August 18, 2025 • 5 mins
"What happens when you take away the one thing teens rely on to survive the school day—their phones?"In this eye-opening and wildly entertaining episode of The Ben and Skin Show, the crew—Ben Rogers, Jeff “Skin” Wade, Kevin “KT” Turner, and Krystina Ray—tackle one of the most controversial back-to-school topics in Texas: the statewide cell phone ban in public schools. KT dives into a Reddit rabbit hole, uncovering raw, real-time reactions from teachers across the state, including Dallas, Carrollton-Farmers Branch, and Allen.From students scheming to break open magnetic pouches to parents furious they can’t text their kids, this episode explores the cultural shockwave of unplugging Gen Z during school hours. The hosts share personal stories, teacher testimonies, and hilarious commentary on how teens are coping—or not.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The kids think that though, because uh, that is the
topic at hand here, M Yes, So I heard you
guys talk last week about going back to school and
the statewide self cell phone band at schools, and I stumbled.
I always just thumbed through Reddit and it, you know,
usually it puts up all the things I follow, but
(00:36):
sometimes it'll put random things that are topical when we're
hot on Reddit right now, And one of them was
the subreddit Texas Teachers, which I had never been to before,
and I was like, assuming Texas teachers is like just
like when a teacher does something naughty, you know, maybe
I thought it was like something like that. It wasn't. No,
it's actual legit discourse, not about teaching stuff, not a
(00:56):
porn site.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, it wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Because it's Reddit, it's not a porn side.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's also not said it Texas teachers. And the post
was about the self events. I clicked on that. That's interesting.
Here's what the first post was. I teach at high
school in Dallas, Texas, and these teens were not happy
about not being able to access their phones during school.
My school opted for the pouch and while my school
did a decent job of getting to all students. The
(01:22):
kids immediately were trying to break it open or scheming
to get a copy of the unlocked magnet. Most of
them were so distracted by not being able to use
their phone. I had to tell them to put their
pouch away. Here's hoping they give up soon and learn
that they don't need their phone. They just wanted That's
was the leading post. And then you have tons of comments. Yeah,
so I took some comments, but uh, are y' all
(01:45):
surprised by that though.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, my son didn't even want to go back to
school because of this. He was like, he what's a point?
He was like, it's gonna be worse. He's like, it's
going to be you know. He says, this is his perspective.
Obviously he wants his phone. That it's going to be.
It's going to cause more people to be class clowns
(02:07):
and act out because they're not pacified by having their phone.
And he said, when people have their phones, they're able
to just zombie out get into their phone, which creates
a kind of a better learning environment because people aren't
outwardly projecting and that energy is all funneling into that device.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, my kids were saying that kids are just
going to go out in the parking lot and miss class.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
This makes me so sad that they are so dependent, Like, obviously,
I have no idea. I didn't grow up like that,
and we went to classes without phones and it was
not a problem. And the fact that they are so
torn up about not having their phone is just really
really sad.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And also I assume makes the after school hours very unproductive,
like the two hours after school, like, oh my god,
I'm looking at it every notification I have today. Another
comment says, today I had to enforce the rule on
a kid that was trying to that her mom know
what time to pick her up after tryouts. I told
her she was welcome to use my phone to call home,
(03:05):
but that I would have to take hers document and
give it back at the end of class. I called
her mom, and the mom was pissed that I wasn't
letting her communicate with her daughter. I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah,
this couna take a few weeks to get used to.
I think it'll all end up being okay, though, I
truly do, but these first few weeks are going to
be rough. On teachers as well.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
I need to actually follow up with Dez and see
because all he didn't say anything about it. He said
his first week of school was good. But also you missed,
says Katie has telling Ben and Christina this Dez's schedule.
I mean he gets school like nine thirty and he's
home at one. I'm your rules, man, dude, any not
like that, not like that? Sure, but it was great. Yeah,
(03:49):
my son's the same.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
At a school, and I teach at school in Carrollton,
Farmer's Branch. I teach freshmen, and of course they were bummed.
But everyone complay. Our school has just under two thousand students,
but we only took up a little over twenty phones
on day one, just twenty. That's not bad.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
They took up phones, meaning people weren't. Does everybody have
an individual pouch?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, not every school has chosen to go they're oute
with the pouch. In fact, here's one two says I'm
glad we didn't do the pouches. The kids have to
have their phones in their backpack, often turned off and
zipped up. If they have it on their person, we
ask for it until the end of the day. If
they refuse, it becomes a disciplined deal and they go
to iss. Three issues so far, and no kid has
(04:33):
made a big deal about it. Some will test us,
we will deal with it and move on. I feel
like the pouches make it more distracting than it needs
to be, almost like you're taking this away from me.
At least, they kind of feel like it's on them,
even though it's not on them. If it's and you
might have to hey, man, put your phone up, you
may have to do that a few times.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Are they allowed to be on them in the hallways.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My understanding was no, but it might be different for
each school.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah. There was a lady that works in all in
high school that me and my wife were talking to
because we were running the stuff our kids told us
by her, and she was like no, no, no. She
was like, every school district is different on that.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
This one was interesting to me though I only had
to tell two kids to put their phones away. The
key is going to be the teacher staying on top
of it and the administration to come down on the
kids who won't comply. Otherwise, by midyear it will be
back to normal constant phone issues. That's what happened when
our school implemented a cell phone band last year. So
if you don't like because there's cool teachers, there's gonna
(05:31):
be cool teachers. Yeah, there's gonna be administrators who don't care.
Like that's every job, there are people who don't care.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
We'll stay on this. I'm sure there will be updates
as this thing goes on. Big story man, Thank you Tizzle.
At the top of the hour, we'll take a look
at the offense and cutting the cowboys. But coming up next,
the only segment all day, every day that we never
podcast it is the Today Game right here on the
Eagle
What's going on in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
The kids think that though, because uh, that is the
topic at hand here, M Yes, So I heard you
guys talk last week about going back to school and
the statewide self cell phone band at schools, and I stumbled.
I always just thumbed through Reddit and it, you know,
usually it puts up all the things I follow, but
(00:36):
sometimes it'll put random things that are topical when we're
hot on Reddit right now, And one of them was
the subreddit Texas Teachers, which I had never been to before,
and I was like, assuming Texas teachers is like just
like when a teacher does something naughty, you know, maybe
I thought it was like something like that. It wasn't. No,
it's actual legit discourse, not about teaching stuff, not a
(00:56):
porn site.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Yeah, it wasn't that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Because it's Reddit, it's not a porn side.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It's also not said it Texas teachers. And the post
was about the self events. I clicked on that. That's interesting.
Here's what the first post was. I teach at high
school in Dallas, Texas, and these teens were not happy
about not being able to access their phones during school.
My school opted for the pouch and while my school
did a decent job of getting to all students. The
(01:22):
kids immediately were trying to break it open or scheming
to get a copy of the unlocked magnet. Most of
them were so distracted by not being able to use
their phone. I had to tell them to put their
pouch away. Here's hoping they give up soon and learn
that they don't need their phone. They just wanted That's
was the leading post. And then you have tons of comments. Yeah,
so I took some comments, but uh, are y' all
(01:45):
surprised by that though.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, my son didn't even want to go back to
school because of this. He was like, he what's a point?
He was like, it's gonna be worse. He's like, it's
going to be you know. He says, this is his perspective.
Obviously he wants his phone. That it's going to be.
It's going to cause more people to be class clowns
(02:07):
and act out because they're not pacified by having their phone.
And he said, when people have their phones, they're able
to just zombie out get into their phone, which creates
a kind of a better learning environment because people aren't
outwardly projecting and that energy is all funneling into that device.
Speaker 5 (02:24):
Yeah, yeah, my kids were saying that kids are just
going to go out in the parking lot and miss class.
Speaker 4 (02:30):
This makes me so sad that they are so dependent, Like, obviously,
I have no idea. I didn't grow up like that,
and we went to classes without phones and it was
not a problem. And the fact that they are so
torn up about not having their phone is just really
really sad.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
And also I assume makes the after school hours very unproductive,
like the two hours after school, like, oh my god,
I'm looking at it every notification I have today. Another
comment says, today I had to enforce the rule on
a kid that was trying to that her mom know
what time to pick her up after tryouts. I told
her she was welcome to use my phone to call home,
(03:05):
but that I would have to take hers document and
give it back at the end of class. I called
her mom, and the mom was pissed that I wasn't
letting her communicate with her daughter. I mean, yeah, I mean, yeah,
this couna take a few weeks to get used to.
I think it'll all end up being okay, though, I
truly do, but these first few weeks are going to
be rough. On teachers as well.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
I need to actually follow up with Dez and see
because all he didn't say anything about it. He said
his first week of school was good. But also you missed,
says Katie has telling Ben and Christina this Dez's schedule.
I mean he gets school like nine thirty and he's
home at one. I'm your rules, man, dude, any not
like that, not like that? Sure, but it was great. Yeah,
(03:49):
my son's the same.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
I don't.
Speaker 5 (03:50):
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
At a school, and I teach at school in Carrollton,
Farmer's Branch. I teach freshmen, and of course they were bummed.
But everyone complay. Our school has just under two thousand students,
but we only took up a little over twenty phones
on day one, just twenty. That's not bad.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
They took up phones, meaning people weren't. Does everybody have
an individual pouch?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Well, not every school has chosen to go they're oute
with the pouch. In fact, here's one two says I'm
glad we didn't do the pouches. The kids have to
have their phones in their backpack, often turned off and
zipped up. If they have it on their person, we
ask for it until the end of the day. If
they refuse, it becomes a disciplined deal and they go
to iss. Three issues so far, and no kid has
(04:33):
made a big deal about it. Some will test us,
we will deal with it and move on. I feel
like the pouches make it more distracting than it needs
to be, almost like you're taking this away from me.
At least, they kind of feel like it's on them,
even though it's not on them. If it's and you
might have to hey, man, put your phone up, you
may have to do that a few times.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Are they allowed to be on them in the hallways.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
My understanding was no, but it might be different for
each school.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah. There was a lady that works in all in
high school that me and my wife were talking to
because we were running the stuff our kids told us
by her, and she was like no, no, no. She
was like, every school district is different on that.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
This one was interesting to me though I only had
to tell two kids to put their phones away. The
key is going to be the teacher staying on top
of it and the administration to come down on the
kids who won't comply. Otherwise, by midyear it will be
back to normal constant phone issues. That's what happened when
our school implemented a cell phone band last year. So
if you don't like because there's cool teachers, there's gonna
(05:31):
be cool teachers. Yeah, there's gonna be administrators who don't care.
Like that's every job, there are people who don't care.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
We'll stay on this. I'm sure there will be updates
as this thing goes on. Big story man, Thank you Tizzle.
At the top of the hour, we'll take a look
at the offense and cutting the cowboys. But coming up next,
the only segment all day, every day that we never
podcast it is the Today Game right here on the
Eagle
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