The cell phone fight

Can't cell Council

Pushes bill rebuffing Mike on city schools phone ban

BY MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Mayor Bloomberg wants to disconnect a City Council bill that allows students to bring cell phones to and from school.

"We have the right to keep cell phones out of schools and we will continue to do that," Bloomberg declared on his weekly WABC-AM radio show.

But 38 of the Council's 51 members, a veto-proof majority, have sponsored a bill requiring that "no person shall interfere" with a parent or guardian's right to provide a student with a cell phone for use to and from school.

Bloomberg said he has no problem with students using cell phones while commuting.

"But I can tell you that they can't bring 'em into the school, and we don't have the facilities, the people or the physical storage facility to let them store it," Bloomberg said yesterday.

"Now, you can say, 'Well, how can they have 'em outside if they can't store 'em?' I can't help you," said Bloomberg, signaling no willingness to compromise with the Council.

Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn), the bill's lead sponsor, said Bloomberg "needs to come to a sense of reason here."

Fidler said he agrees with Bloomberg that students shouldn't use cell phones in class, but he said it's important for safety reasons that they have access to a phone while going to and from school.
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This is going to wind up in court. Bloomberg doesn't have any legal basis to ban cellphones or even any evidence they are disruptive. Waste of tucking time.