But the 12-year-old's verdict on the restrictions -- a shrug of his shoulders -- reflects the skepticism shared by some students and parents.
Supporters believe restrictions will guard pupils from the apparent harms of smartphone use while at school, but opponents say the measures fail to prepare teenagers for the digital world they will inevitably enter.
Jones, speaking to AFP in a corridor lined with classrooms, said he hopes the ban will be gone by the time he starts eighth grade in September.
School principal Matthew Mough admitted that enforcing the ban -- and winning over students -- has proved challenging, though he said most follow the rules.
Mough said the phone ban has reduced classroom distractions, cyberbullying and instances of students meeting up to skip lessons.
Cell phone bans come alongside research suggesting that social media use increases the likelihood of mental illnesses like anxiety and depression in young people.
Around 76 percent of US public schools -- from liberal California to conservative Florida -- had some sort of ban on non-academic phone use, according to the latest Department of Education figures, with several state-wide measures also in place or under consideration.
“The biggest problem is that kids aren’t in a place developmentally where they’re able to handle the type of technology that we’re talking about,“ said Sabine Polak, co-founder of the Phone-Free Schools Movement, which backs full-scale phone bans.
“The answer is not to just ban and put our heads in the sand,“ said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, which represents over 1,000 parent organizations in the United States.
“It’s not effective, and frankly, it’s dumb,“ Rodrigues told AFP. “What we need to do is equip our kids with the information, with the skills and the strategies they’re going to need to navigate a digital future.”
His one complaint about his phone? “Nothing really, honestly, I mean besides the fact that it weighs a ton in my pocket.”
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