How do you respond to this situation?

I teach 5th grade and recently I’ve had a couple of incidences where a student comes to me and tells me that their parent wants them to have their phone with them at all times. The implication being that they are probably worried about their children if there’s ever a shooting. There was a shooting in my area this school year so I have a feeling that is making some parents nervous.

Our school rule is that the kids are not allowed to have their phones in class. We have hooks outside of our classrooms for their backpacks and that is where their devices are supposed to stay if they have them.

When a kid has asked me if they can have their phone I tell them unfortunately no, it has to stay in their backpack, otherwise every other kid starts asking why this one child gets to bring their phone in and they don’t. And then, if I allow everyone to bring their phones in, with the understanding that their phones need to be stowed away for the whole day, it won’t be long before someone is doing things with their phone that they shouldn’t be doing in class.

What do you all do in this situation?