Move to ban cell phones from schools

From the sidelines

Monitors of school examinations no longer look for notes painted on the backs of hands or small slips of paper tucked in shoes or shirt sleeves. The exam cheats of today use cell phones.
A bill to ban cell phone use in schools was presented last night before the full National Assembly by La Chorrera, deputy Ruben Dario Frias.

The deputy said that from the first grade students are using the phone to listen to music, making it "an agent of distraction."

Later they get more sophisticated and use the phones to share answers to tests. They even take pictures in "inappropriate situations" said the deputy.

Now if only he could find a way to catch their parents  careering through Panama’s traffic hell with a cell phone clapped to an ear; or reading a text message as they walk blindly across roads loaded with diablos rojos fighting for the next passenger; or ladies in supermarkets pushing their laden trolleys into other shoppers while they work on their daily  gossip quota.

Panama has more cell phones than people so be sure the lobbyists from the cellphone providers will be hard at work protecting “the rights” of their young users in or out of class.{jathumbnail off}