Yondr Go Cellphones In Schools?

Metropolitan Business Academy rising junior Bayan Albakkour thinks that Yondr cellphone pouches — a method for creating phone-free spaces that some New Haven schools are adopting — are a good idea to help students focus on class by hiding a key source of distraction.

Her best friend, meanwhile, remains unconvinced — and thinks these cases that lock away students’ phones for the day will only encourage students to rebel more.

That debate will play out this fall as three New Haven public schools experiment with stowing away phones after a pilot year at Barnard.

As New Haveners gear up for the school year to start back up again on Aug. 29, the Independent spoke with families and students at New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) annual back-to-school rally hosted at Bowen Field Thursday afternoon to hear their thoughts about ways to keep students off their phones and focused on class.

Several states, like Florida and Indiana and California, have already announced or adopted school cellphone bans. New York and Connecticut are currently considering the same.

In New Haven, Barnard School piloted use of Yondr pouches last year, according to NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon. He said the results gathered were promising, and that three more local public middle schools will be rolling out Yondr pilots this coming school year.

“We believe the idea of implementing cellphone free spaces will be beneficial to students’ social and emotional wellbeing,” he said. ​“Our idea had been to continue promoting their use in middle school, and to start conversations with the high school communities about the potential benefits” later on.

Harmon also pointed to Gov. Ned Lamont’s initial support for getting schools across the state to go cellphone free. ​“We are awaiting guidance from the Connecticut State Department of Education that could affect how we roll out the use of these pouches, and on what timetable.”

Before Albakkour joined a long line at the event to pick up a new backpack, she said she’s excited for the challenge of her junior year. She hopes the ​“fresh start” will provide new opportunities to dive deeper into the current law pathway she’s in at Metro.

One way Albakkour said she plans to keep up her rigorous work at school is by staying off her phone, which she typically keeps stored away in her book bag during the school day. This allows her to remain distraction-free as well as be a role model to her two younger siblings and ​“show them how I would like them to be.”

Albakkour said she has learned how to ​“separate my school world from my social media world” and that keeps her from using her phone during the school day.

Albakkour and her friend — who asked to remain anonymous in this article — agreed that cellphones are a real problem during the school day with students. Albakkour argued that it’s because ​“they want something that will motivate them” and ​“guarantee what they’re learning about is going to be useful.”

She thinks some solutions for getting students off their phones might be more lessons outdoors, and more that are focused on students’ interests, which she advised teachers to spend more time trying to understand.

Albakkour also supports an increase in the use of Yondr pouches — soft pouches that lock away students’ phones. Students can still keep their phones with them, but the pouches require a magnetic mechanism to open. Albakkour said that Metro uses Yondr pouches on a case-by-case basis for only students who have shown extreme attachment to their phones.

Her friend disagreed that Yondr pouches are helpful. She said they will just make students more sneaky and likely to rebel against a school system that doesn’t understand them.

Meanwhile, mother-of-two Sharkia Bookert said she would prefer it if her Elm City Prep eighth grader kept her phone on her, without it distracting her from school, because her daughter has to leave school early every Tuesday for other appointments. Bookert has to contact her daughter to let her know when she’s coming to pick her up; sometimes she has trouble reaching her daughter, so she often sets an alarm on her daughter’s phone so that she knows when she has to leave.

She said Yondr pouches could be effective if students are offered phone breaks during the day or are allowed to have their phones during lunch because ​“it is a distraction, but at least have them be able to check it.”

She also suggested teachers just collect phones in a bucket at the start of class and return them to students at the end.

Her second daughter, also at the charter school Elm City Prep, is heading to the second grade. She does not have a phone she brings to school ever.

Bookert said she’s already picked up her daughters’ required uniforms for this school year and so she spent the rest of Thursday’s event looking for needed school supplies like glue, erasers, crayons, pencils, and math composition books to start the year. ​“I’m trying to get what I can here now because rent is going to be due soon,” she said.

Eighth grader Kylie also said she’d rather keep her phone in her bag rather than in a bucket at the front of the classroom or in a Yondor pouch, because she’s afraid someone might steal it.

Twelve-year-old Alyssa Rose, a rising seventh grader at Worthington Hooker, agreed that phones are a huge issue for students. She said while she doesn’t enjoy the idea of Yondr pouches, she thinks it’s the best and only way to really get students off their phones.

Mother Melissa Barnett picked up supplies Thursday with her rising eighth grader Amelia Flood and fourth grader Amir, both at King/Robinson. The family bought a house and moved to New Haven from New York last September.

Amelia said phones are a huge distraction for her peers during the school day. She and her mother vouched for a phone bucket in classrooms for students to drop off their devices at the start of class.

Rising Amistad High senior Adona Blair, 17, said her school also uses Yondr pouches as of last year. She said she doesn’t think it’s the best approach because it sets the tone that schools don’t trust or believe in their students.

At Amistad, she said, all students’ phones are required to be put in Yondr pouches and checked by staff. They are then only unlocked at the end of the day.

She noted that the pouches have encouraged students to interact more in person and that her calculated screen time has dropped since the introduction of Yondr, but she thinks there should at least be phone breaks during lunch periods.

“It’s not the best approach,” she concluded.

Semira Estep is a rising second grader at Barnard Environmental Magnet School, which piloted Yondr pouches in New Haven schools.

“I think it’s great that they won’t be distracted by their phones,” said her godmother’s mother Felicia Scott. ​“They need to be focusing on their studies.”

While Semira already has limited screen time at home, Scott hopes the program will stick around through her daughter’s goddaughter’s middle school years.