From what I've seen, parents have been made extremely fearful of a mass shooter type of incident. The "need" for smartphones in school is seen as a way to get in touch with a child when the absolute worst has happened.

Ironically, the same logic often isn't appreciated for those who choose to legally carry a gun.

Give the kid a LifeAlert. If it works for gram grams falling down the front stoop, it'll work for little Billy when he's dodging lead from the bullied kid who couldn't take it anymore.

or give them a flip phone

> If the parents are having an emergency, the can call the school.

Let's be real, the last thing a frantic parent in the middle of an emergency wants to deal with is a couple of school bureaucrats while attempting to get in touch with their kid. There are good reasons why everyone adopted cell phone: to increase efficiency of communication.

Or you can connect directly without an intermediary, reducing the risk of communication fails from the extra link in the chain

>If the kid has an emergency, the teacher can call the parents. If the parents are having an emergency, the can call the school.

What about if the kid's being bullied? Half the time the teacher will side with the bully, especially if the bully's a more popular kid.

Have cell phones ever stopped bullying?

I know it's rhetorical but just to answer. No, in general phones increase bullying. Before phone and social media, bullied children would finish the school day and leave the bullying behind them. Now, it follows them on their phones with countless mocking messages... Messages like "X should kill himself for being so ...." and so on.

It makes the psychological part of any bullying that much more relentless.

Today, when a kid gets bullied, other students stand around recording in on their phones and posting it to the internet.

In any case, the bully and the bullied will likely be separated for the rest of the day once the teacher is involved so the phone never needs to come into play.