I don't need a smartphone and I don't want to be hit over the head for it in school or on the subway or bus.
Keep it in your pocket and just use a Bluetooth or wired headset. Even cheap crappy non-smart phones offer that function now so that doesn’t mark you as a target. Using a headset also doesn’t block your vision to one side like a handset does - which, by the way, NYC crooks are using as a cover to sneak up on you, hit you over the head and take your valuables *anyway* - cheap phone or smartphone.
Where I live, we don't have subways. I have vehicles, so I don't ride the bus (parking is occasionally hard to find, but never impossible). And they are welcome to any electronics I have with me--once the slide is locked back.
It sounds as though none of those options are available to you where you live.
Perhaps you should consider moving at your first opportunity.
Best of luck to you.