I grew up without a cell phone until like 3rd~4th year in university, cause I am old. (no, I don’t even have a message box thing that ask you to call a number back.)

But, depending on the kid’s age and situation, I think a phone is necessary. It allows you to record conversation, take photo/video. It’s a very powerful tool to deter bullying attempts if you teach the kid how to use it. (as you can set back up to cloud asap with data plans, even if the bully tried to take away phone the video is already recorded, you can even setup a live streaming app so it streams right away and archive on the cloud.)

The school wants to ban cause they don’t want to deal with the confrontations or why the teaching isn’t attracting the kids’ attention.