Growing numbers of schools in the United States are limiting how much students can use their mobile phones. Educators say phones are distracting and keep children from learning. But some parents disagree and are pushing back against the policy. Bans on the devices were increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since schools reopened, struggles with student behavior and mental health have given some schools even more reason to restrict use. During the time of online learning, parents had constant access to their children. Some have not wanted to give that access up. Others say they fear losing contact with their children if there were a school shooting. With more debate on how subjects like race are taught in schools, some parents also view phone restrictions as a way of keeping them out of their kids’ education. Shannon Moser has students in eighth and ninth grades in Rochester, New York. She said she felt parents were being pushed away when the local school system locked away student phones. She noted that many parents on either side of the political divide feel the same way. “Everything is just so politicized, so divisive. And I think parents just have a general fear of what’s happening with their kids during the day,” Moser told The Associated Press. There is a form of accountability, she said, when students are able to record what goes on around them.