That would be terrifying in the case of an emergency; and no, the police aren't the only people you should want to be able to access in case of an emergency.
And if there are exceptions, you can put anyone on the exception list (because it's just a list) and it makes the change as useless as any other feature.
Parents already have parental modes on phones and they're not using them to this degree, it would seem.
The "but what about emergencies" subject comes up often in the context of outright device bans. Such a feature would be no worse than a ban, nor do I think the concern about emergencies is justified.
I realize that parents have become reliant on constant contact and never being out of touch, but this is a whole other conversation to have about whether or not that is actually of benefit to anyone involved.
Plenty of reasons to believe it's a net-harm.
> Parents already have parental modes on phones and they're not using them to this degree, it would seem.
This is a good point, and I think one path forward would be to require parents to implement these modes. The solution to phones in schools can't just be policy - parents need to parent. Perhaps they'd be more likely to use those features if the alternative is an outright ban.
And if there are exceptions, you can put anyone on the exception list (because it's just a list) and it makes the change as useless as any other feature.
Parents already have parental modes on phones and they're not using them to this degree, it would seem.