LAKESIDE, Calif. (KGTV) — Sending her child off to elementary school is part of Kiki Parsons' routine.
Now a Lakeside Union School District parent, Parsons shares her experience attending Granite Hills High School in El Cajon.
What began as an ordinary day in El Cajon in 2001 left remnants of concern for those who still remember.
“When we had our school shooting, it was because there was a cell phone in our classroom that I was able to call my mom and tell her that there, the school was on lockdown, there was a shooting, but that I was safe,” said Parsons.
Twenty years later, the Governor of California is proposing legislation restricting the use of smartphones during the school day to help students focus on their studies and not screens.
Following this legislation, the Lakeside Union School District is also asking parents to weigh in so they can set new phone rules when school starts.
"I, as a parent, [I] should have a say over my child,” said Kiki Parsons, a Lakeside Union School District parent.
For parents similar to Parsons, this new phone rule makes them uneasy.
“Banning cell phones is very scary to me in terms of communication and safety with kids,” said Parsons.
Meanwhile, mental health experts say young people can afford to cut loose from their smartphones for a while.
According to Blue Shield Youth Mental Health programs, their most recent survey shows that spending over three hours on the phone a day can have negative impacts.
“If young people are spending as much time as they are, that 5.6 hours on social media via their cell phones, then you can imagine that that would impact their ability to learn, to engage in the learning, to pay attention to what they're learning,” said Paula Ambrose, head of Blue Shield's Blue Sky program.
Parsons agrees that cell phones are a distraction. Even though she thinks phones should be allowed in schools, she says that doesn't mean they should be distracting.
“...My 5th grader has a flip phone," Parsons said. "She doesn't need social media; she doesn't need the internet..."
Parsons said she and her family want to use the phone as a way to contact her child and for her child to contact authorities in an emergency.
“That's why we need to ask before we take action on a policy banning cell phones in classrooms,” said Lakeside School District President Andrew Hayes.
The California School Boards Association is saying that any smartphone regulation should be left to the districts to decide.
