Anyone who has taught for any significant amount of time knows how annoying student cell phones can be in class. This has probably been the case since I was a student in the 90s and 2000s. But all my teachers had to worry about were calls, texts, and the occasional game of Snake. Today, cell phones are quite literally more powerful than personal computers and offer a nearly inexhaustible reservoir of ways to disrupt the school day. From the benign annoyance of students making TikToks in the hallway to the ruthless cyberbullying on Instagram, students can engage in anything they desire… and not to mention they still make calls, send texts, and play their fair share of Snake too.

As a teacher primarily of 14 and 15-year-olds, I sympathize with educators who want to ban student cell phone use in class. But the truth is there is not much we can do about this. Cell phones exist, and students have them. We probably just have to deal with it.

Several states, including Indiana, are mulling or passing laws about student cell phone use. While these laws are well-intentioned and probably fine, they won’t change the status quo that much. Anyone who is in a school that has already “banned” cell phones can tell you this.

A. They will still have their phones

Cell phones are small and largely undetectable. There is no metal detector equivalent for phones. Even schools that have the cubby system that requires students to turn in their phones fall prey to students who simply put their old phone in the box instead of their current one. The clandestine nature of cell phones means that students are on the “honor system,” and if that system worked, we wouldn’t be trying to come up with ways to deal with phone use now.

B. Cell phone policies can be a hassle

Teachers don’t want to enforce these policies. The fewer battles you have to fight as a teacher, the better. Cell phone confiscations are difficult. Students don’t want to give them up, leading to power struggles. Parents often aren’t supportive because they have become accustomed to being able to easily reach their students throughout the day.

C. We have already adjusted

We are already used to student cell phones. Cell phones have been commonplace in schools since the late 90s, smartphones since the early 2010s. Today’s high school seniors have basically never lived in a world without iPhones. Cell phones, while annoying, are not an existential threat to schools. Things are no different today than they were in 2015 or even 2010. For all intents and purposes, we have already adapted.

My school previously had an aggressive policy of forcing students to put cell phones in their lockers throughout the day. For some frequent offenders, this even included visual confirmation by a teacher. This year, lockers were broken for a while, so students did have them, and kids simply got to keep them. Ironically, cell phones were actually less of a problem. The occasional “put that away during class” was just as effective as the previous policy. For more difficult students, admin gets involved and takes their phones in the morning. This policy has worked so well that even when the lockers were fixed, we did not revert back.

Cell phone policies are needed, and truthfully, kids are engaging in activities they shouldn’t throughout the day. However, my experience has taught me that being vigilant during class and teaching kids to be digital citizens has been more effective than all-out bans. Many of the laws passed and proposed do not stipulate how schools prevent students from using phones in class. I know my vote is for a policy that is lenient enough to be enforceable.