Nice Schools

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- New York may be a city of incessant cell phone talkers, but students vowed on Wednesday they would hit the "off" button during classes as they battled a ban on cell phones in schools.

Speaking at a city council hearing where lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at overriding a ban on cell phones enforced under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, high school students and their parents spoke out against the unusually stringent anti-cell phone policy.

"I feel mature enough to be able to turn off my cell phone in class," said LaGuardia High School student Jenna Gogan, 16. "This is about students' safety, because, especially in New York City, many parents need to feel reassured they can contact their kids going to and from school."

Dissent over the ban in New York escalated recently when Bloomberg introduced metal scanners and random checks at some of the city's 1,408 public high schools. The new scanners used to protect the city's 1.1 million students had led to the confiscation of more than 3,000 cell phones and 36 weapons, mostly knives and razor blades.

Ok, if your school needs metal scanners and random checks, the problem of teenagers with cell phones should probably be waaaay down on the list of pressing issues.