This school year is different. When students arrive in the morning, I.S. 27 collects the phones for the full school day, even during lunch and free periods. — Mirko Vitali/Dreamstime/TNS
NEW YORK: Melanie Sepulveda, a Staten Island teacher, had her doubts about the new “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban in New York schools.
In the past, she watched students drift through the hallways at I.S. 27 Anning S. Prall, looking at their phones and feet. Some pre-teens, entrusted with bathroom passes, filmed TikTok videos outside her English classroom where a quiet corridor, save for a few offices, gave cover to their scheme.
