Should The Parkland Shooting Change How We Think About Phones, Schools and Safety? : NPR Ed : NPR

While Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was on lockdown, with an active shooter in the building, students were on their phones.

They were tweeting. They were posting on Snapchat and sending videos to friends and family. They were calling their parents to let them know they were safe and texting classmates to find out if they had survived.

Some of those posts may become evidence in the case of Nikolas Cruz, who has, according to court documents, confessed to the killing of 17 students and school personnel. This visceral record of the horrifying events of Feb. 14 is helping motivate a new conversation about gun control.

And we can only imagine the relief of the families who learned, in the moment, that their children were alive.

According to Education Week, “One girl was so emotional and overwhelmed that she handed her phone to her teacher, who reassured her mother: ‘They’re well taken care of. We’re secure. No one is going to come in here. I will make sure that these children will be fine.’ ”

But do smartphones in students’ hands really make schools safer? Or do they just make them feel safer? And could there be a cost to that feeling?

Source: Should The Parkland Shooting Change How We Think About Phones, Schools and Safety? : NPR Ed : NPR