Bronx Students' Phones, iPods Allegedly Stolen From Storage Truck Near High School
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Students are upset over the theft of scores of phones and iPods from a storage truck outside their Bronx school.
Around 11 a.m. Tuesday, three men robbed two workers at gunpoint outside Christopher Columbus High School, getting away with up to 50 devices, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reports.
Some students pay a dollar a day for the mobile storage truck to keep their phones safe while they're in class. Students aren't allowed to bring electronic devices into school.
1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reports
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City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. is calling on the Department of Education to come up with a policy that will keep phones safe and out of the classroom.
"Phones on the way to and from school help keep our kids safer; they can call if the bus doesn't show up, they can take pictures of potential predators but because of the DOE's ridiculous ban, kids have been forced to negotiate with bodega owners and truck drivers which has created an even greater danger," Vallone said.
He claims that DOE was supposed to be working on a fix to the policy.
"They haven't done anything, which has resulted in kids and parents trying to come up with their own solutions, which involve trucks outside of schools," Vallone said.
He fears similar incidents may arise if criminals know there are large collections of phones in trucks and shops near schools.
"These are phones that these kids may have worked hard for and they have personal information and these kids should never have been put in this position by the DOE but they have been and the policy needs to be changed," Vallone said.
It wasn't immediately clear whether owners of the truck would reimburse the students for their losses.
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