Backstory: 'Ringing' in the school year

In other cases, cellphones have become the cotter pin that holds together the modern frenetic family. Carmen Colon is a single parent with three sons. "If the [No.] 4 train isn't running, I need to know and have them contact me," she says. "In order to juggle four lives, we need cellphones."

Christopher Cordova, a seventh-grader at the School of the Future in Manhattan, has the same concern. "What if my bus breaks down and I need to call my parents?" he asks plaintively.

There's no doubt, though, that most of the time teens spend on the phone today is simply gabbing – and they do so unapologetically. "We are teenagers in the busiest and most entertaining city in the world," says recent high school graduate Eric Stepansky. "We do have social lives, and cellphones are an essential tool."

That's fine, Mayor Bloomberg would argue: Just don't bring your cellular patter to school. The mayor believes cellphones are too often used for selling drugs, supporting gang activity, and cheating on tests. The New York City Department of Education says that 2,497 cellphone "disturbances" were recorded in the past school year. These ranged from students snapping pictures with their phones to making threats against others. Cellphones are the No. 1 stolen item in schools. In June, six students at two prestigious Brooklyn high schools were caught using their cells and an e-mail device to text message exam answers back and forth.

For teachers, cellphones are a constant nuisance. While most would rather see schools set their own rules than have a blanket ban, they're tired of the rings – these days in musical tones – in the classroom. David Pecoraro, a high school math teacher in Queens, says that on "more than one occasion" cellphones have been used to organize a physical attack on a student. Allan Vincent, a high school teacher in the Bronx, recalls being threatened by a student when he tried to confiscate his phone.

"If I see one [in the classroom], it's no longer theirs," warns Thomas Dunn, a teacher at Norman Thomas High School.

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Ironically, the solution in New York may come from the culprits themselves – the students. After weeks of protests, Ms. Colon, president of the Association of New York City Education Councils, a parent advocacy group, organized a contest for teens to submit their own ideas on a way out of the impasse. Student winners would receive $250 – not bad for a chance to take on the mayor.

Nathan Bixler, who won in the "out-of-the-box" category, suggested locking cellphones during the day in small metal cages that block electronic signals. The students could access them with a key. Eventually, he envisions the walls of classrooms being lined with material that would deflect the signals, making the cages unnecessary.

Abigail Schaeffer proposed a vending machine to stow the devices, which students could access with a password. In a more lawyerly approach, Alex Newman wants students to sign a contract promising to keep cellphones packed away during school hours and face punishment if they don't. Who knows: Maybe the students' ingenuity – if not their self-restraint on the cellphone itself – will win out over politics.

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