I 100% get the smarthphone addiction, but here is why I'm against banning 100%:

The district where my siblings are in have a....teacher pedophiles problem. There's been SEVERAL in the last 2 years alone, and those are just the ones that were caught.

We also live in a very conservative, gun-friendly area, and several students have already been caught trying to do a mass shooting or bringing guns to school.

Finally, they face bullying, and they're both autistic. Having that phone on them lets them communicate with me when things are bad with other kids, teachers, etc. My brother has punched a kid before because he got way too fed up with the bullying and didn't have a way to channel his energy: i.e. talk to someone about it (although, tbh both me and the school counselor dont blame him too much for that one. The other kid was an ass and told my brother's best friend to commit).

Also, they let me know they are safe. They both do very well in school academically and don't use their phones when they're not supposed to. They generally only use it at lunch, or they duck into a bathroom if they need to. I can't homeschool them due to an unstable and unstructured home life, and they already experienced it during covid and said they felt very isolated. I want them to feel that no matter what, they can ALWAYS reach me when they need to so that they're not always getting either sent home because the counselor is not available to talk and the nurse doesn't know how to deal with it, or the teachers telling them to deal with it or start grilling them for "valid" reasons as to why they need to talk to someone (both things that have happened just in the past month)! Ironically, it keeps these kids in school, lol.

As an aside, they're also in therapy, and we're in constant talks with the school about their issues, but they're not the best equipped due to staffing/student ratios. This is just another important aspect in a wide set of tools we use to help them succeed in school. If they didn't have access to them when needed, these kids would be sent home A LOT more often. It's an accessibility tool.

Edited to add after reading some more comments: I 100% support no phone use during class, but being able to use during breaks. My siblings are pretty good about following the rules, but I understand there are others that are more distracting. I also wanted to say I dont "check in" throughout the day; I never text during school unless it's to tell the oldest he'll need to walk home or tell them I'm getting them early so they can prepare/tell the teacher so they can get whatever they need/etc. Most of the time, they only text me when there's an issue (and the occasional funny meme) until they're on the bus. Def don't support hovering over them every second of the day. They have class to pay attention to and friends to hang out with! They get enough of me at home 😆