I'm a teacher in KCPS - Kansas City Public Schools. I started teaching in the district last year. In my second year, I'm already an old-timer at my school because there's so much staff turnover. Why? It's a hard job, KCPS is a tough district, and teachers are asked every year to do more with less. Appreciating teachers in gushing terms is a media cliche, but our salaries don't reflect the much-trumpeted nobility of our work.

We accept those challenges. What's tougher to swallow is our multiplying these difficulties by refusing to take a stand against cell phone use in the classroom. Every single teacher who comes to me broken down and stressed out because of daunting classroom management challenges starts with the same complaint - I can't get the kids off their phones.

I offer comfort and some advice, but I'm convinced that a single-classroom policy without administration and district's backing is doomed to failure. Students may observe it for a few weeks, but like mildew, the cell phones always come back.

Most of the teachers I know are doing excellent work in their classrooms, but phone addiction is powerful. Even during engaging lessons, there are students who compulsively whip out their devices and slump into that mesmerized, reel-absorption posture that triggers associations with everything from opium dens to the Further in the Insidious movies. It's a bummer to see kids who could be fountains of creativity instead accepting this fodder, accepting the role of passive receiver of others' creations. Again, the teachers I know have never surrrendered, neither on engagement nor on attempting to stop inappropriate phone use, but it sure seems like we're doubling our challenges by declining to implement a clear, district-wide policy.

There is no serious reason students regularly need cell phones in classrooms. It's not an equity issue. In fact, students in the most affluent schools that I've both attended and taught at completely understand that when instruction begins, cell phones are turned off, silenced, and tucked into backpacks. We have Chromebooks to access digital material, and if a parent desperately needs to reach their student, they can contact the office and admin can relay the message.

The simple fact is that cell phones don't belong in classrooms, they make our lives incredibly hard, and what's needed is not teacher blaming but someone in a position of authority to enact a policy and calmly defend it against inevitable pushback.

Cell phones do not help learning; they hinder it. They are a distraction and an anti-socialization device. It's time to kick them out. If you agree, please sign our petition to be sent to our superintendant and our board. Let's get students off their phones and into learning.