These days, lunchtime at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens is a boisterous affair, a far cry from before the smartphone ban went into effect, when most students spent their spare time scrolling and teachers said you could hear a pin drop.
“This year’s gotten way louder,” said Jimena Garcia, 15. “Sometimes I would take naps in the lunchroom, but now I can’t because of the noise. But it’s fun.”
On a recent fall afternoon, Garcia and her friends crowded around a lunch table in the large cafeteria playing Jenga, occasionally shrieking and gasping as the tower began to lean and fall…