Texting In The School Pick-Up Line? You Might Be Breaking The Law

NASHVILLE, TN -- Sitting in the school pick-up line is often a tedious and lengthy, if necessary, experience; thus, it's not unusual to see parents dig out the phone to play a mindless game, catch-up on e-mail or text while waiting for kiddos to come out after the dismissal bell.

Depending on how those school pick-up lines are located, those parents may be breaking the law, according to the latest opinion from Tennessee's attorney general.

In 2017, Tennessee implemented a broad ban on texting while driving and, at the beginning of 2018, a law banning all cell phone use in school zones while lights are flashing. Neither law carves out an exception for the daily tedium of the pick-up queue.

But, importantly, neither does either law mention parking lots.

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Attorney General Herbert Slatery, in an opinion requested by State Rep. William Lamberth, a Cottontown Republican, found that because the texting-while-driving ban's legislative language only mentions "public roads and highways" and does not specifically mention parking lots, the law would only apply to school pick-up lines if they are located on - or extend to, as procrastinating parents know they sometimes do - a public road. If a parent is within a parking lot, they can text away, even if the car is moving (legally, at least; whether it's wise to do so is a different kettle of fish).

Slatery also notes that the texting ban only applies while a car is in motion, so texting while simply sitting in the pick-up line, even if it is on a public road, would still be permitted.

Slatery's opinion does not, however, address whether a person using a phone while sitting in a pick-up line extending onto a public road could face a $50 fine if that line is situated within a school zone, so caveat textor.

See the AG's opinion here.

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