to bring their phones to school because they got use to the fact of having a phone in middle school and their friends go to other schools that let them take their phones.

“To entertain myself in the train before and after school, to keep in touch with my friends and family. Sometimes I have to pick up my little brother and I need to keep in touch with my mom”, said freshmen Gineva Ambrister.

Stated in cbsnews.com, phones and beepers have been banned from NYC schools since the the 1980s.  After September 11, many adults have tried to get their children to bring their phones in school just to be in touch with their kids in case of an emergency.

In 2006 Mayor Mike Bloomberg, started to reinforce this policy once again because students use their cell phones to cheat and cell phones are a big distraction to students.

The Department of Education in New York City has a policy that prevents all public elementary, middle and high schools students to bring their phones to schools.

But many schools don’t have scanning and so the administration doesn’t know the students have electronic devices on them. In our school the administration has to enforce this because we have scanning.

According to pewresearch.org, sixty-five percent of students bring their phones to schools, where cell phones are completely banned.