Based on my current understanding of the climate teachers work in, it's probably a mix of parents and admin. Based on what I've heard, parents very frequently get angry when teachers try to enforce rules on their kids. So they go complain to admin, admin backs up the parents, and leaves the teachers out to dry. Then you have the helicopter parents who can't stand for their child to be inaccessible to them for a few hours every day.
Plus, the phones are much more expensive than they used to be. A teacher confiscating a phone could very well be confiscating $1,000+, making it a harder justify to a lot of parents.
That and cases of teenagers assaulting teachers that dare take away their phone. For many teachers it’s not worth the career and physical risk. If kids don’t want to learn they are not the enforcers. They didn’t buy these kids the phones.
And what of the kids that do want yo learn if the phones are causing disruptions and promoting an anti-learning culture?
I think the lack of discipline (not just punishment, but more order and integrity) in schools will only worsen the societal problems we are already seeing. Is there any reason to think that allowing kids to be thugs in school won't lead to them being thugs in life?
Plus, the phones are much more expensive than they used to be. A teacher confiscating a phone could very well be confiscating $1,000+, making it a harder justify to a lot of parents.