The school I work at has always had a phone ban policy. Hand it in to the homeroom teacher at the start of the day.

Problem is, most if not all students still magically have phones:

• Lazy homeroom teachers (or one's that behave unprofessionally to be 'friends' with the kids and thus, let them have the phones

• Second, even third phones

• Handing in fake phones (I literally had a student some years ago with a fake iphone that had concrete in it to give it the suitable weight)

• Excuses you can't argue with (need to be in touch with parents due to this this and this)

• iPads which circumvent the rule but are literally just large phones which also happen to be needed in various classes they take

And more.

In my own classes, the threat of me taking whatever I see for a week first time, a month second time, a semester third time (unless they inform their parents of their 'crime' to get it back), is enough for them to at least never bring 'em out in my class, even if they're hidden in pockets. Unfortunately most teachers aren't like that.

I do think a lot of it is just bad teaching. How many videos do I see of kids taking videos of their teachers or whatever... a lot. How do they let that slip/slide?

Young teachers are especially guilty of trying to befriend their students who are not that many years apart in high school, and if you think about it, a 22 year old teacher was literally born into the smartphone world themselves.