Students in at least one Thomas S. Wootton High School classroom could not reach their families for hours during the Feb. 9 shooting lockdown because their phones were sealed in pouches under the school's device policy.

In AP World History teacher Kraig Bauer's class, phones were stored in pouches as part of the school's device rules. When the lockdown began, Bauer did not allow students to retrieve them, according to an account published Sept. 11 in the Wootton Common Sense, the school's student newspaper. Students resorted to searching on school-issued Chromebooks to learn what was happening.

The account raises a question about Montgomery County Public Schools' (MCPS) new bell-to-bell Personal Mobile Device (PMD) policy, which took effect for the 2026-2027 school year. The policy bars students from turning on personal mobile devices for independent use until the end of the school day. MCPS says the ban helps students stay focused and retain information.

But the district's own regulation, COG-RA, allows principals to temporarily suspend the ban during emergencies. Whether Wootton's administration planned to invoke that exception during the Feb. 9 lockdown remains unclear. Assistant Principal Heidi Vermillion declined to be interviewed by the student newspaper.

No MCPS official statement addressing the emergency exception has been made public as of Sept. 14.

What happened Feb. 9

Police were dispatched to Wootton at 2:15 p.m. after a 16-year-old student was shot by another student in a hallway, WJLA reported. The victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition. A second 16-year-old student was arrested near the school and charged as an adult. The school remained on lockdown for several hours.

Outside the building, parent Jim Boyce told WJLA he learned about the shooting from his wife, then texted with his children inside. His two sons were at Wootton.

"You're still stressed because you know someone got shot at the school, and it sounds like a student," Boyce said on Feb. 9. "That's very upsetting."

Morgan Wilson, the Wootton student who wrote the Common Sense opinion piece, described being in Bauer's class during the lockdown. Wilson wrote that not knowing a shooting had occurred made the situation worse and questioned how students would contact parents if an incident escalated further.

A statewide policy with no clear emergency carve-out

MCPS implemented its ban a year ahead of Maryland's Phone-Free Schools Act, signed by Gov. Wes Moore on May 26. The law requires every county school board to adopt a bell-to-bell policy by Sept. 1, 2027. It passed the Senate unanimously and the House 135-1, according to Maryland Matters.

The state law's listed exceptions cover Individualized Education Program accommodations, documented health issues and caregiving responsibilities. It does not include a specific emergency exception for lockdowns.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor said on Aug. 28 that the district moved early to "make sure we've ironed out all the kinks," according to Bethesda Magazine. The district has not publicly addressed whether the emergency communication gap is among the issues being worked out.

Wootton was one of two MCPS schools hit by on-campus shootings in 2026. Blake High School in the Cloverly area experienced a separate incident. Following both, Taylor said on Aug. 27 that the district installed door sensors and additional cameras.

Student leaders at Blake also flagged the phone policy's limits at the start of this school year, pointing to the need for exceptions so students can contact parents during stressful moments, according to MyMCMedia.

The MCPS Board of Education has not publicly scheduled a discussion of the PMD policy's emergency provisions. Families seeking updates can monitor the board's meeting calendar at montgomeryschoolsmd.org.