Some people outside the US or younger Americans might not know about the Kent State Shootings so here's some background: the shootings occurred when soldiers of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on anti-Vietnam War protestors at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio on Monday, 4 May 1970. A total of 13 people were shot; four died. The shooting was the result of tensions following a protest on the previous Friday. The protest turned riotous and local police were nearly overwhelmed by the disturbance. Kent's mayor declared a state of emergency and requested that Governor James Rhodes dispatch the National Guard. Following a tense weekend, a large protest took place at the University on Monday. Kent State University Library
By noon, two thousand people had assembled in large field at KSU, despite orders to disperse. Rocks were thrown and insults were hurled. At 12:24, shots rang out and over the course of 13 seconds, 67 rounds were fired by 29 soldiers. KentState1970.org
There is a Pulitzer prize-winnng photograph of a teenage girl, Mary Ann Vecchio, crying and kneeling over the remains of Jeffrey Miller, who had been fatally wounded moments earlier. Whether or not the shootings were intentional or accidental remains contentiously debated to this day.
The phone lines definitely stopped working at some point, but the literature I've been able to find does not clearly make the distinction between a deliberate act to disrupt telephone service and an outage caused by an overload. It's also unclear if the outage affected the University campus, city of Kent or any other part of Portage County.
"They cut all the phone lines so no one could call in or out." -Laurel Krause in Witness to the Revolution by Clara Bingham. p 376, Random House 2016.
Laurel Krause's older sister Allison was one of the four who was killed and her family were trying to call into Kent from her hometown and unable to get through.
A first-hand report from the scene of the protest mentions difficulties with their phones at the time:
Within hours a rumor spread throughout the campus that the Black Panthers were sending in reinforcements to join the fight and protect African-American students. In those days — before cell phones and e-mail — Lustgarten said, phone lines crashed as frightened parents tried to call in and students tried to call out.
I also reviewed the Scranton Commission Report. The Scranton Commission, or "President's Commission on Campus unrest," was the official federal government investigation into the Kent State shootings and other campus disorders that occurred around that time. There is no mention of telephone service in Kent on that day. There is, however, a description of the actions taken by Portage County Prosecutor, Ronald J. Kane. About four hours after the shootings, he was able to convince a district court judge to grant an injunction prohibiting any person from entering or remaining on the KSU campus, effective immediately. This court order would not be lifted for nearly to six weeks and the University was closed and off-limits during that time.
-Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, pp 285-286 http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED083899.pdf
So were the phone lines cut? It's impossible to say from what I've been able to find in short space of time I've researched this particular topic. As I mentioned above, phone service definitely went out on the KSU campus, and possibly the city of Kent. Whether this was an intentional act or the result of an overtaxed system can't be said with certainty.
edit: formatting
Can I ask where you originally heard this information? It might help track down a source.
