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Parents concerned about safety feel ignored when schools ban cellphones

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KJZZ

Lots of school districts around Arizona and the country are implementing new rules about students’ cellphones — specifically trying to make sure students aren’t using them during the school day. They cite reduced distractions as a main reason they want students to put their phones away.

But some parents want to make sure their kids do have access to their phones, at least in some circumstances. And last month’s shooting at a Georgia High School reinforced one of their main arguments.

Wellington Soares, a reporter for the nonprofit, Chalkbeat, has written about this. Soares joined The Show to discuss whether there’s a unified argument that parents and parents’ groups with whom he spoke made about why kids should have access to their phones in school.

Full conversation

WELLINGTON SOARES: Yes. Of course. So, my piece started with a survey from the National Parents Union that was released a couple weeks ago. And in that survey that they did with parents, they identified that around 78% of the parents whose children already bring phones to school, they do that.

They send their kids with their phones for emergency communication. So they are worried that if something happens during the school day, they will not be able to reach their kids if they don’t have the phone in their hands. Which is a very valid concern. Many parents that I spoke to actually mentioned school shootings as one of the reasons that they are worried.

But there are also other concerns like health. You have students that have diabetes, for instance, that have devices connected to their bodies that will send information to the phones, and the parents want to be able to check in with the kids. There are kids who have mental health situations that also sometimes would like to be able to reach out to the parents if something happens during the school day.

So this is the biggest concern the parents have around kids not being able to have access to their phone during the school day. But it’s important also to say that parents agree that cellphones can be a distraction and can be harmful for learning. So in that sense, they are very, aligned with the opinion of professors, teachers and with those arguments that are pro-cellphone bans.

MARK BRODIE: And it’s interesting because while the parents might send their kids to school with phones, obviously their kids might use their phones for other things while they’re at school if they’re allowed to. So I wonder what the parents had to say about maybe the balance that needs to be made here.

Because, as you say, they want their kids to be able to have access to their phone in case of emergency. But they also understand why the schools are telling kids to put their phones away or turn them off, things like that.

SOARES: Yes. Yeah, exactly. I think most of the parents, they are concerned with the most restrictive policies. So there are some policies that claim that students would have to put their phones in a pouch that’s locked during the school day, or they will have to hand in their phones. And this is when parents are a little more concerned.

They are usually — at least the parents that I talked to — they’re OK if the policy says that the cell phone has to be in the backpack, or that the cell phone has to be always kept away during instruction hours. They are also OK with trying to find other compromises, like kids having access to their smartwatches instead of their phones, or using apps that parents can control what kids are doing during the school hours, so that they can block kids from using other apps or social media or texting their friends but still being able to contact family and emergency services.

BRODIE: So depending on the age of students, so many kids in schools now are on computers or tablets or other kinds of devices. Does it seem as though there might be a solution there, where parents might be able to communicate with their kids through their device, either school issued or if the student owns it themselves, the family owns it themselves? Might that be a potential solution here?

SOARES: To be honest, the specialists that I talked to didn’t really go on that specific topic. Well, a lot of schools now have Chromebooks or laptops that are owned by the schools. Ideally, those are only used during class hours. So it wouldn’t be ideal that kids were communicating with their parents or anyone during this time. What schools say is that they have the tools that kids can use if they have a specific need.

So what most of the specialists say, or the experts say is that there are already some other alternatives that parents can use. And one thing that especially one person that I talked to, which is an expert on safety, said is that the idea that phones bring security. It’s more of an emotional security for the parents, because the actual security is supposed to be already working well in schools with the policies that schools already have for reaching out to parents or school safety policies.

So it’s much more, an emotional thing that parents are looking for here. So there is not a lot that schools seem to be very eager to negotiate in that sense.

BRODIE: Well, I was going to ask you what you heard from schools or district officials or school officials about what the parents are saying and what potential changes schools might be looking to make. It sounds like, at least for some schools, they’re not really looking to make many changes at all.

SOARES: Yeah. The poll from the National Parents Union actually pointed out that 70% of parents felt that they were not consulted when the cellphone policies were put into place. There are a number of alternatives and compromises that can be made. And it would be very important that parents and students are consulted.

What experts say in terms of the safety — and more specifically about school shootings or active shooter situations — is that cellphones don’t really help in this situations. Actually, one of the experts I interviewed said that they can be harmful because if you have an emergency situation and kids need to be quiet or need to follow instructions. Being on their phone actually can distract them from following the instructions that are given or make noises that can be a problem in that type of situation.

So in that sense, they are not super flexible, and they don’t really see that the parents’ concern will actually mean an improvement. However, it’s still parents’ right to feel the need to have that emotional contact and that emotional security.

One of the parents that I talked to, she had her two children go through active shooter situations. And in both of them, her children texted her. And she said, “Even though I know that there’s nothing that I can do at that moment, I just wanted to have the opportunity to say to them that I love them and to let them know that I’m here.

Probably if schools are able to hear parents, as I said, 70% of parents say that they were not consulted. So if they’re able to sit together and discuss it, I’m pretty sure that they will find some compromises, either using apps that can be controlled by parents or finding policies that are not super restrictive, like, “Oh well, phones have to be on, the backpacks” or “all phones have to be turned off, but kids can still hold them” or something like that.

But it really depends on having this availability from parents and from schools to sit down together and talk about it.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.
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