Game of phones

Do lockdowns show the problem with school phone bans?

Originally published in the Moultrie News.

A recent incident at a high school with a cellphone ban led to a lockdown, preventing parents from contacting their kids. Doesn’t this highlight the issues with schoolwide phone bans?

No, it more likely shows the ban’s effectiveness.

According to a news article forwarded by the writer, the incident occurred at a high school here in South Carolina, where the legislature has recently banned phones in school.

The school was actually not on Lockdown but Hold. There’s a difference. Both are part of the Standard Response Protocol (SRP), a set of procedures schools follow for emergencies. Lockdowns generally occur during imminent threats, like an active shooter, with everyone in locked rooms, lights off, and kids silent and hidden. True Lockdowns are rare.

Holds are more common and less restrictive. They allow classes to continue, but students cannot leave their rooms until the issue is resolved. Schools might use them for police action near the campus or an isolated medical emergency.

The principal of the South Carolina high school stated their Hold began with a call to law enforcement about an alleged threat, which was later determined to be a hoax.

The Hold did its job, keeping kids secure during the investigation. Access to cell phones might have escalated a non-issue into a major incident. As students text, panic can spread based on false information. Student “trolls” can exploit the situation for chaos.

Other potential outcomes: Students feel increased anxiety. Learning ceases. Parents receiving frantic texts from scared (or bored) students rush to the school, causing traffic surges and straining school resources. Rumors ripple through the community, overwhelming law enforcement.

These aren’t presumptions. They’ve happened in schools without phone bans. In a hoax, they’re just annoying, but in real emergencies, they can cost lives. Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, says phones can actually detract from student safety: “If you have 20 kids in a classroom and they’re texting … they’re not paying full attention to the directions of adults and not being fully situationally aware of things they may need to quickly do to save their lives.”

Trump highlights other phone hazards: Their sounds can draw attention to areas where kids are hiding. Simultaneous phone use can overload networks. Parents flocking to the school impede emergency vehicles. He says phones aren’t a safety tool for kids but “an emotional security blanket for parents.”

Parents quoted in the article support that conclusion. One mother stated, “I was texting my daughter again and again, and it was very nerve-wracking to not know what was going on.”

How would she have coped before 2010 when continual access wasn't the norm? It was “nerve-wracking” every time kids left home. Parents managed it by teaching kids safety and independence.

Disasters still happened, but they’re worse today. A 2022 study in JAMA Pediatrics shows homicide is a leading — and rising — cause of death for children, increasing by an average of 4.3 percent yearly for nearly a decade. And yet the remote chance of a child being killed in school is roughly one in over 600,000,000.

Thus, phones aren’t for kids’ safety; they’re to ease parental anxiety. But they're only a placebo. They haven’t reduced childhood risks; they’ve increased them. They expose kids to harmful content. Their Chat apps and GPS features give predators easy paths to groom and stalk them. Parents should be “nerve-wracked” every time a child unlocks their screen. But are they? 91 percent of kids are given phones by age 14.

I understand the potential for school tragedies and the desire for parents to communicate with children during emergencies — but the most lethal dangers are not the most prevalent. The likelihood of a child being killed at school is dwarfed by the opportunities to be lured into illicit relationships with adults or the easy purchase of dangerous drugs. Exposure to cheating, cyberbullying, violent pornography, sexting pressure, and mental health issues like depression and suicidal thoughts are even more widespread.

These things hover over children’s welfare every day. Schools with cell phone bans at least provide a temporary sanctuary from the danger.

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Jody Stallings has been an award-winning teacher in Charleston since 1992 and is director of the Charleston Teacher Alliance. To submit a question, order his books, or follow him on social media, please visit JodyStallings.com.