Special treatment? Maybe you are assuming that this has something to do with the parent’s money. There could be a legitimate reason that this child was allowed to keep his cellphone, and in the example above, he was not using the phone – he received an unsolicited call.
Another story, my daughter was called by the school about her 5 year old son, who was seen hitting a classmate. Explanation – one of the other boys had hit him first. So why did he hit this child, who had not hit him? Because his parents had warned him that he is not to get in a fight with anyone smaller than him, so he picked on one of the bigger boys instead.