Whenever I drive past the playing fields of my old school in Dunbar, I think of the weekend hockey matches I had to take part in as a teenager (left wing in the B team). In winter, snow compounded the misery of giving up a Saturday morning to a loathsome game. Watching my bare legs turn tartan was the high point of an otherwise grim endurance test, especially when playing Ross High School from Tranent. They made the inmates of St Trinian’s look like Buddhists.

One ordeal that my generation was spared, however, was the dread of a rogue camera following us into the changing rooms, as we dived into the hot showers, desperate to restart our circulation. Adding that into the mix would have felt like torture. Dunbar Grammar School, in East Lothian, has greatly expanded since I was there, more than doubling in size to around 1150 students. It doesn’t often make headlines, but an unusual parent revolt has recently raised its profile. In desperation at the trouble being caused by under-16s and their phones, more than 250 parents have signed an open letter to the teaching staff, pleading for mobiles to be banned entirely during the school day.

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At the moment, regulations allow their use during breaks and at lunchtime. This, say the parents, is not enough. According to one: “The crazy stuff goes on during break and lunchtimes.” The letter cites various worrying incidents, including “inappropriate filming of staff without their consent, “fear of students being filmed… in the changing room” and “videoing of arranged fights”.

I don’t remember much bullying in our classes, but arranged fights, between girls as well as boys, were a regular fixture. Although little serious harm was done, they were pretty sickening. Some things, clearly, have not changed. What has, however, is the advent of social media, which amplifies events in ways that can have a woeful effect on people’s mental well-being, not only on youngsters but on staff. The open letter talks of “increased incidents of bullying and cyber-bullying” and “lower attainment levels”. It asks the school’s leaders “to take an ambitious position and show leadership on this issue by removing ambiguity and simply no longer permitting the use of mobile phones during the school day”.

Easier said than done, you might think, although one or two independent schools, including Gordonstoun, have managed, and claim to have reaped the benefits. According to Gordonstoun’s Principal, who in 2018 instituted a new regime banning phone use during the school day, “Our campus suddenly became noisier. Students were engaging with each other in person: they were holding conversations, sharing jokes, catching up with each other, and doing so face to face, not via social media.” Whether the Dunbar parents’ letter produces the result they want, their outrage and alarm might just have started a valuable country-wide debate. No doubt about it, there needs to be a national conversation about the detrimental effects of phones on school students, and whether - and how - their influence can be curbed.

When I recently asked a friend how his goddaughter was getting on at university, he rolled his eyes: “Always on the phone”. It’s hard for that generation to understand how integral phones are to the young, stitched into almost every aspect of their lives in ways inconceivable to those of a venerable vintage. It’s also a little too easy to take the moral high ground and suggest that those of us who can go hours or days without looking at them are in some way intellectually superior. That’s simply not true. Increasingly, it will be those of us who are technologically inadequate and unable to access all our phones’ features who will be seen as the bozos.

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This is a long way of saying that, however much we might regret the distracting qualities of phones, they are here to stay. The issue is not turning back the clock, or belittling youngsters for being in their thrall. Rather, it is to find ways of keeping them under control in an environment where they could put others at risk. This will not be simple, and it certainly won’t be popular. Even so, there is surely an argument for phones to be deposited at the school entrance on arrival, and kept out of reach until the end of the day. Alternatively, why can’t parents or carers take their phones off them before they leave the house?

After all, whose responsibility is it to ensure that a student sticks to the regulations? As a spokesperson for Dunbar Grammar said: “We are clear with students and families about expectations regarding use of mobile devices in school.” Parents complain that the current guidelines are not being enforced, yet how firmly can teachers deal with a child in possession of a phone they do not want to relinquish?

The harrowing recent experience of a languages teacher at Hawick High School will have made many in the profession think twice about stepping in. Katherine Scouler was suspended last autumn, and was awaiting trial for allegedly assaulting a female student. It is thought she accidentally caught the pupil’s hair while trying to confiscate her phone. Earlier this year, just a few days before the trial, Scouler took her own life. This tragedy is testimony to the difficulties teachers can face trying to maintain discipline in the classroom and get on with their job.

Clearly, the escalation of bad behaviour concerning Dunbar parents is not unusual. Across the UK students are showing less respect for teachers and classmates. Many attribute this to the Covid lockdowns, during which some youngsters grew resistant to authority. As a result, discipline is widely becoming more of an issue, even at primary school age. One teacher I recently spoke to says her class of six-to-seven-year-olds is hard to handle, and she is counting the days until the summer holidays. This, before they are old enough to have phones they can use in inventively disruptive ways.

With things reaching crisis point in Dunbar, it seems likely that the staff will have to consider a stricter regime. This can only work, however, with full parental engagement, meaning parents helping to keep their children’s activities within bounds. The school’s motto, which was sewn onto our blazers, sums up the challenge ahead. Non sine pulvere palma: No reward without effort.