Schools and mobile phones

I am just reading a post on Will Richardson's blog about students in a school in midtown Manhattan and how they get round the school's ban on mobile phones:

...these kids don’t leave their cell phones at home. They are too important as a communications tool for safety’s sake and for social connections. Yet they can’t get these phones through the airport like scanners at the front of the building. So what do they do? Seems a little cottage industry as sprung up at the delis and bodegas around the school so that kids can check their phones in for the day at $3 a pop. They get a ticket, just like a coat check, on their way into school, and they pick it up on the way out.

It just makes you want to cry ... when will educational institutions get the message?Just go to the blog and read the post ... then read the comments !

This should be compulsory reading for every headteacher, member of a SMT, teacher, school governor, member of parliament, minister of education, the building schools for the future team,ICT training course providers, Becta employee, parent etc etc.