Principal Zachary Stowell surveyed the cafeteria at Seattle’s Robert Eagle Staff Middle School — and he liked what he saw.
While music blasted over the loudspeaker, middle schoolers bobbed up and down and flailed their arms side to side dancing. Students made eye contact and small talk at lunch tables. Many had their arms over each other’s shoulders, and some held hands. A few students in the corner pulled out books to read.
There wasn’t a phone in sight.
The middle school, which has about 700 students, bought neoprene gray bags called Yondr pouches for students this year to help implement a new ‘away for the day’ cellphone policy.
“This wouldn’t happen without the pouches,” Stowell said. “It turns back the clock. It allows kids to be kids.”
When students walk through the doors each morning, they place their phones in their pouches and tap the pouch to a locking station, which seals the pouch for the entire school day. It isn’t until they leave campus at the end of the day that they pass by the locking stations again and unlock their pouches, gaining access to their phones.
Washington state school Superintendent Chris Reykdal has asked districts to create a plan to restrict cellphone use in class by the start of the 2025-26 school year. Districts nationwide are implementing bans, and some states have passed laws banning students from using phones during instructional time.
Researchers say limiting phone use during school improves students’ mental health and academic success. Yondr pouches are one tool that schools use to restrict access. Stowell has noticed that students are more engaged in class and that discipline incidents have declined this fall.
Seattle’s Hamilton Middle School is also using Yondr pouches this year. Aki Kurose, another city middle school, will start using them in 2025.
Halfway across Lake Washington, Mercer Island High School and Islander Middle School also implemented the pouches this year.
The Aberdeen School District, which has used the pouches in its secondary schools for two years, initially started with all students sealing their phones in a Yondr pouch for the whole school day, but over time, its policy relaxed.
Students are expected to keep their phones away during class but aren’t required to put them in a pouch. If caught using their phones, they’ll be asked to seal them in a Yondr pouch.
“We wanted to find that flexibility for students so they have ownership over that decision (to keep the phone away),” said Co-Superintendent Lynn Green. “We found a way to still use the Yondr pouches but also trust our students to have responsibility for their own devices.”
In Oregon, the North Clackamas School District began using the pouches this fall across all its high schools, middle schools and charter schools, which have about 10,000 students.
Ryan Richardson, associate director of the district’s secondary and high school programs, reports fewer discipline incidents, including less vaping and alcohol use, because students can’t coordinate meetup spots on their phones during the school day. Robert Eagle Middle School and Mercer Island High School have seen a similar decrease in discipline incidents.
About half the students have found ways to bypass the Yondr pouches by placing a burner phone in the pouch instead, Richardson said. “But at the end of the day, they are also hiding their phones all day and keeping it off and away. It is not really about the pouch. The pouch is a clear indicator that we are serious about the policy.”
About 4,000 schools worldwide use Yondr pouches, which cost about $25 to $30 per student, including training and unlocking stations for the school.
For parents concerned about safety, teachers and administrators noted several options.
Policies vary by school, but for the most part, all classrooms have working phones. Students can get a pass down to the office to use a phone. Parents can email their children during school hours because students have their laptops. As a last resort, there are unlocking stations students can use with permission.
Socializing at school is different
Staff at all these schools say students are more focused during class because their phones are sealed in pouches. They also report spending less time resolving conflicts that have escalated in a group chat or on social media during the school day.
Students would feel too self-conscious and worried about another student taking their photos or recording video of them dancing and posting it on social media, said Stowell, the principal at Robert Eagle Staff Middle. The same goes for eating and going to the bathroom.
“The last two years, 70% of my job has been dealing with cellphones. It felt like whack-a-mole,” Stowell said. “And now that’s removed. Now I’m talking to teachers about their teaching, which is cool.”
Students said the pouches have reduced cyberbullying and made socializing at school less stressful.
“Last year there was so much drama and now it’s so much better,” said Adi Disharoon, 14, an eighth grader at the school. “I can just hang out with my friends and not worry that someone is taking a photo of me or saying something about me behind my back in a group chat.”
She laments not having her phone when she forgets her school laptop at home and needs to look something up online in class or when she finishes her work early and wants to listen to music. But other than that, she forgets about her phone.
“Yondr pouches are the best thing ever, akin to the zipper being invented or sliced bread,” said Kathy Saxon, an English language arts and journalism teacher at the school. “Kids are back to being kids.”
But not all teachers and students feel this way. Some question if the expensive purchase is worth it.
Ashwin Krishnaswamy, a senior at Mercer Island High School, said most of the students he knows don’t lock their phones in the pouch but just keep their pouch and phone in their backpack during the school day, including himself sometimes.
“It’s not that we necessarily want to use the phone during school or that we are pulling it out secretly,” Krishnaswamy said. “If we aren’t using it during school, why should we be forced to put our phone in a locked pouch? If there is an emergency, I want to have easy access to my phone.”
Nick Wold, the principal at Mercer Island High School, said it was a hard transition for students with a deep connection to their phones, but overall, the student body has adjusted. Since school started 10 weeks ago, there have been 211 infractions with cellphones. There are 1,400 students at the school.
Krishnaswamy agrees that pouches have been effective in getting students to stop using their phones, and he appreciates that there is more engagement in class, but he isn’t convinced that the pouches have changed everything.
“The reason people aren’t using their phone isn’t because of the pouch necessarily. It is because of the policy that now you go to detention if you get caught,” he said.
For some students, they just want to know how they’re getting home from school.
Sometimes Calvin Baughn, 12, a seventh grader at Robert Eagle Staff, forgets to confirm his after-school plans with his mother, and then his phone is locked away all day.
“That’s definitely on my mind throughout the whole day, but it usually works out OK,” Baughn said.
