Teacher Reveals The Hilariously Familiar Way Kids Are Getting Around School Phone Bans

No matter what's being banned, or the reasons why it's being banned, kids will always find a way to access what they want.

What's funny is that teens in 2025 are now creating hacks to communicate with each other that will feel very nostalgic to Millennials.

Teacher and TikToker Valerie Elizabeth Dickinson started a TikTok video, already visibly chuckling, in which she explained that students were banned from using their phones on school grounds and what they were doing as a workaround.

Dickinson confided:

"In case you haven't heard, to get around the phone ban, a bunch of high school kids are creating a Google Doc with their friends that they all have real-time access to. And then they just type into it, like during class time."

"So they basically reinvented the AOL chat room."

You can watch the video here:

Using Google Docs with an internet connection in place and real-time access allows people to see who all is accessing a document at any given time, the position they are in within the document, and what they're writing.

This would be highly reminiscent of the notifications received in AOL chat rooms or on AIM when we were notified that someone was typing.

Some agreed with Dickinson that this was hilarious and wondered what else the students would try.

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

Others pointed out that students had already discovered this hack years ago.

The use of Google programs, like Google Docs and Google Sheets, became popular around 2010 in most high schools and colleges, so it makes sense that students would have quickly caught on to the alternative purpose.

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

@valerieelizabet/TikTok

It seemed that this was not news to the comments section of Dickinson's video, but it's undeniably hilarious the lengths that students will go to in order to stay connected to their friends throughout the school day. Also, it might even present a unique set of problem-solving skills that these students may have not developed otherwise.

Hopefully they are still focusing on their learning and getting their homework done, but if they're also able to stay in touch about the latest hot gossip, perhaps that should mean more power to them!