Technology

Yes it's a thing in the US and has been around for many years. That said, culturally teacher respect has gone down during that time while gun usage/accessability has only gone up. So while you can ask/demand the student to participate or hand over their phone, there is no incentive nor authority to have them comply. And good luck getting their parent to care or even bother to listen to you or show up to a meeting. The US press has labeled teachers as indoctrinators, pedos, and lazy overpayed child care. The administration will throw you under the bus immediately to not deal with bad press regardless of what happened. Additionally you're paid worse than some much easier entry level jobs that pay more with much shorter hours. So it's not really that it's new or strange, but rather that the situation has changed and the current "just take the device" doesn't work as effectively as it once did.