Gov. Kathy Hochul doubled down on banning telephones in school rooms Thursday — saying children shouldn’t be distracted by screens throughout emergencies — after a lockdown at an Higher West Aspect faculty left mother and father railing in opposition to her proposal.
“They should be laser-focused on the grownup within the entrance of the classroom to make them security per coaching and protocols,” Hochul stated at an unrelated press convention in Manhattan. “That’s instantly from regulation enforcement what ought to occur in these conditions.”
The governor’s assertion got here in response to a query from The Submit about final week’s incident at Louis Brandeis Excessive Faculty that sparked outrage from mother and father who stated they have been left at the hours of darkness by faculty officers and regulation enforcement as their children texted and known as them.
Colleges Chancellor David Banks stated final week that the Division of Schooling was opening an investigation into why mother and father weren’t notified of the in the end unfounded threats {that a} man was locked within the faculty with a gun.
“I’m very sorry to apologize to any father or mother who was not being communicated with in actual time. That’s unacceptable to me because the chancellor and for me personally as a father or mother,” Banks advised reporters.
Hochul additionally acknowledged Thursday that the shortage of communication with mother and father in the course of the almost hour-and-a-half lengthy lockdown was a “shortcoming.”
“I completely agree, there must be communication channels effectively upfront of any disaster or disruption occurs on a campus at each single faculty, pre-school, elementary, center colleges, excessive colleges,” Hochul stated.
“That’s one thing we are able to concentrate on, is make it possible for the communication plans between mother and father and regulation enforcement and the varsity district are tightened up and adopted.”
The governor remains to be mulling the specifics of a statewide coverage that might place restrictions on telephone use in colleges.
Banks has beforehand floated implementing a ban in metropolis public colleges, although one didn’t materialize by the beginning of the varsity 12 months.
“We’ve not put an official cellular phone ban in place, however I believe that there are a variety of the reason why we predict cell telephones are deeply distracted in colleges,” he stated after the Brandeis HS incident.
United Federation of Academics President Michael Mulgrew advised The Submit final month that he helps the governor’s push for a telephone ban, however stated such a coverage ought to give particular person districts leeway on find out how to implement it.
The instructor’s union’s statewide umbrella group, New York State United Academics, is holding a convention in Albany on Friday addressing the impression of cellphones and social media on children.
The UFT launched a survey of its members earlier this week that confirmed 63% of Large Apple lecturers assist banning telephones citywide.
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