NYC NOW - Midday News: Mayor Adams Faces Key Court Hearing on Criminal Charges, NYPD Officer Shot in Standoff with Parolee, and Proposal to Ban Phones in Classrooms

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Mayor Eric Adams is set to appear in federal court Wednesday for a pivotal hearing on the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss his criminal charges. Meanwhile, an NYPD officer was shot during a standoff at a Lower East Side NYCHA complex. Officials say the suspect, a parolee, fired first before being taken into custody. Plus, Governors Kathy Hochul and Phil Murphy are proposing a statewide ban on cell phones in classrooms. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with New Jersey student Jayden Stuckey, Newark Superintendent Roger León, and Dr. Stephanie Marcello, chief psychologist at Rutgers Behavioral Health Care, about the impact.

Welcome to NYC now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, February 18th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Mayor Eric Adams is due back in federal court tomorrow afternoon for what could be a pivotal hearing in his criminal case. The judge overseeing the case ordered Adams and federal prosecutors to appear in court to discuss the Justice Department's motion to dismiss Adams' five-count indictment. DOJ says Adams traded his political influence for bribes and illegal campaign donations. Last week, the Trump administration directed New York prosecutors to drop the case

so the mayor can focus on immigration enforcement and violent crime. Several federal prosecutors quit in protest. Adams has denied any wrongdoing. NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch says the man who shot and wounded an officer in the lower east side during a police standoff this morning was out on parole at the time. Police say officers responded to a report of shots fired. Officers at Niches Vladig houses got into a standoff with 35-year-old Edwin Rivera who barricaded himself inside with a possible hostage.

Police claim Rivera shot at officers first. Officers returned fire, severely wounding him and eventually took him into custody. Tish says it's not the first time Rivera has been arrested while out on his current parole. Why was this individual out of jail and in a position to shoot our officers? How is the system set up to allow one person to commit multiple violent offenses while out on parole with no consequences? The NYPD says the officer is expected to survive. 25 and partly sunny now, mostly sunny and 27 for high, but the wind up to 36 miles an hour is going to make it feel like it's the single digits.

Increasing clouds tomorrow 30, but the wind chill again in the single digits and gusty. Stay close. There's more after the break. NYC. On double the NYC, I'm Sean Carlson. New York Governor Kathy Hochel and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, both want schools in their respective states to ban cell phones in classrooms. And it comes after former President Biden Surgeon General advocated warning labels to alert

young people of the danger social media poses to their members. health. Schools across the country, including California, have already begun implementing cell phone bans in their classrooms. So we've convened a roundtable of sorts to talk about all of this. We've got Jaden Stucky. He's a senior at Central High School in Newark, New Jersey's largest city. We've also got his district superintendent, Roger Leone. We're also joined by Dr. Stephanie Marcello, the chief psychologist at Rutgers University Behavioral Healthcare. So, Jane, we're going to start with you. Can you just talk about what your reaction was and the reaction of your fellow students to the proposed cell phone ban in classrooms?

At first, I thought they were lying until I read up on it, and it was actually serious about it. And to me, it was kind of hard to deal with. And why would I say that? Because I'm from a generation where our phones are like, you know, a hit and miss. To a lot of people, not just me, I'm using it for educational benefits, some abuse of power. Now, I know that this is a question. I don't get you in trouble with your superintendent on this call here. But can you talk about what your relationship with your phone is and how you use it throughout the day? I don't use it that much on time when I use my cell phone is during like switching periods in the hallway to block out the sounds. But if I have an assignment, I mainly use my phone for like English or history. I used to

for more like educational purposes. So for me like now school like everything, I like our whole curriculum is based on the laptop now. So, like, all that work gets assigned to the laptop. And personally, I don't like when I have to switch tabs back and forth. So I will use my phone. Superintendent Leon, can you talk about what the current policy is in Newark schools and how it's enforced? The policy is that it gets shut off when they actually enter the schoolhouse doors. And as Jad is articulated, there are opportunities where cell phones are, in fact, used for an academic programming at a particular class in a particular school. And so while the policy clearly says that they are to be turned off, that there is some amount

of discretion with regards to when a student actually does, in fact, get to use their phone. So, Pran, do you see any challenges with implementing the governor's more stringent, Van? No, I think that the policy, as it's written right now, would, make our adjustment quite natural as opposed to any of our neighboring districts throughout the state that may not actually have a policy in play right now. Dr. Marcello, what does the research say about how screen time affects kids, teens, young people? Well, there's a lot of data and research that shows that social media use and the number of times that a youth or a teen or even an adult check their phones is pretty significant. There's rates that show people.

are checking our phones up to 500 times per day. And so we do see a lot of more negative outcomes when there's not that education around how to use phones in terms of depression, anxiety, and even suicide and substance use. But there isn't really a one-size-fits-all approach. Because let me tell you, the cell phone can be such a protective factor in helping students who are dealing with anxiety or depression. If their algorithms are supporting them, you know, having more positive TikToks come up, you know, really what I support is policymakers focusing on initiatives that can help really integrate learning tools in the classroom with the smartphones coupled with like some of the education and responsible use

and that if we do that that we could probably reverse some of the negative impacts of cell phone use jaden how do you think of ban would end up affecting you and your your peers both good and bad for good we would have more time to study be prepared for class or interact with class the bad. I'm scared. I would love to see how long it would take for my fellow peers to get used to it. Like I said, it's some people of my peers who

use it for good and some, I believe, truly do abuse that power. For me, I already see it in school when sometimes we have to get over my phone. I see what it does for the overall environment of the school. You know, when one person acts out in this type of way, it kind of shifts

the whole law. Dr. Marcello, what do you think people can do at home parents to practice better screen time habits with their kids? I think it's really hard for parents because, you know, teens and students are more advanced oftentimes technology-wise than their parents. So parents don't really know what to do. So I think that any kind of education that we can do to teach our kids like how to use cell phones responsibly and how we can use them in a way to protect them against kind of negative mental health consequences. We know that connection is protection and teens use their phones and they use social media to connect with each other.

And cell phones aren't going anywhere. Technology is not leaving. Superintendent, one of the criticisms or concerns, we should say that some parents had about a stricter cell phone policy was that they could reach their kids during the day. Say there was an emergency and you needed to get in touch with your kid and you just call their phone. If they can't do that, you know, they say that's a problem. What do you say to that concern?

Well, I mean, that absolutely makes lots of sense. And when there isn't a rule that's in place or when something has instituted like this new bill, it does create a level of confusion. So it is on us to just clarify and remind parents of what do you now do if, in fact, you were trying to reach your child. All of our schools actually have working phones. Every school has a main office. And whenever there's an issue where a parent really wants to get in contact with their

child during the school day, they could definitely reach out to the respective school, as well as parents build relationships with the teachers that are interested in educating their child, that there are obvious communications that they make between the classroom teacher and themselves with regards to their child. Jaden, your generation grew up with phones, right? Like, that's how you keep in contact with your friends. That's how you do any number of things that you do go, just going about your day every day. So if you were to talk to the people who make these policies and are making these laws

and pushing these things forward, what would you want them to know about your generation's relationship with your phone? even though technology of phone has, there's some damage to us as a society as, you know, for learning, things like that. But also, I would say the power of a device have done significant, you know, improvement. Like, you know, how Tateau could just shut down, then it started back up. I feel as though Tateau has gave many people a voice who didn't have a voice. It allowed people to speak up when times was hard. I truly think that we can solve more problems,

a stand of banning cell phones and schools. I think it's a bigger picture that we have to think about. I agree with the governor saying, you know, our mental state of mind is, you know, I had attacked and grew up in Newark, certain things I inherited from past generations, right? And mental health was one of them to me, growing up in city like North.

where, you know, see violence every day. So I think that instead of ban, I think the state should offer more support, you know, the youth of mental health. Because I think in my community, the hardest thing is seeking help. And that's the most deepened concern. Well, that was Jaden Stucky, a senior at Central High School in Newark, Newark, Superintendent Roger Leone, and Dr. Stephanie Marchello, the chief psychologist at Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. Thanks so much to all of you for joining us. This was really insightful.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcast. See you this evening.