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How connected do you need to be to your high school aged child? Many parents apparently think the answer is “a lot connected.” See, after reports of harassment via cell phone, New York City schools banned cell phones from the premises. Not only does this put a stop to that specific brand of harassment, but it also curbs distracting in-class text messaging, as well as the potential to cheat using camera phones. But parents felt that they needed that always-on connection, and took the issue to court. And they lost. So the New York City school cell phone ban stays in place…for now.

Of course, parents are outraged at the verdict, and have threatened to take the case to the New York Supreme Court. The claim is that the ban is unconstitutional.

Parents cite the need to contact their children before and after school. While that may be a luxury they’d realize with cell phones, it seems that the detrimental effects of allowing students to use cell phones outweigh the good.

I once again argue: How did parents ever get along before the advent of cell phones? I didn’t have a cell in high school, nor did any of my friends. Yet we had no problems keeping in touch with our parents when necessary. So to treat cell phones as some kind of essential lifeline is a bit farcical to me.

While the judges said they were “not unsympathetic” to parent concerns, they said the ban was reasonable because phones can be disruptive and have been used by kids to cheat on tests, take pictures in locker rooms, crank call teachers and gather buddies during fights.

“Certainly the department has a rational interest in having its teachers and staff devote their time to educating students and not waging a ‘war’ against cell phones,” [Justice Angela] Mazzarelli wrote.

It’s tough to argue in face of the facts.

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