"I feel naked," said Krystal Corchado, 15, an eighth grader whose phone was seized. "I feel like I lost something very important to me." I am not sure if the statement is shared by all the students concerned or why the student employs the word, "naked". But in Beijing the mobile phone has become one of the most important personal items. Couples may share their naked bodies, but not the short messages stored in their mobile phones respectively according to our limited and exploring study. Moreover, what it means when personal space becomes mobile and expanding in an unprecedented way because of the use of the mobile phone? It seems to me that this article as well as what Jack Qiu posted yesterday share one thing in common: the mobile phone makes the authorities uneasy (for different reasons,of course).
- Boxu ----- Original Message ----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2007 12:32 AM Subject: (瑞星提示-此邮件可能是垃圾邮件)[mobile-society] New York Times article This is an interesting article in today's New York Times. - Scott Sweep at School Turns Up a Trove of Electronic Contraband James Estrin/The New York Times Many students' loads were lighter Thursday as they left Middle School 54, where 404 phones and scores of other banned items were confiscated. By JULIE BOSMAN Published: June 1, 2007 When Olivia Lara-Gresty saw the metal detectors at the entrance of Middle School 54 on the Upper West Side, she turned around and ran home to ditch her contraband before joining her sixth-grade class. The cellphone police had arrived. Not everyone was so savvy. The Police Department was there to carry out a random sweep for prohibited items, requiring all 900-plus students at the school to walk through metal detectors before entering. Their total haul included 404 cellphones, 69 iPods, 23 other electronic devices, two knives and one imitation gun. "People were crying," said Samantha Haber, 14, an eighth grader. Officially, the X-ray scans are meant to catch dangerous items. But since the unannounced sweeps began in April 2006, they have mostly detected cellphones, infuriating parents who see them as lifelines and have loudly opposed the checks. The Education Department first banned "communication devices" around 1988, when the electronic toy of choice was a beeper. But the rule was not strictly enforced until last year, when the Bloomberg administration took action to prohibit cellphones in schools. The sweep yesterday was one of the biggest so far since the crackdown. An unannounced visit to a Queens school on Wednesday yielded only 40 cellphones, 16 iPods and 33 unspecified electronic devices. The police collected only 83 cellphones during a sweep at a Bronx school a week ago, but also took 37 items like headphones, batteries and can openers -- all forbidden. According to rules set by Middle School 54's principal, Elana Elster, the items confiscated yesterday can be picked up only by parents, and no earlier than Tuesday. Which left hundreds of students leaving school yesterday at a loss. "I feel naked," said Krystal Corchado, 15, an eighth grader whose phone was seized. "I feel like I lost something very important to me." Around the corner from the school, a group of six students who had managed to hold onto their phones discussed their narrow escapes. Ian Newcomb pulled his blue Samsung phone from his pocket to demonstrate how it evaded capture. "It's nearly all plastic, so the metal detectors didn't pick it up," he said. "It was in my pocket the whole time." Maybe the metal detectors were not even turned on, suggested Axel McFarland, 11. "They didn't even beep," he said. One furious parent, Leslie Lyons, whose eighth-grade daughter had taken Ms. Lyons's cellphone to school, threatened to call the police after exchanging a few sharp words with an assistant principal. "I haven't talked to our lawyer yet," Ms. Lyons said. "I'm filing a criminal complaint that they stole my phone." Still, the high drama of the cellphone sweep appeared to provide a few teachable moments. In one humanities class, the children wrote strongly worded letters to Mr. Bloomberg, said David Garfinkel, 12. Other students taped homemade signs reading "No Phones, No School" to their backs in protest, said Athena Buckley, a sixth grader. Ms. Elster, the principal, stood wearily on the front steps at 3:30 p.m., after the students had dispersed. "I'm not going to talk," she said, shaking her head. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mobile-society" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mobile-society?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
