I have a lot of unusual takes in this space, but I think my most controversial might be this one:
I, a middle school teacher, do not support blanket cellphone bans.
This doesn’t mean I think kids should use cell phones at school (they shouldn’t, in most cases). Nor do I think kids should be allowed to readily access their phones whenever they want to.
As soon as a cut-and-dry ban is implemented, teachers (and caregivers) are put in a very hard position. If a student is bringing a phone to class, even if it is off and not disruptive, teachers are now expected (and/or required) to discipline the student, often removing them from the classroom environment, stopping the flow of instruction, potentially reducing the class time the student is present for.
Some bans include things like storage for phones, but this problem will still happen. And while yes, this is the student’s “fault”, it results in a situation that will not promote an increased sense of connection between teachers and students, and also requires a high level of vigilance and labor from teachers and administrators.
Plus, some students are (correctly) exempted from bans due to accommodations, and this also puts those students in the position of having a private accommodation (such as monitoring blood sugar) now public to their peers.
As a teacher, I firmly believe that any rule we expect students to follow should be one that we are also willing and able to follow. While I would fully expect to follow the same dress code or “no food in class” policy as students, I would not feel comfortable being apart from my phone until I knew my students and I were safe from gun violence. (Some will say cell phones are dangerous in a shooter event. They could be, though that hasn’t been historically shown. But you know what would make this irrelevant? GUN REFORM.)
Many high schools have invested in alternatives for students like ping pong tables, board games, etc. *AFTER* implementing a phone ban, but that also speaks to a possible contributing factor; if these investments had been made previously, would kids still have always defaulted to phones? Phone bans may shift the problem outside of schools, but they also make it harder to address the digital literacy skills relevant to phones by making them an off limit topic. If every state in the US required K-12 digital literacy education (as opposed to the 4 that do now) we could address important underlying issues while also managing the symptoms of phones in school.
