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As the gunshots rang out, students at Apalachee High School huddled together in classrooms and texted or called their parents to let them know what was happening and send them what they thought would be their last messages. One student texted her mother to tell her she loved her, adding, “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter I could be.”
The Georgia school shooting that left four dead and nine injured last week was every parent’s worst nightmare and highlights the potential downsides of efforts by states, school districts and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cellphones in classrooms.
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The moves to restrict cellphone use in schools have been 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 for parents to keep their children safe in the event of a school shooting or other emergency.
“The fact is that parents and families cannot count on schools to communicate effectively with us in an emergency, and that has happened time and time again,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, an education advocacy group. “There are many reasons why parents are deeply concerned about whether or not they are going to receive timely information about the safety of their children.”
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 77 percent of U.S. schools ban cell phone use at school for non-school purposes. But that number is misleading. It doesn’t mean students are complying with those bans or that all of those schools are enforcing them.
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The restrictions were announced by Republican and Democratic governors, who rarely agree on other issues.
In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders launched a program that allows school districts to apply for grants to buy pouches for students to store their phones in during the school day. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged school districts to restrict cellphone use and is considering signing a bill that would require schools to implement restrictions.
“I would hate for another school shooting to be the reason we put televisions in classrooms and disrupt our children’s education,” Newsom said Friday. “Because, in essence, that’s what a cell phone is for: to bring a television into the classroom and disrupt the ability to get quality instruction.”
But for many students caught up in the Apalachee shooting, having access to their phones was the only way to communicate with loved ones during moments they feared would be their last.
“I love you. I love you so much. Mom, I love you,” Julie Sandoval, the youngest, wrote to her mother. “I’m sorry I’m not the best daughter. I love you.”
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Nearby, Sandoval said, another student was on the phone telling his mother: « They’re shooting up the school! They’re shooting up the school! »
But supporters of restricting phones in schools warn that allowing access to phones during shootings or other emergencies could put students at even greater risk.
“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 ban students from using cell phones. “If my child was on the phone with me and they couldn’t follow the teacher’s instructions because they were distracted by their phone and they weren’t safe, that’s an even worse scenario in my opinion.”
Whitman said she understands the concerns about keeping parents informed, which is why a key component for any school without a phone is being proactive in communicating about emergencies.
The balance between safety and parental concerns guided the cellphone ban at Grand Island Senior High, Nebraska’s largest high school, which implemented a new policy in January requiring students to keep their phones out of sight and in their bags or pockets, silent or turned off during class hours.
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“One of the key questions that parents asked us was, ‘What would happen if Sally or Johnny didn’t have their phone if, God forbid, there was a shooting or there was some kind of crisis in the school?’” said Jeff Gilbertson, the school’s superintendent at the time, who now leads leadership training for the state Board of Education.
But the school is holding lockdown training to remind students of the dangers phones can pose in an emergency.
“We teach our children to keep their phones off. You should not talk on your phone during confinement because it will reveal your location to an active shooter,” he said.
In other school shootings, students have used their cellphones to alert authorities or their parents. In the 2022 shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 dead, a fourth-grader called 911 for help. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, texted their parents and posted frightening videos during the 2018 shooting that left 17 dead.
The Apalachee school shooting was a painful reminder to Brandi Scire 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 when the mass shooting occurred.
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Scire’s son’s school was closed and he thought it was a drill until she sent him a message on his phone. Scire bought his daughter a cell phone the following year for this 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.
“This is not about texting my daughter during regular school hours or anything like that,” Scire said. “This is a safety measure and I’m sorry, I can’t let that go.”
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This article has been updated to correct that the Uvalde, Texas school shooting took place in 2022, not 2020.
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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.
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