News Investigation

Fear of School Shootings Is Keeping Cellphones in School. Our Kids Will Pay the Price

Nov 2023 🇺🇸 San Francisco Chronicle PAYWALLED — LINKED, NOT HOSTED

In this San Francisco Chronicle op-ed, Julie Scelfo argues that parents' fear of school shootings — specifically, wanting children reachable by phone during an emergency — is one of the main reasons full school cellphone bans face resistance, even as she says evidence of phone-related harm to students' attention, sleep, and social wellbeing keeps mounting. She cites a then-pending multistate lawsuit against Meta as a sign that concern about compulsive platform use had moved from advocacy circles into formal legal action, and argues the safety benefit of in-class phone access during a crisis is unproven relative to the documented daily costs of classroom phone use. The piece calls for policies that address both goals rather than treating them as a strict tradeoff.

41 state attorneys general plus D.C. sued Meta, per the piece

Scelfo notes that attorneys general from 41 states and Washington, D.C. had filed suit against Meta alleging its platforms contribute to compulsive youth use, citing the litigation as evidence of a broader shift against unregulated phone and social-media access.

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CITATION

Scelfo, Julie. "Fear of School Shootings Is Keeping Cellphones in School. Our Kids Will Pay the Price." San Francisco Chronicle, November 3, 2023. https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/cellphone-ban-school-shooting-18464820.php

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