So I am a high school Freshman, who has been really stressed out about my life (moms depressed, have to do everything myself) and my grades have been slipping… ( 68- Adv. Bio, 80- Art, 90 -Adv. English, 90 - Math 1, 75 - Spanish 3-4, 95 - PE). So earlier in the year in Advanced Bio, i was told on by a fellow classmate for using my phone on a test (about 1 and a half months earlier) now today I checked my phone to answer a text from my mom, and my teacher caught me with my phone and gave me a 0, a U in citizenship and a referral. My mom doesn’t know about it and I feel scared and guilty. Should I tell her? Or should I try to hide it, which I think I can but i dont know. (Ps 4 more days and I have 2 weeks off for break). Pls help, thanks.
Tell your mom.
Tell your mom the truth. That is always the best route to go. The sooner you tell her, the better. Don’t be afraid to tell your teachers about your situation, but also don’t blame anything on them; they are just there to guide you. Even if your mom grounds you, at least you have more time to study for AP Bio 
Tell. If you absolutely can’t, go and confide in your guidance counselor. She or he may help you break it to your mom and/or provide ideas. You could write your mom a note. Tell her how sorry you are and how you love her and don’t want to cause her grief. Promise to mend your ways and take steps to do that. If you talk to your guidence counselor that would be something you can tell her you did to try to start repairing the situation. As soon as she hears, she will want to take steps to improve the situation-and she will be so relieved to hear that you have actually already done that.
" today I checked my phone to answer a text from my mom, and my teacher caught me with my phone and gave me a 0, a U in citizenship and a referral". Tell your mom and ask her to please not text you in school. You are not meant to be texting people in school. She should know that.
Also, it sounds like you were not actually cheating on this occasion, even if you were violating rules on phone use. Did you show the teacher what you were actually doing? It seems unfair to accuse you of cheating. Perhaps if you hadn’t cheated before, your teacher would have been more understanding. Something to reflect upon.
Ah, memories … not my S (who is graduating in May), but me. I’m going to be a mom here - forgive me, @JayLamb360 - but it’s what I am. But I was also in your shoes in HS, and remember it pretty well. It wasn’t fun.
First - the one rule I have with my kid is that if he screws up, the consequences will be worse if I hear about it from the school or basically ANYONE else before I hear about it from him. I don’t intervene - I am not one of those parents who wants to spare my precious little one from the consequences of his actions 
- but he has to be honest with me. If he’s not, then things get bad quickly.
Tell your mom. But tell her honestly, and tell her why it happened, and tell her what you’ve learned from it and what you’re going to do to make sure it does NOT happen again. That probably means talking to a counselor, and if you’re worried about your mom’s reaction - either her being mad at you or even her depression, maybe talk to the counselor first. But talk to your mom, and tell her you want to be honest with her.
And then - work with her, or a teacher, or your counselor - and get the help you need. Counseling’s not bad, or tutoring. It’s an investment in your future. If you can get through this, you may have the workings of an essay for a college app in the future.
NOW - if you can demonstrate that at the moment you were stopped today, you were NOT cheating and you were answering a text from your mom, you may face a lighter penalty - but you have to build the reputation of being honest.
Good luck. You can turn this around, but it’ll start with telling the truth. Hiding it from your mom’s a bad plan, though.
Your mom should have known better than to text you while in school, if that is what happened, unless it was an emergency. Or is that the reason you are hesitant to tell your mom???
Yes, tell her. She’ll be angrier if she finds out you try to hide it.
Sorry this is off topic: But is this what average high schools are like? Students tell on each other for texting in class? College Confidential worries me as I prepare for college, I’m beginning to realize how below average my school is…
I think telling on a student who is cheating with their phone is perfectly acceptable … since cheating is just not acceptable.
And all phones have an off switch, why did you not turn this off ? If your mom is seriously ill or something, you could have walked up to the teacher, explained you had a text, and read it in front of her.
Although, again, a phone that is on during an exam … it sounds a bit like cheating already.
You need to become more responsible and take school seriously. Your mom and school and you need to have a serious talk. Cheating could keep you from the college of your choice and if you cheat in college, you can be expelled after spending years of your life and over $100K …
@newjerseygirl98 => high school is pretty serious stuff at a lot of schools and college is more serious. At minimum keep your nose completely clean, regardless of who is doing what - absolutely never use your phone during a test. If your school is really out of control with this, it seems you can go talk to a teacher and not even name names but say you are concerned, or the guidance office or others at the school.
Cheating is not fair to anyone and it is better to stop people doing it in 9th grade rather than during their masters program at Harvard.
@PickOne1 Most of my teachers actually allow us to use our phones at all times, including tests…I don’t cheat, but I’m sure this is how quite a few students are passing.
If they allow phones, then that is not cheating, it’s equivalent to an open book test. These can actually be harder than closed book, since being able to look up a few things doesn’t usually affect how you can solve problems (and if you are looking things up during a test, you will likely run out of time). The only issue would be if students are colluding during the exam or have their brother who is a physics major at MIT helping them real time.
But if phones are not allowed during a test and you use one … you are cheating. The test may have simple definition type questions that you could google or maybe you are not allowed to even use a calculator to demonstrate basic math skills or whatever.
The OP seemed to be outright cheating the first time, and either just confused or considering cheating the second time.