School phone ban under scrutiny after Georgia shooting

The shooting at the Georgia school that left four dead and nine injured last week was every parent’s worst nightmare and one that highlights the potential downsides of efforts by states, school districts and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cell phones in classrooms.

Moves to restrict phone use in schools have been prompted by concerns about the impact screen time is having on children’s mental health and complaints by teachers that mobile phones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. But those who oppose the bans say they cut off a lifeline parents need to make sure their children are safe during school shootings or other emergencies.

“The truth is that parents and families cannot rely on schools to communicate effectively with us in times of emergency, and that has happened time and time again,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, an advocacy group. education. “There are a lot of reasons why parents are deeply concerned about whether or not they will receive timely information about whether or not their children are safe.”

Nationally, 77 percent of U.S. schools say they ban cell phones at school for non-academic use, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But this number is misleading. It does not mean that students follow those prohibitions or that all those schools enforce them.

The restrictions have been trumpeted by both Republican and Democratic governors, who rarely agree on other issues.

In Arkansas, GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a program for school districts to apply for grants to purchase bags for students to keep their phones on during the school day. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged school districts to restrict cell phone use and is considering whether to sign legislation requiring schools to adopt restrictions.

“I would love to see another school shooting be the reason we bring televisions into the classroom and then disrupt our children’s education,” Newsom said Friday. “Because that’s essentially what a cell phone amounts to — bringing a television into the classroom and disrupting the ability to get quality school time.”

But for many students caught up in the Apalachee shooting, having access to their phones was the only way they could communicate with loved ones in what they feared might be their last.

“I love you. I love you so much. Oh, I love you,” Junior Julie Sandoval wrote to her mom. “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter. I love you.”

Nearby, Sandoval said, another student was on the phone telling their mother, “Shoot the school! They’re shooting up the school!”

But advocates of school phone restrictions warn that allowing access to phones during shootings or other emergencies could put students in even more danger.

“What’s even more important to me is their safety,” said Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, a group that advocates for schools to adopt policies that keep cellphones away and away from students. “If my child was on the phone with me and missed the teacher’s guidance because they were distracted by their phone and it wasn’t safe, that’s a worse case scenario in my mind.”

Whitman said he understands the concerns about notifying parents, and that’s why a key part of any school without a phone is being proactive in communicating about emergencies.

Balancing safety and parental concerns led to a cellphone ban at Grand Island Senior High, Nebraska’s largest high school, which rolled out a new policy in January requiring students to keep phones out of sight and in bags or pockets, closed or off. during school hours.

“One of the key questions that parents asked us was, ‘What if Sally or Johnny don’t have their phone if, God forbid, there’s an active shooter or there’s some kind of crisis in the building?'” Jeff said. Gilbertson, the school’s principal at the time, who now conducts leadership training at the State Board of Education.

But the school is holding lockdown classes to remind students of the dangers phones can cause during emergencies.

“We train our children to keep their phones on silent. You don’t want to be on the phone when we’re on lockdown because that would reveal your location to an active shooter,” he said.

Students in other school shootings have used cellphones to alert authorities or their parents. During the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which killed 21 people, a fourth-grader pleaded for help in a series of calls to 911. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, sent parents and posted chilling videos during the 2018 shooting that killed 17 people.

The army in the Apalachee school was a painful reminder for Brandi Scire about why she got a cell phone for her daughter, now a high school student in Broward County, Florida. Both of her children attended nearby schools at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during that mass shooting.

Scire’s son’s school was closed and he thought it was a drill until she texted him on the phone. Because of this, Scire bought a cell phone for her daughter the following year.

Broward County schools now require students to keep their phones off and on airplane mode, but Scire told her daughter to keep her phone on with her, too.

“It’s not about me texting my daughter during regular school or anything like that,” Scire said. “It’s a safety measure and I’m sorry, I can’t give it up.”

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