Many classroom conflicts come from unclear or unevenly applied rules. Decide your policies on attendance, devices, late work, and participation before the term, write them down, and explain the reason for each. A policy set in advance is easier to apply calmly than a judgment made in the heat of a moment.

Consistency is what students experience as fairness. Apply your stated policy the same way for everyone, while leaving room to handle genuine emergencies humanely. Students rarely argue with a rule they understood up front and saw applied evenly; they argue with surprises and with rules that seem to bend for some and not others.