A mom of four in New York is openly flouting her kids’ school’s ban on cell phones amid concerns over her family’s safety.
Angel Ericson-Katerle, from Rochester, posted a video to her TikTok, @angelericson072289, explaining how she hides a “burner phone” among her kids’ school things so they are able to call her in the event of an emergency. It’s been watched 3.7 million times.
“A phone ban when you can’t keep active pew pews out of school is wild,” she wrote in an onscreen caption accompanying the footage of her putting one of the phones in a bag. With pews pews referring to guns. “I stand on everything I just said. Find a better solution, worry about the bigger picture,” Ericson-Katerle wrote alongside the clip.
Ericson-Katerle has a 17-month-old toddler while her eldest child is a senior in high school. She has seen the challenges around parenting change and evolve in that period and told Newsweek it is important for parents to “grow and adapt with the times.” For her, that starts with phones in schools.
“I feel safer knowing my kids can contact me whenever they need me,” she said. “I believe the kids should be able to bring them, and have them on them at all times. However, I do not agree with having phones out during class, nor do I agree with kids making teachers’ lives hell over it.”
Ericson-Katerle is not a lone voice in this respect. A 2024 survey of just over 1,500 U.S. parents conducted by the National Parents Union found being able to communicate in case of an emergency at school was the top reason parents wanted their children to have a cell phone at school.
Ericson-Katerle believes there are workable alternatives to the current cell phone ban among students. “I believe a helpful solution would be to have a a sleeve with pouches on every door of the classroom, students could put their phone in the pouch on the door and be able to collect them before the bell rings, while still being able to access in the event they need to get ahold of their parents,” she said.
However, under the current New York State school rules, her kids are required to put phones in a pouch and leave them in their locker. “I don’t agree with it,” she said.
She created the TikTok video about hiding a “burner phone” i.e. a prepaid cell with credit for emergency use only, as a rebuttal to the current rules. “We live in a scary world, anything can happen, whether the emergency is something minimal or something huge, my child should be able to have access to me at all times and vice versa,” she said. “I know there was once a time where parents had minimal access to their kids, but we need to get with the times.”
Ericson-Katerle’s video makes reference to school shootings as a particular cause for concern when it comes to keeping in contact with her children. According to figures compiled by the non profit Everytown for Gun Safety, at the time of writing in 2025 there had been at least 118 incidents of gunfire on school grounds. These resulted in 36 deaths and 108 injuries.
Ericson-Katerle isn’t looking to wade into the debate around gun control, but she does believe schools need more security protection. “School should be the safest place in the world, it should not be easy to walk through any door of a school. I believe we need police patrolling all school grounds,” she said.
Her concerns over her children’s safety in school goes beyond gun violence though. Ericson-Katerle said: “Kids are ruthless, whether it’s verbal or physical, some parents don’t provide consequences and discipline for their children, and administrators don’t follow up on situations, allowing the chaos to continue.”
Ultimately, Ericson-Katerle because she wants to see a change. “I understand phones can be a distraction, and I know some kids pull their phones out and some kids give teachers hell, it’s not all of them,” she said. “There are better solutions than taking away my access to my child and vice versa. Maybe if our kids were protected more in school I would feel differently.”
