In the middle of a sensationalist article about risks to children and how giving them cell phones can help, there's at least one person who gets it.
Since the 1999 Columbine High School shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many parents feel better having a way to contact their children. But hundreds of students on cell phones during an emergency can cause problems for responders.
"There's a huge difference between feeling safer and being safer," says Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services.
According to Trump, students' cell phone use during emergencies can do three things: increase the spread of rumors about the situation, expedite parental traffic at a scene that needs to be controlled and accelerate the overload of cell-phone systems in the area.
Tom Hautton, an attorney for the National School Board Association, said that cell phones in schools also can lead to classroom distractions, text-message cheating and inappropriate photographs and videos being spread around campus.
We are just naturally inclined to make irrational security decisions when it comes to our children.
