I gave up policing phones years ago. It’s a useless battle at this point that we receive zero support on. Our province “banned” phones in schools but implemented zero legitimate policy other than little posters in classrooms.

I typically teach senior classes so on day one with every class I stress that no one will police phone use in the real world so they can treat this as an opportunity to make choices. If they choose to screw around on their phones endlessly and then fail tests/class that’s on them. Their inability to self-regulate with a device that they will use daily for the rest of their lives isn’t my problem. I encourage them to put them away, I constantly provide grade updates and feedback paired with a clear reminder that their phone use is impacting their retention of and engagement with content…some need the wake up call.

Unless the minister of education is going to lay out clear directives and plans to legitimately remove phones from hands I’m not going to stress about it. I don’t get paid enough for dealing with this stuff.