That collective scream you may have heard last week came from all those students out there who are joined at the hip with their cell phones.

A state lawmaker had the audacity to introduce legislation to regulate those handy-dandy, can’t-live-without-them devices in schools, which produced the “outrage.”

OMG.

Turns out, the students are not the only ones up in arms. Some of the parents are, too.

“Parental response is certainly one of the concerns, maybe even the first concern you get from school administrators and principals,” state Rep. Mark Tisdale, R-Rochester Hills, reports as he takes a second bite of the legislative apple, trying to impose these rules.

Back in the Dark Ages, when parents or guardians needed to get in touch with their children during school hours, they called the office and the message got through.

But that was then and now is now, when the urgency to hear your child’s voice escalates whenever a mass shooter may be prowling the school hallways.

Tisdale, of course, gets that, but, if parents are willing to listen, he explains that their children are actually safer if they are not on the phone during a crisis.

“In an actual emergency, you want your child’s attention focused at the head of the classroom,” when teachers are telling everyone what to do, Tisdale said.

Plus, he adds, “You don’t want hundreds of parents showing up in their cars when first responders are trying to get to the location to do their jobs.”

Apart from the life-and-death aspect of cell phones, educators are quick to point out that eliminating them from the classroom setting has countless benefits that enhance not only the child’s learning curve but also his or her mental wellness.

Maybe you have heard about the daily cell phone cyberbullying in which picking on students goes well beyond being shoved into a locker. The new-age hassling goes to the very heart of a child’s self-concept, and the resulting suicides are on the rise, school officials report.

The good news is that, in the 27 Michigan school districts where cell phone restrictions are in place, the “referrals to counselors, mental health caretakers have all dropped,” according to Tisdale, and, while everyone is not scoring a perfect 2400 on their SATs, the scores are going up as the in-class attention is actually focused on course content and not on who is going to the prom with whom next week.

The legislator’s proposal has three tiers, but lawmakers won’t get to the legislation until next year, and the outcome of the debate is anybody’s guess.

The rule for early elementary kids would be: Leave your cells at home, period.

Middle schoolers could bring them but can only use them before and after school.

High schoolers? The legislation would say no cells in the classroom but would allow them to be used at other times throughout the day.

In those two dozen or so schools with similar restrictions, principals report that, for the first time in ages, “the hallways are noisy again.”

Come on.

Talking to someone face to face instead of through a screen?

Talk about your Dark Ages.