School shootings fuel debate over cellphones in class |
More than a decade after a 17-year-old shot his ex-girlfriend and himself right outside the Michigan high school where Sarah Pancost teaches, she is still grateful that the students she hunkered down with that day had access to their cellphones. She allowed students to pull out their phones and reassure their families, who in turn, filled kids in on what was being reported about the incident. For Ms. Pancost, mobile devices are an important safety tool; however, other educators, who feel that cellphones are inappropriate in schools, also cite safety concerns as a primary reason. When students are on their phones during a potential emergency, they may not be paying attention to safety protocols, they say. The technology can jam up communication, get in the way of response plans, pass along misinformation, or blow minor incidents way out of proportion. “The use of cellphones on the part of students has more potential to be disruptive to the crisis-response team than it does to benefit” them, said Shawna White, the senior lead for school safety at the WestEd nonprofit. “It’s hard for me to say ‘oh, [cellphones] are good or they’re bad because different situations are going to call for different responses,” White said. But, she added, “looking at it holistically, I see potential for [phones] to create confusion and chaos and distraction.”