By Frank J. Ciervo
For Gazette Opinion
As the year is about to close and, like it or not, a new order will replace the old.
But, the dust will eventually settle, and then, regardless of our political persuasion, we will realize that life goes on and the issues we must face in our everyday lives will largely stay the same and must continue to be addressed.
And so, before any more school districts rush to ban cell phones from their classrooms, they should take a long, hard look at the potential serious, perhaps even deadly consequences.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s plan to ban cell phones in New York state schools is sheer folly. It is myopic thinking that most assuredly will cost lives.
I understand the challenges cell phones can present in the classroom. They can be a distraction, even a disruption to the learning environment.
Yet, I have also seen their Apps used as valuable instructional tools.
More important, much more important, cell phones in schools can and have saved lives.
While the response to school shootings by law enforcement has been problematic at times, students, separated from teachers, holed up in classrooms, libraries, and closets using their cell phones to contact parents and 911 has often helped avoid even bigger blood baths caused by bullets sprayed across a school building.
Thankfully, first responders alerted to exact locations, have saved the lives of students and teachers.
You need look no further than Monday’s mass school shooting in Madison, Wis.
Police said a second-grader at the school was the first to call 9-1-1 about the shooting. And FBI agents hailed student cell phones as essential tools in identifying and locating the shooter.
If you remember, Columbine students with their cell phones were able to relay to police where they were and, perhaps more important, where Harris and Klebold were headed.
Cell phones saved the lives of students and teachers that day.
When parents, whether on scene or at work, hoping (praying) for a call from their child, or even attempting to call them, realize that their kid has no cellphone, they will be enraged.
Even those who supported the ban will turn against the district in a heartbeat.
Please don’t fall into the: “It won’t happen here” trap.
I am certain that students, parents, teachers, school administrators and law enforcement in Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas and now Wisconsin uttered the same tired phrase.
I would not want to be the superintendent, school board member or school attorney (in any district) when an active shooter descends, and students have no use of their cell phones.
This inability to contact the outside world will most assuredly result in more lives lost.
The district’s liability will be enormous, the lawsuits will come pouring in, and the payouts will cripple budgets and crush taxpayers.
The damage done to the district may be irreparable.
School districts need to think twice before instituting a cell phone ban for students.
I urge any district with a ban in place to rescind it. And I urge the governor to abandon her misguided plan for a statewide ban and for the state Legislature to reject any such proposal.
A wholesale ban may be solving one problem, while unintentionally creating a much larger catastrophe.
Be assured, parents will hold districts accountable.
Frank J. Ciervo is the former (retired) staff director of the New York State Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Mass Disaster.
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