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ALBANY, N.Y. — Parents are sharing their thoughts on the cell phone restrictions in New York State schools in the wake of the mass shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis.
Starting this school year, smartphones, smartwatches, personal headphones, tablets, personal laptops, and gaming devices will be banned from public schools. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan requires schools to give parents a way to contact their kids during the day if needed.
Some parents say they’re concerned about being able to contact their children in case of an emergency, while others say it would be safer for children not to have phones and risk bad information from spreading.
“I think the phones are going to cause too much stress in a situation like that,” one parent said.
“It would be very worrisome if my child were in that situation. But I would hope that the school would have things under control and I think it’s better than to have things get out, bad information, and that’s what would happen,” another parent said.
The New York State Police superintendent said having cell phones during an emergency at school would be a distraction that could put students and staff in danger.
