Capitalism wins again!

[Lorizael]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/a-phone-away-from-home-some-nyc-students-pay-private-valets-a-dollar-a-day/2012/10/04/9b95334a-0dec-11e2-ba6c-07bd866eb71a_story.html

NEW YORK — Thousands of teenagers who can’t take their cellphones to school have another option, courtesy of a burgeoning industry of sorts in always-enterprising New York City: paying a dollar a day to leave it in a truck that’s parked nearby.

Students might resent an expense that adds up to as much as $180 a year, but even so, leaving a phone at one of the trucks in the morning and then picking it up at the end of the day has become as routine for city teenagers as getting dressed and riding the morning-rush subway.

“Sometimes it’s a hassle because not everyone can afford it,” said Kelice Charles, a freshman at Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan. “But then again, it’s a living.”

I thought vans parked outside schools waiting for children to come out was supposed to be creepy.

[Uncle Sparky]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifest...71a_story.html

NEW YORK — Thousands of teenagers who can’t take their cellphones to school have another option, courtesy of a burgeoning industry of sorts in always-enterprising New York City: paying a dollar a day to leave it in a truck that’s parked nearby.

Students might resent an expense that adds up to as much as $180 a year, but even so, leaving a phone at one of the trucks in the morning and then picking it up at the end of the day has become as routine for city teenagers as getting dressed and riding the morning-rush subway.

“Sometimes it’s a hassle because not everyone can afford it,” said Kelice Charles, a freshman at Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan. “But then again, it’s a living.”

I thought vans parked outside schools waiting for children to come out was supposed to be creepy.

I wonder if the cost goes up to $50 per day once the driver accesses the photos on the phones and promises not to post them on line?

[Lorizael]

There we go. There's the creepy.

[Uncle Sparky]

Hey, why sugar-coat it? Besides, that's the guy in the other van's gimmick.

[Lorizael]

[Ben Kenobi]

Next up, they'll require him to drive a SMART CAR.

[Dinner]

Why not just turn it off and put it in their locker?

[Jaguar]

Probably because they're confiscated at the doorways. Many schools have airport-style metal detectors(!) at the entrances now.

[Jon Miller]

Including your old one?

JM

[Lorizael]

Probably because they're confiscated at the doorways. Many schools have airport-style metal detectors(!) at the entrances now.

Yep. Supposed to detect guns, but hey, sure, why not use it to detect cell phones, too. Evil, evil cell phones.

[Jaguar]

Including your old one?

JM

No. Not my high school, anyway. My elementary school, though, now has only one unlocked entrance, watched by a security guard.

This represents a definite increase in "security" since I went there. Columbine (1999), 9/11 (2001), DC sniper (2002), and Virginia Tech shooting (2007) are probably the four biggest events driving it, but who knows? Maybe it's just loopy parents that demand this stuff.

[Hauldren Collider]

None of the public schools in Fairfax County do that. I didn't think any Maryland public schools outside of the crappy areas did that either.

[Jaguar]

It's probably more of an urban thing, judging from the five or six times I've seen it.