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Bodega Owners Are Ripping Off Kids By Charging Cell Phone Storage Fees


November 14, 2014 | Amy K. Nelson

A story in Friday’s New York Daily News has made me question everything I once knew about what the hell it means to be in school. Apparently, the cell phone ban in NYC schools is so extreme that kids have resorted to stashing their phones at local bodegas for $1 a day.

The Daily News reported that some local business owners are even charging up to $5 a day. But a few schools in the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Complex have found a way around, by allowing students to check their phones for free.

The good news for students at those schools is now they can save their money for things like eating. Seriously. One of the more fucked up anecdotes out of the story comes from 16-year-old Bria Bethea:

Now I can buy breakfast in the morning. Do you know how much money they’d take from us to keep our phones in bodegas, five days a week?

Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he plans to end the cell phone ban in schools, but that’s been facing interference from principles and others who say it could lead to more chaos.

At the very least, it will get bodega owners out of the business of ripping kids off.

(Photo: Google Maps)