I'm astounded that this has become a thing. My school had a zero-tolerance "if I see it, I confiscate it" phone policy. And your parent had to come retrieve it.

There are kids who lost their phones because it accidentally fell out of a pocket lol

I'm out of school for 3 years. For most of the time smartphones existed, but were forbidden in class. It were the teachers, who allowed it and even encouraged it to be used in class. When the students are already staring at a screen during class, they continue doing so after. When they do not, they don't (at least initially). In my final years, it was obvious who thought about class and who was completely mind-absent, by looking who looked at an school-supplied iPad. > 90% of these people were just playing games during the whole lesson. This was known by everyone in the classroom and the teachers just ignored them.

Kids have phones for "safety" reasons. It's pretty irrational, but hard to push back against without help from on high.

The "Safety" excuse is bullshit. What safety problem could exist in a school that a child with a cell phone can solve? Fire? School administrators will call the fire department. Intruder? School administrators will call the police. School shooter? Same. There's nothing that a child with a cell phone will fix.

It probably is bullshit, but everything you've written is a straw man. A phone is useful for the kid on their journey to or from school, which by secondary level I would hope is on their own. Even just, "I'm going to Steve's, I'll be late for dinner".

But it doesn't need to be a smartphone for that, and it doesn't need to be out during school hours.

Yeah, I think people are downvoting me because they don't realize I meant what you're saying when I called it irrational.