School shootings raise new concerns over cell phone bans

Recent school incidents, particularly this month's school shooting in Georgia, are raising new concerns about cell phone bans.  

After the Apalachee High shooting, as well as the rash of bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio, advocates say lawmakers and school officials need to think of parents' fears when considering cell phone restrictions in classrooms, which have been on the rise in states across the country. 

"Unfortunately, in this country, we love our guns more than we love our children, and we have not yet been able to solve the issue of classrooms filled with dozens of children being murdered on a regular basis," said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. 

“So until we figure that out, parents and families are not going to be comfortable with giving up a direct line of communication with their children in classrooms,” Rodrigues added.  

California is the latest state to enact a law restricting the use of cell phones in public school classrooms, following multiple others, as well as numerous individual school districts.  

The policies have ranged from complete confiscation of cell phones all day to prohibitions specifically during classroom time.  

"I don't think any teacher in the country would disagree about the level of distraction that phones bring to classroom instruction,” said Stephanie Humphrey, author of "Don't Let Your Digital Footprint Kick You in the Butt!" 

"So the distraction is a huge thing, but also the impact on students' mental health. [...] There is the cyberbullying aspect of it, that these students are using these devices, you know, in ways that are unintended, and are causing harm to other students. So there are just a laundry list of reasons why cell phones in the class are just not a good idea,” she added. 

While advocates emphasize the social and academic benefits that have been found in removing phones from students' hands, a lack of trust remains between parents and school systems as shootings and other threats against K-12 classrooms make headlines.

The Georgia shooting, which took the lives of two students and two teachers while injuring nine others, demonstrated the issue vividly.

"School shooting rn .. i'm scared," one Apalachee High student texted his mother, according to ABC News. "pls i'm not joking."

In another text exchange viewed by the outlet, a mother of two girls at the school tried to coordinate with her daughters, at one point telling them to "Stay down stay hidden."

"Mommy im scared," one of the girls said, to which the response, sent over six separate messages, was, "Keep texting me / I need you to keep texting me / Girls / Are you ok / Keep texting me only me / I love you."

Later this month, in Springfield, students were taken out of school for a couple days due to bomb threats after false allegations of Haitian migrants eating pets in the area. And recently in Texas and Washington, D.C., students and parents have faced hoax school shooting threats that were investigated by police.  

Issac Soto, a parent in California, says he found a solution for his own child by giving them a Smart Watch that only allows the student to call him, his mother or grandparents, But at some school districts, even this isn’t allowed.  

“Banning smartphones, completely understand, but I mean some form of communication, even telling people that if you can have a phone, the only thing you can have is a dumb phone. Have an old phone, like we used to have, flip phones that can't do anything [...] but, you know, just having something that they communicate,” Soto said.  

And emergency situations aren't the only concern: Many students with disabilities use technology to help with their learning

Denise Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said some schools and states don’t currently have a carveout in these policies for students with disabilities and that those that do, such as California and Virginia, haven't nailed the solution yet.  

“The pressure seems to be on the parents to make sure that the IEP [Individual Education Plan] has the accommodation documented. So, all of a sudden, these bans are being put in place, and who is going to review the student's program to make sure that it's documented appropriately and that the student isn't going to get suspended for, you know, using a device. So that's certainly one concern,” Marshall said.  

“Virginia has what they call the bell-to-bell ban, and in that it does have — it does mention students with disabilities, but it also actively discourages teams from choosing assistive technology,” she added. “So it says teens are encouraged to explore other options. You know, this takes us backwards. We've already had many years of students being denied access to assistive technology that could help them learn.” 

Some argue that phones during these emergency situations can be a distraction to students though, focusing more on contacting loved ones than listening to important instructions.  

“We have kids ourselves, as parents, we understand the desire to stay connected with our children during emergency, however, it's crucial to recognizing the phone actually compromises their safety,” said Mileva Repasky, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement. 

“When a child is distracted by their phone, they might miss critical safety instructions from a teacher or an emergency responder, and it's important that they maintain situational awareness during that crisis, and completely staying focused on the guidance that they're given really helps improve the chance of the safety of that child,” she added. 

But others say during school shootings such as Uvalde, cell phone use was shown to be a benefit to the situation.  

“I have yet to hear an expert point to a single instance where a cell phone has actually exacerbated one of these situations or caused it,” Rodrigues said. “However, I can point you to the most obvious of examples, including Parkland and Uvalde, where parents being able to connect with kids save lives, where kids being able to connect with first responders save lives.”  

Those against the bans on cell phones in schools say there are other ways to make phones less of a distraction than taking it away completely as a line of communication.  

“There are things called cell phone management software systems that like Aura, which we all use in our homes, and are using to regulate like how our kids are using cell phones and whether or not they're allowed to connect to wifi. We can even restrict like specifically what apps are allowed to use at what time,” Rodrigues said.  

“We are having a knee jerk reaction to a set of data that has come out that, frankly, is alarming when you look at but we're conflating two issues, cell phones and social media are two different things,” she said.