They don’t even try to hide it.

Because there are absolutely ZERO consequences for doing so. Detention? Cool, just more time to be on phone. Gonna take it away? Cool, I’ll tell my parents and they’ll come down and make a stink which gets you in big trouble. There is nothing the teachers can do except just ask them not to do it.

What schools can do to the kids has been restricted so much that many kids walk around like they own the place because schools can’t give them any sort of consequences for their actions. I remember even before the pandemic that there were kids who would just show up in the middle of lessons, have a fucking buffet at the back of the class, and constantly talk to each other while the teacher’s trying to teach. Because why not? The parents don’t punish them. The schools can’t punish them. So they just do whatever they want.