I'm surprised to hear about so many school systems outright banning them, confiscating them on sight, etc... When I was in Jr. High, they didn't really bother you as long as they were quiet and you didn't pay too much attention to them. The connections are even a lot less demanding then the older ones I had, too, so I don't see why to ban them... *shrug*
Like it was said before, college is lenient with just about anything, although most teachers here can't stand it when a cell phone goes off. One of my teacher's policies was, if the cell phone goes off during a quiz, exam, etc, he would take your exam and tell you to leave, only grading the portion you completed. Good thing I don't have one, anyway.
Surprisingly, my boyfriend never owned or really saw Tamagotchis until I picked up two Connections last summer. They weren't really popular at his school in Nebraska. He loved it though, and we connected them so much I think the batteries died to early.
I used to be embarrassed to take them to class, etc, but the people that did see me wearing one and asked about it were really interested in them. "Wow, I remember those! Where did you find one?"