Dial *P for Panic

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But has it made our lives any better? It's true that many Littleton students were able to call 911 on their cell phones -- but it's also true that the first call out was not to 911 but to the local TV station. Did that call save any lives, or comfort any parents? And if a parent sees their child's high school on CNN with "Breaking News" underneath it, does it do any good to reach for the speed-dial? What if there's a gun to his head? Or if he's hiding, just on the other side of a too-thin door? Hearing the all-clear from your child's own lips must be a comfort like no other. But when his high school library goes to hell, a phone won't save him.

That hasn't stopped parents from heeding the call: Several Denver-area cell phone retailers reported dramatically increased sales since Tuesday's rampage. And the principal of a Long Island high school got his 15 minutes Friday morning on CNN for saying he would rethink a ban on the gadgets. In a school full of cell-phone-packing teenagers, do the benefits of peace of mind for parents outweigh the very real distractions for teachers and students alike? School violence has been indelibly branded on the national consciousness this past year, but in Anytown, USA, there's still more teaching going on than killing. Carrying a cell phone to prevent teen tragedy is still a little like carrying a gun to prevent terrorism. Plenty of people do it -- with some justification -- but that doesn't make it a smart idea for everybody.

What if next time there is no teenage heroine to cover the varsity baseball logo on a young man's T-shirt, just him and his wits? Amid the screaming and the bullets and the shooters' laughter, perhaps someone in that situation would do the smart thing: play dead, and hope the cops come soon. With the chaos and the nearing sirens, silence might save him.

Unless his cell phone rings.