Georgia school shooting highlights fears about classroom cellphone bans

As gunshots rang out, students gathered in classrooms for safety. Apalachee High School texted or called their parents to let them know what was happening and sent what they thought might be their last messages. One student texted her mother to say she loved her and added, “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter.”

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

The moves to limit phone use in schools were prompted by concerns about the impact of screen time on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. But opponents of the bans say they cut off a lifeline that parents need to ensure their children are safe during school shootings or other emergencies.

“The fact is, parents and families cannot trust schools to communicate effectively with us in times of need, and this has happened time and time again,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, an education advocacy group. “There are a lot of reasons why parents are very concerned about whether or not they are getting timely information about their children’s safety.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 77 percent of U.S. schools say they ban cell phones for nonacademic use in schools. But that number is misleading. It doesn’t mean that students are adhering to the bans or that all schools are enforcing them.

The restrictions have been loudly welcomed by both Republican and Democratic governors, but they rarely agree on other issues.

In Arkansas, GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a program for school districts to apply for grants to purchase pouches for students to hold their phones during the school day. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has called on school districts to restrict cellphone use and is weighing whether to sign legislation that would require schools to implement restrictions.

“I would hate to see another school shooting be the reason we bring televisions into the classroom and disrupt our children’s education,” Newsom said Friday. “Because essentially that’s what a cellphone is: bringing a television into the classroom and disrupting the ability to have quality academic time.”

But for many students involved in the Apalachee shooting, access to their phones was the only way to communicate with their loved ones in moments they feared could be their last.

“I love you. I love you so much. Mom, I love you,” Junior Julie Sandoval texted her mother. “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter. I love you.”

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

However, advocates of restrictions on phones in schools warn that allowing access to phones during shootings or other emergencies could put students at even greater risk.

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

Whitman says she understands parents’ concerns about keeping their children informed, which is why it’s important for any phone-free school to proactively communicate about emergencies.

To balance safety and parental concerns, a cell phone ban was instituted at Grand Island Senior High, the largest high school in Nebraska. In January, a new policy was implemented requiring students to keep their phones out of sight and in their purse or pocket, and to keep them on silent or turned off during school hours.

“One of the biggest questions parents asked us was, ‘What if Sally or Johnny doesn’t have their phone with them when, God forbid, there’s a shooting or a crisis in the building?’” said Jeff Gilbertson, the school’s then-superintendent who now provides leadership training for the state Board of Education.

But the school is holding lockdown training sessions to remind students of the dangers phones can pose during emergencies.

“We teach our kids to keep phones quiet. You don’t want to be on the phone when we’re in lockdown because that would expose your location to an active shooter,” he said.

Students in other school shootings have used cell phones to alert authorities or their parents. During the 2020 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead, a fourth-grader was begged for help in a series of 911 calls. Students on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, parents messaged and posted chilling videos during the 2018 shooting that left 17 people dead.

The Apalachee school shooting was a painful reminder for Brandi Scire of why she bought a cell phone for her daughter, now a sophomore in Broward County, Florida. Both of her children attended schools near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the mass shooting.

Scire’s son’s school was on lockdown and they thought it was a drill until she texted him on his phone. Scire bought her daughter a cell phone the following year for that reason.

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

“It’s not about me texting my daughter during regular school hours or anything like that,” Scire said. “It’s a safety precaution and I’m sorry, I can’t let that go.”

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Associated Press journalists Jeff Amy in Winder, Georgia, Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California, and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.