A phone away from home: Some NYC students pay private 'valets' a dollar a day

Published November 20, 2014

Thousands of New York City teenagers who can't bring their cellphones to school pay a dollar a day to leave their device in a privately operated truck parked near their school.

The expense can add up to $180 a year but most students say it's worth it.

Kelice Charles is a freshman at Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan. She says not everyone can afford the fee but lined up with fellow students to surrender her phone on a recent drizzly morning.

Cellphones are banned in all New York City public schools, but the rule is widely ignored except in schools with metal detectors.

Outside those schools, entrepreneurs park trucks and students line up to drop off devices before class and get them back at the end of the day.

The businesses are not foolproof. One truck was held up in the Bronx in June and some 200 students lost their phones.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/a-phone-away-from-home-some-nyc-students-pay-private-valets-a-dollar-a-day