High School Spends Thousands of Dollars of Grant Money on Locking Up Student's Cell Phones For The Entire School Day

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Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Sep 21, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

I went to high school in the age of smartphones. When I entered the 9th grade, I entered with a purple slide phone in my backpack. After the first three weeks of school, it became abundantly clear that I needed to get an iPhone as soon as possible; not because of the social stigma of not having a smartphone, although that was definitely present. I needed one because my teachers constantly asked us to use our phones to complete necessary assignments. Virtually all of these assignments involved searching the internet, which I couldn't use on my phone. And so it came to pass sometime in September of 2014, I finally got my coveted iPhone 4 because I couldn't do my schoolwork without it. 

Long gone are the days when smartphones were viewed as convenient educational tools. Kids are more dependent on their phones than ever, and school districts are doing whatever it takes to get them off of their phones, including locking them up for the entire school day. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/mildlyinfuriating u/TommyTheLizard 13h reddit My school new anti phone policy ● ● Join
    via u/TommyTheLizard
  • 02
    Font - High School Awarded Grant to Implement Yondr Cell Phone Pouches Good Afternoon School Families, The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has awarded nearly $800,000 in grant funding to assist schools with student cell phone use. I am excited to report that High School is one of the schools chosen to receive this grant. As part of the grant, will be partnering with Yondr in leasing 1:1 assigned cell phone pouches for all students and staff. You may have heard of Y
    via u/TommyTheLizard
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    Font - How Does Yondr Work? When students enter the building, they will turn their phone/device off, place their device in the Yondr pouch, and lock the pouch using the Yondr magnet. Magnets will be located at the main entrance. Students will then carry their device with them throughout the day but will be unable to access the device until the device is unlocked at the end of the day or when students leave the building for an early dismissal. When Will Begin Using Yondr? We are hopeful to initia
    via u/TommyTheLizard
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    Font - Why Is Doing This? Since the advent of the smartphone in 2008, educators have been managing devices using several different strategies with mixed results. While the current policy of "out of sight" has been effective in limiting use during class time, we have heard from colleagues in other schools that Yondr has been even more effective. Yondr provides a tremendous teaching opportunity for our students. Let's face it, cell phones are not going to be banned in the adult world and Yondr off
    via u/TommyTheLizard
  • 05
    Font - This was just announced today and to no surprise everyone was pi. that this what there using the money on instead of hiring new teachers and giving them raises and now In case of an emergency I can't get immediate contact with family. One student at my school made a petition to reverse this with almost the entire school plus neighboring towns signing it but I doubt it will do anything.
    via u/TommyTheLizard
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    Font - Teacher-Investor • 10h I was so tired of being the cell phone police by the time I quit teaching. School districts always pass ridiculous policies, and then dump them on the teachers to enforce. One school where I taught once tried to ban cell phones completely. Students cut the centers of the pages out of books to hide a phone inside and sneak them into school in their backpacks, like they were sneaking a weapon into a prison. The parents want their kids to have them, so it's a losing ba
    via u/Teacher-Investor
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    Font - Medium-Parsnip-4238 • 5h Students will always find a way to have their phones. I worked at a middle school that used the yondr pouches. Took the students about two weeks into the school year to figure out how to break into them. After a month admin gave up and they sat in the office the rest of the year. Great use of funds ... 43k + д
    via u/Medium-Parsnip-4238
  • 08
    Rectangle - Wetworth 4h ● Why don't they just bring a second decoy phone? Just about everyone has a few old phones laying around. ... 1.3k
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    Font - Large Scholar_7450. 3h Considering the punches are just magnetically locked, I don't know why they think students won't just buy a magnet key for 10 bucks Imao. It's not like it's some hidden technology. They can probably even buy the actual brand ones for cheap. ... 403
    via u/Large Scholar_7450
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    Font - Prize-Nothing7946. 8h My school has a good idea. The 4g is terrible in that area, so they just turn off WiFi during class time then turn it on in break+lunch. Although I am in England to be fair, can see why in American schools you would want people to br able to call 999 2.5k
    via u/Prize-Nothing7946
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    Font - So PDXgrown 7h HS teacher here: I hate cell phones. 50% of my job is watching for them and having kids blow up on me for enforcing a ban on them in the classroom. That being said, this is just a waste of money. A magnet lock with teenagers is just as effective as those "childproof" locks you stick on the inside of your under-sink cabinet. ... Reply 3k
    via u/PDXgrown
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    Font - never_here5050 • 3h As a student during the age BEFORE smart phones, but had cell phones, it was logical and reasonable for a teacher to take phones away and c. If teacher said put it away, we mostly did. I don't get teens now... also the solution here is a joke 143
    via u/never_here5050
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    Font - uUexs1ySuujbWJEa • 2h There is no solution, unfortunately. We've made phones so fundamental to our existence that taking them away is viewed as a crime against humanity. But we've also made them so addictive that our attention spans are utterly destroyed. If we take them away from students, we're essentially cutting off a part of them and/or cutting them off from the wider world. If we left students keep them, we're effectively capitulating and accepting that education will be X% less eff
    via u/uUexs1ySuujbWJEa
  • 14
    Font - hroaks 13h ● Well that's a waste of 800k ... Reply 46k ↓
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  • 15
    Font - throatinmess • 10h 800k to reinvent the lock box ... 2.1k
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  • 16
    Font - DylanHate 9h It's not clear to me if $800K is for the entire program across the state, or if their district is getting all of it. It says Mass Dept of Education is providing "$800K to assist schools" [plural] and their high school is "one of the schools chosen". It goes on to mention there are 60 other districts across the state who are currently enrolled in this program. So I think the $800K is for the whole state program, not funding for one district... 133
    via u/DylanHate
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    Font - Elph Trooper. 13h What an irresponsible use of that money. My son's high school just makes the kids set their phones on a cart next to the teacher's desks when they walk in the room. Best thing they've done at that school in years. ... Reply 2k
    via u/ElphTrooper
  • 18
    Font - TommyTheLizard OP • 12h That's what my school does now yet they do this instead of fixing the bathrooms and water fountains, stop laying off teachers and install vape detectors ... 943
    via u/TommyTheLizard
  • 19
    Rectangle - Fictional Context • 10h Back in my day, the teachers would just give you detention. Seems cheaper, but who am I to stand in the way of progress? ... Reply 727
    via u/FictionalContext
  • 20
    Font - AHOY radicalizemebaby. 5h There are a lot of people in this thread who have no idea what it's like to be a teacher now. I've been teaching 11 years and it used to be that maybe once a week I'd see a kid sneaking their cell phone out during class. "Put it away" and it'd be gone. Now it's chaos. Kids cannot stay off their devices. We have a system for kids turning in their phones but they're still on their iPads and texting on their Apple Watches all day. A kid FaceTimed a friend in the mid
    via u/radicalizemebaby
  • 21
    Font - Zardicus13. 10h This was done at my kids' school. The main outcomes according to my kids were: Kids putting dummy phones in the Yonder pouches and using their phones in the toilets More fights in the schoolyard during recess and lunchtime The state we're in (NSW, Australia) is bringing in a ban on mobile phone use during school hours for all public schools next term. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Reply 664
    via u/Zardicus13

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