The implementation of Yondr phone pouches is arguably the most controversial policy that has been introduced at Grant High School in recent years. A year since its implementation, how has it held up?
Phone restrictions in schools are nothing new, but common methods used to enforce these policies, usually requiring students to keep phones in backpacks, lockers or caddies, have two main flaws. First, they leave the responsibility of policy enforcement to teachers. This creates what Grant graphic design teacher Anne Berten calls a “power struggle between the teacher and the student.”Second, they are difficult to enforce, as students can choose to pull out their phones before class ends. Grant English teacher Hannah Fisher says such policies are too dependent on teachers’ “ability to notice” when students break the rules.
Grant’s Yondr policy, requiring students to keep their phones tucked away in magnetically-locked pouches, was enacted to address these issues. The policy’s announcement in May 2024 sparked immediate backlash. “Initially I was pretty upset about the policy, mainly because I wanted to be able to use my phone at lunch and during the passing period,” writes Grant junior Calliope Walte. Other students were concerned about being unable to contact their parents during the day or in the event of a school emergency.
In the long run, Yondr’s implementation has ran relatively smoothly. Some discomforts ruminate, like planning where to meet friends for lunch without being able to text, but as students became accustomed to the policy, positive effects became noticeable. “There’s not time being wasted putting phones up and stuff, and teachers can spend more time teaching and less time nagging (or) reprimanding people for using their phones,” writes Walte. “I definitely feel like I can pay attention better and am more focused.”
Outside of the classroom, Yondr has also promoted face-to-face socialization between students. “Students are actually talking to each other,” Berten says. Fish-er has noticed this too. “It’s been really positive to see the social growth in students,that they’re spending more time talking to each other and building relationships,” she says.
A year later, the Yondr policy appears to be holding strong — for the most part. An issue students have begun to face is the limited dispersion of the Yondr un-locking carts, which are now solely located outside of the front entrance of the main building and inside certain classrooms in the art building. Because of this, some students have to walk out of their way to the front entrance of the school to unlock their phones at the end of the day. This minor inconvenience is heightened for students who must turn against the flow of students to get where they need to go. “It always stressed me out,” writes Grant sophomore Addy Oliver-Prasse, who rides the bus home. “They never had unlockers at any of the other exits, so I had to fight through the massive crowd and unlock my phone, then run to the stop to make the bus.”
Eliminating phones has not wholly removed classroom distractions; rather, Walte writes, it seems to have pushed the issue to district-supplied Chromebooks. “Many people just go on their computer in place of going on their phone,” she writes. Chromebooks have always offered distractions to students, but they are also directly tied to school curriculum. In practice, Chromebook moderation at Grant comes down to a few verbal warnings and remotely monitoring screens.
In its year and a half of operation, Yondr has had both successes and failures. From Berten’s perspective, the systematic support she receives in enforcing the policy keeps it strong. “It will continue to be good … as long as we have the support of the admin,” she says.
For some students, the repercussions of breaking the policy encourage compliance more than the pouches. “It works decently just because people don’t want a referral for having their phone in class, and I don’t think that will diminish,” Walte writes. “It’s not effective in the way they intended, but it is still increasing classroom productivity.”
Overall, Fisher supports reducing student phone use, even though she doesn’t feel strongly about the Yondr policy. “The Yondr pouch could come and go,” she says. “But as long as students are less engaged with their phone during school, like they have with the Yondr pouch policy, I’m all for it.”
