School Criminalizes Kids, Confiscates Electronics

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.