NYT Upfront - "Should cell phones be banned in school?"

Should cell phones be banned in school?

As schools across the country grapple with cell-phone policies, New York City's strict ban has everyone talking 

YES
As a former New York City public-school teacher, I can tell you that cell phones don't belong in the classroom. A student with a cell phone is an uninterested student, one with a short attention span who cares more about socializing than education.

When I was teaching, all too often I turned around from writing something on the blackboard to find students text-messaging or otherwise playing with their phones...

—Jesse Scaccia

Former English teacher, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School, Brooklyn, N.Y.

NO
Schools make rules to facilitate a quality education in a respectful and safe environment. Cell phones are a distraction in classrooms and have no place there. I support rules banning their use—by students and staff—in the classroom.

But cell phones should not be banned from students' possession entirely, because that is, in effect, not allowing students to have cell phones while traveling to and from school...

.

—Elizabeth Lorris Ritter
Parent, Bronx High School of Science, New York