Georgia school shooting raises fears of cell phone bans in classrooms

As the shots rang out, students at Apalachee High School huddled in their classrooms for safety, texting or calling their parents to tell them what had happened and possibly sending them their final messages. One student texted her mother telling her she loved her and added, “I'm sorry for not being the best daughter.”

The Georgia school shooting that left four people dead and nine injured last week was every parent's worst nightmare and also highlights the potential downside of efforts by states, school districts and federal legislatures to ban or restrict access to cell phones in classrooms.

The push to restrict cellphone use in schools has been prompted by concerns about the impact of screen time on children's mental health and complaints from teachers that phones have become a constant distraction in the classroom. But opponents of the bans say they cut off a lifeline for parents who need to ensure their children are safe during school shootings or other emergencies.

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

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 77% of U.S. schools nationwide ban cell phones for nonacademic purposes. But that number is misleading. It doesn't mean that students follow these bans or that all schools enforce them.

The restrictions were loudly announced by both Republican and Democratic governors, who rarely agree on other issues.

In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has launched a program that allows school districts to apply for grants to purchase bags where students can keep their phones during the school day. In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has urged school districts to restrict cellphone use and is considering signing a law that would require schools to implement restrictions.

“I don't want another school shooting to be the reason we bring televisions into classrooms and disrupt our children's education,” Newsom said Friday. “Because it's basically the same thing as a cell phone: you bring a television into the classroom and disrupt the ability to have quality instruction.”

But for many students who witnessed the Apalachee shooting, access to their phones was the only way to communicate with 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 wrote to her mother. “I'm sorry I'm not the best daughter. I love you.”

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

But advocates of restricting cell phone access in schools warn that allowing students to access their phones during shootings or other emergencies could put them at even greater risk.

“What's 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 turn off cell phones and keep them away from students. “If my child is on the phone with me and misses instructions from the teacher because they're distracted by their phone and not safe, that's an even worse scenario in my eyes.”

Whitman said she understands concerns about informing parents and that's why it's critical for any phone-free school to be proactive about emergency notifications.

Balancing safety with parental concerns was the reason for the cellphone ban at Grand Island Senior High, the largest high school in Nebraska. In January, the school implemented a new policy that requires students to carry their phones out of sight and in their bags or pockets during class time, or to silence or turn them off.

“One of the main questions parents asked us was, 'What if Sally or Johnny doesn't have their phone if – God forbid – there's a shooting or a crisis in the building?'” said Jeff Gilbertson, the school's principal at the time, who now leads leadership training for the state Board of Education.

However, the school is conducting lockdown training to remind students of the dangers that phones can cause in emergencies.

“We advise our children to put their phones on silent. Don't use your phone during curfew because that would give your location away to an active shooter,” he said.

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

For Brandi Scire, the Apalachee school shooting was a painful reminder of why she got a cell phone for her daughter, now a sophomore in high school in Broward County, Florida. Her two children attended schools near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during the shooting.

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

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

“This isn't about me texting my daughter during regular school hours or anything like that,” Scire said. “It's a safety measure and I'm sorry, I can't let this go.”

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This story has been updated to correct that the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, occurred in 2022, not 2020.

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