Reader Hank Bergen seems to think that a cellphone ban in schools is a bad idea. If there is a school shooting, he reasons in a recent letter to the editor, students cannot report it or call their parents ( “School cellphone bans won’t last,” Aug. 31).

Numerous studies have demonstrated that students with cellphones in class are hugely distracted and learning achievements are substantially negatively affected. There are 130,912 K-12 schools in the United States, and while there were at least 312 school shootings in 2024 (which is an extremely deplorable situation), it is still a miniscule 0.25% incidence level of our total schools.

I submit that giving students a proper education is a bit more important than being able to call your parents to report a rare shooting. Students use those

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