I suspect part of it is overall societal changes pertaining to phone usage.

When I was an elementary school student, I carried a few coins in the event that I had to call someone on a payphone. (Which happened very rarely.)

But today, we have no payphones. Well, almost none.

So what else could you do, with no payphone? Perhaps you could find someone else who had a phone that they could let you borrow. In years past, it wouldn't have been that uncommon to walk into a store or other place of business, or walk into your school office, and politely ask if you could use the phone. They might let you, or they might not, but it was a reasonable request.

I imagine today that it would come across a lot more suspicious. Why don't you have your own phone?

Both infrastructure and ways of thinking have shifted toward assuming that all individual people who might need to make a phone call have their own personal mobile phone.

Children being assumed to have their own phone is probably more of a grey area, but even so, things have changed, and there may be no going back.

The kid can own the phone. In silent. In the backpack. Never to be seen on school grounds.

And if they need to make a call, they go to the admin building, and explain why, and use the office phone.

That's the way it used to work - communication goes through the administration. If my parents schedule changed they could call and leave a message with the office for me. If I had an emergency the admin could call them. It's certainly simpler with cell phones though.

Cool. Kids aren't paying attention most of their school day, but at least it's simpler to teach them.

Telling their parent goodbye before they are shot along with their classmates and teacher.

More kids die in their parents car than in schools. Maybe parents should put the phone down and drive.

ooh, a whatabouter, cool. Maybe schools should focus on providing safe bus and walking routes to school instead of preventing kids from using a phone while sitting safely in a classroom. Now you do another non sequiter!

I can think of half a dozen times that I personally needed to use a cellphone to contact a family member about something that was absolutely none of administrations business. I wouldnt want some judgmental old woman knowing about private health or emotional problems. This stance that the administration is responsible, respectful or helpful enough to field private communication through is ridiculous. The other side of that stance is that students deserve no privacy and any personal matters are within the rights of the administration to regulate. Either side of that stance seems ridiculous

The concept of 24/7 availability is ridiculous in it's own right. I don't buy the idea that they need them for "emergencies".

Smart phones are constant dopamine dispensers. They create a dependency and cause human brains to go into withdrawal when not present. Once the science is laid bare I believe they will become severely curtailed in K-12 environments.

So which is it? That highschoolers dont deserve to have private communication or that or that we can trust school administrators to handle private communication? Its got to be one or the other, or some other reasoning that I have yet to see?