No?
What exactly is so difficult to understand about a school being there for educational purposes, and the smartphone directly distracting from that?
> No?
Err, are you living in a (relatively) free society? My country has this principle written in the constitution: people can do anything the law does not prohibit whereas the government can only do what the law expressly permits it to do. I would think that's the standard in democracies.
No, you cannot do whatever the hell you want at school or at work.
Smartphone is a universal computer. You can use it for a variety of tasks, including education. Schools are supposed to teach that rather than throwing students back into the stone age.
Smartphones (and computers in general) aren't just any tool. If used properly, they are powerful cognitive multipliers. Removing them from schools is like giving every student a lobotomy, because they aren't using their brain the way they are supposed to.
To make no bones about it: I'm currently a student. I've so far never seen a need to use my smartphone for an educational reason. I've often seen people who have phones out when the teacher is talking. There should be no debate about smartphone usage in class generally being distracting, potentially to people other than the users. You may not agree with the proposed rules, but you're vastly overstating your case.
PS: I did mention some reasons: computer for every pupil, Socratic app (and others), maintaining high expectations, resisting technological regress in schools that are already backwards. Not that this would be an exhaustive list.