Ignoring for the moment the active jamming, it's interesting to consider otherwise how perspectives on cell phones have changed over time. When I was in high school (circa 1998), the administration would suspend students caught in possession of cell phones, and their phones would be confiscated. This policy was explicitly in the official student handbook, if I recall correctly. The argument that students needed the cell phones for "emergency" purposes was also deemed by the administration not to be credible.

When I was in high school (circa 2008), the policy was essentially the same. It was generally known at that point though that most students were hiding phones, but the rule was they were to be kept in your lockers during school hours.

>... but the district says Verizon chose not to prosecute him.

The federal government does that. He is just lucky that no one reported him. He can hope that he stays lucky and that no one from the FCC notices the media report(s).