2.5 Million American Students Now Required to Lock Their Cellphones in Magnetic Pouches (cbsnews.com)
- Reference: 0179054504
- News link: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/25/09/06/2223203/25-million-american-students-now-required-to-lock-their-cellphones-in-magnetic-pouches
- Source link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yondr-pouches-school-cell-phone-ban/
Nine years later those pouches (made by tech startup Yondr) are required for at least 2.5 million students in America, [2]reports CBS News , "and the company said the number could triple after the 2025 numbers are tallied in about three months... Students in [3]35 states , including [4]New York , [5]Florida , [6]Texas , [7]California , [8]Massachusetts and [9]Georgia , now contend with laws or rules limiting phones and other electronic devices in school."
For example, The Yonkers School District purchased about 11,000 pouches, according to the article, "to comply with the statewide mandate that [10]bans phones in classrooms ."
> The pouch, which students carry with them, is locked and unlocked using magnets affixed to the entrance of the school and outside the main office... ["Some students have reported long lines and disruption at their schools," the article notes later, "as they wait to open their pouches." But on the first day of school at Yonkers, one student said the lines actually went pretty smoothly, and they ended up having a live conversation with a friend during lunch and "felt human"...] Other students were not so enthralled by the pouch; some reported seeing classmates bypass the Yondr pouch by using their Apple watches, buying "burner" phones and putting them in the pouch, breaking the pouch and other tricks to get to their phones.
>
> [Yondr CEO Graham] Dugoni acknowledged that there will always be some students who can figure out how to get around the restrictions. The purpose of the pouches, he said, was to create a culture change in a school and create an environment conducive to their learning and development. More than 70% of high school teachers in the U.S. say cellphones are a major classroom distraction, [11]according to the Pew Research Center Center .
Yondr CEO Graham Dugoni uses a flip phone, the article points out, and says "Our whole perspective is that it's not taking something away from students, it's giving them something back."
He says his larger mission is to create chances for people "to experience life outside of a fully digital realm" — and that Yondr now has school partners in all 50 U.S. states, and in 45 different countries:
> The cost of buying the pouches — roughly $25-30 per student — has set off debates around how schools should be spending their limited budgets. It's a particular issue for districts struggling with crumbling infrastructure, limited textbooks and access to other technology needed to learn...Districts in various states have reported spending from $26,000 to [12]over $370,000 , with Cincinnati Schools [13]saying they spent $500,000 to provide pouches for students in grades 7-12.
[1] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/10/17/0653235/more-performers-are-demanding-audiences-lock-up-their-phones
[2] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/yondr-pouches-school-cell-phone-ban/
[3] https://apnews.com/article/schools-cellphone-bans-social-media-parents-d6464fbfdfae83189c752fe0c40fd060
[4] https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-state-public-school-cellphone-ban/
[5] https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/desantis-signs-bill-expanding-cellphone-restrictions-in-florida-schools/
[6] https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-school-cellphone-ban-psychologist-warns-of-withdrawal-effects/
[7] https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/gov-newsom-signs-legislation-aimed-at-limiting-cell-phone-use-in-california-schools/
[8] https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-ipswich-newburyport-cellphones-school-ban/
[9] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/georgia-school-district-positive-results-student-cellphone-ban-dekalb-county/
[10] https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/new-york-cellphone-school-ban-first-week/
[11] https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/06/12/72-percent-of-us-high-school-teachers-say-cellphone-distraction-is-a-major-problem-in-the-classroom/
[12] https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/district_wide_yondr_pouches_approved
[13] https://local12.com/news/local/cps-spent-501k-cell-phone-pouches-worth-it-district-releases-new-data-cincinnati-public-school-schools-yondr-pouches-policy-dewine-class-interactions-students-teachers-tech-technology-emergency-education-educate
Yondr's webcite (Score:1, Insightful)
Yondr's webcite is the most generic Squarespace-looking design I have seen in a while. Wew. They didn't even try to hide it.
Re:Yondr's webcite (Score:4, Interesting)
> Yondr's webcite is the most generic Squarespace-looking design I have seen in a while. Wew. They didn't even try to hide it.
Its a pouch designed to do one thing. Not a mystical Bag of Holding leaving us bewildered every time. I’d imagine the website needing to be about as complicated as one selling horoscopes. Or pet rocks.
Teenage smartphone junkies being forced to use a product, hardly requires a Wow factor at checkout. They’re already pissed about being “oppressed”. An amazing website isn’t going to make any “victim” feel better.
Do they search the kids? (Score:2)
Spare phones (perhaps an old one) and/or strong magnets seem like an easy workaround.
Re: (Score:3)
Let the teachers enforce it. 1st offense, take away the phone for the period. 2nd offense, call the parents, take away the phone. 3rd offense, kick them out. Teachers see it. Back them up!
Re: (Score:2)
This. Have we fallen so far as humans that we can't stay off the phone? Do students also bring snacks, smokes, have sex with other students, ... in class now too. Whatever happened to self control? Part of school is teaching children self control and how to behave in society.
Re: (Score:2)
Probably depends on the school. But good school in nice, aka expensive, neighborhoods not so much. Kids are not allowed to have phones during the day here either. If a kid is caught with one during the school day and it is powered on, it is confiscated and has to be picked up from the school by a parent. No pouch needed. It is the first school year with the rule in place. It will be interesting how it will pan out.
Re: (Score:2)
> Do students also bring snacks
Yes.
> smokes
Yes. Back when I was in middle school, the second the smokers set foot off school property they lit up. Nowadays, it's probably vapes too.
> have sex with other students
Hetero stuff was harder to get away with, but I'd heard rumors of some boys messing around with each other in the bathrooms. Granted, when you're talking about teenagers it has just as much likelihood as being bullshit as it does being true.
> Part of school is teaching children self control and how to behave in society.
And in adult society you're allowed to use your phone, provided you do so in a responsible manner. Locking it up in a plastic
Re:Do they search the kids? (Score:4, Insightful)
> Spare phones (perhaps an old one) and/or strong magnets seem like an easy workaround.
A teenager being seen with an “old” phone, is probably more embarrassing than having no phone.
Narcissism is a helluva drug.
Re: (Score:3)
> A teenager being seen with an “old” phone, is probably more embarrassing than having no phone.
In the land of the phoneless, the old-phoned student is king!
Re: (Score:2)
Put the old phone in pouch. Duh!!!
We won't have a society anymore.. (Score:4, Interesting)
If teachers can not teach. Phones are just noise. There is an objective History that can be taught, an objective Biology that can be taught. Etc... Phones and by extension social media disrupts all of that by the nutcases and foreign trolls. Children are there to learn objective facts, and not BS. The facts should come down from, and approved, by the PHD's, the ones who are the most expert, and recognized in their field.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
> If you are a student, respect for your opinion, and I don't want to force my opinion on you. Personally I think we should have some common sense gun control, like limit the number of bullets that a gun can fire in a second, or be purchased in a time frame.
You do realize that the US is the only nation in the nominally-free, nominally-first world wherein students are put through active-shooter drills alongside the fire drills that all of us have, right?
Maybe "limit the number of guns available to the general population" instead? I get the whole "muh freedumbs" thing; but it didn't stop the States from being taken over in what was effectively a Thiel-led Fascist coup in the guise of an election.
Re: (Score:2)
> You do realize that the US is the only nation in the nominally-free, nominally-first world wherein students are put through active-shooter drills alongside the fire drills that all of us have, right?
Why call them "school shooting drills" other than to promote anti-gun bullshit? As if only people armed with guns would harm the students.
I recall watching some YouTube video with Buffalo police detective Rich Hy (known as Angry Cop as a kind of character he plays on his YouTube channel) where he was talking about the sad state of child safety in Buffalo public schools. Part of that conversation was the drills put in place to keep the children safe. I might be missing the names of the three drills and wh
Re: (Score:1)
End the school drills then. Don't bitch about them. The pro-gun lobby wants to post wall of words crap about mass shootings. They don't solve any problems. They want to sell guns. They say that it really didn't happen (sandy hook). That is really outrageous! As Gump said: "Stupid is as Stupid Does". The pro gun people are more retarded.
Re: (Score:2)
> Why call them "school shooting drills" other than to promote anti-gun bullshit?
The same reason they call a "fire drill" a "fire drill". You drill for what is most likely to happen. I could list a dozen different reasons you'd want to get the kids out of the building as soon as possible. The most common of them would be a fire. Is calling an "evacuation drill" a "fire drill" just more "anti-fire bullshit", or just calling something what it makes sense to call it? The number one reason you'd lock down a classroom and barricade the door is because of an active shooter, period. I'm not
Re: (Score:2)
>>> If you are a student, respect for your opinion, and I don't want to force my opinion on you. Personally I think we should have some common sense gun control, like limit the number of bullets that a gun can fire in a second, or be purchased in a time frame.
>> You do realize that the US is the only nation in the nominally-free, nominally-first world wherein students are put through active-shooter drills alongside the fire drills that all of us have, right?
>> Maybe "limit the number of guns available to the general population" instead? I get the whole "muh freedumbs" thing; but it didn't stop the States from being taken over in what was effectively a Thiel-led Fascist coup in the guise of an election.
> The democrats ran the election...try another explanation.
I don't need "another" explanation, just a more complete one. It involves - among many other factors - the role of big money, 'dark money', and PACs in US elections. It also involves the abuse of Jim Crow-era laws - which should never have been on the books in the first place, never mind being allowed to stand in this day and age - to suppress a HUGE number of votes: [1]https://truthout.org/articles/... [truthout.org]
Trump didn't win honestly, he won partly by fuckery, partly because there was more money behind him, and par
[1] https://truthout.org/articles/pro-trump-activists-are-using-jim-crow-era-laws-to-disenfranchise-voters/
Day dream believer (Score:1)
Oh what can I say. Kids get a fun challenge to overcome suppression. Mobile phones can aid learning as well as distract. Cheating on tests though is not good for assessment process and grades help some with college enrollment. Day dreaming can be constructive. Reduce stress , stimulate creativity etc
Re:We won't have a society anymore.. (Score:4, Funny)
Do you really live in fear every day?
Re:We won't have a society anymore.. (Score:4, Interesting)
> Maybe we should lock up some of the guns in steel pouches?
That's generally a much better solution.
Re:We won't have a society anymore.. (Score:5, Insightful)
> It would sure suck to be fucked off in some nutcase's mass shooting with no access to my phone to report out or tell my mother I love her one last time.
You are arguing that you should be able to have your phone so that in the case of a school shooting, during the last few seconds to minutes of your life you can feel better because you can call your mom? A quick search puts the chances of dying in a school shooting at about 1 in 5 million per year. Let’s say you are the unlucky one but do get a whole 10 minutes between the time you use your phone to call mom and when you die. The statistically expected outcome duration of a "better life" would be 0.00144 seconds (10 minutes times 60 seconds times 12 years of school divided by 5 million). I would argue that in the way more probable case that you don’t die in a school shooting, having your phone locked away will make the remaining length of your life better (due to a better education) for something like 60 years (life expectancy minus time in school fretting about no phone times nearly 100% probability). Expected time of a better remaining life is about 14 order magnitude longer with the phone being locked away. Even if you are the unlucky one that gets shot, you could have been telling your mother you love her every morning when you leave home – reducing the need for that "last call".
I am personally not that crass in real life and of course being a bit facetious, but since you have a six digit slashdot ID, you are not a kid in school and are making up a scenario. It’s the tired "think of the children" argument. I am countering with what would in the big picture be statistically “better for the children” with specific respect to cellphone access in school.
School gun (and other forms of school) violence do need to be addressed and the cloud of its possibility do weigh on children – even those who never see a shooting. It’s a serious issue. Let’s not dilute the issue by suggesting that cell phone access is some sort of compensating factor.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
If the thoughts of a school shooting concerns you then I have a few ideas to reduce those fears.
First, lock the doors. This isn't foolproof, perhaps not bulletproof either unless going to great expense. It will buy time to alert police.
Second, buy a sign like this: [1]https://www.safetysign.com/pro... [safetysign.com]
Third, put some meaning behind that sign by actually having armed personnel at the schools. This likely doesn't even have to cost extra money, simply have it so parents can volunteer to be armed guards. If the
[1] https://www.safetysign.com/products/20250/school-is-protected-by-armed-personnel-sign
Re: (Score:1)
> Second, buy a sign like this: [1]https://www.safetysign.com/pro [safetysign.com]... [safetysign.com]
"This school is protected by armed personnel" is supposed to deter a shooter who is planning to kill people, and then ... leave alive? Or leave without being identified? School shooters aren't coming in to rob a bank.
[1] https://www.safetysign.com/pro
Re: (Score:1)
The asshole that shot up a movie theater showing some Batman movie had to drive past at least one closer movie theater to get to his "target audience". Why? He told people why. It was because the other theater had a sign that people could be armed inside. That's no "fun" if the "target audience" can shoot back, that means a lower hit rate would be expected. He was able to leave alive.
If there's nobody armed in or near the school then why would they not expect to leave alive?
If there are armed people in
Re: (Score:2)
Off the top of my head, one difference was automatic weapons were not common. Armor piercing bullets were not common. I'm not positive they were available outside the military. A rifle does not mow down people at the rate of several per second. A machine gun yes.
Re: (Score:2)
> an objective Biology that can be taught
We used to have objective biology. It appears to be coming back though.
Re: (Score:1)
MAGAs don't seem to know how biology works, nor vaccines. They don't understand studies, nor efficacy. Chinese and Russian trolls sew doubt, and MAGAs eat it up, so it seems to me. All in the goal of screwing up America, and I give it to them, it worked.
Should have been banned years ago (Score:5, Interesting)
The most elite private high schools in the USA banned cell phones over 10 years ago. The difference between those schools and the public ones was very obvious. Kids were playing more and having longer conversations. Maybe we didn't notice because the phones came in slowly? Economically the rich kids already had an advantage, taking away the cell phones further gave them an advantage in social skills and attention span.
Re: (Score:2)
> The most elite private high schools in the USA banned cell phones over 10 years ago. The difference between those schools and the public ones was very obvious. Kids were playing more and having longer conversations. Maybe we didn't notice because the phones came in slowly? Economically the rich kids already had an advantage, taking away the cell phones further gave them an advantage in social skills and attention span.
Huh. You would think society would have seen some of these rich intelligent kids grow into responsible adults championing the benefits of limited smartphone use.
Instead, we find the end result of this creating the worlds worst narcissists online. Attention whores banking big on attention whoring.
If I’m wrong, prove it. I’d love to be wrong. For the sake of all.
Re: (Score:2)
They also have guaranteed 5 figure jobs no matter how incompetent they are. If they screw that up, they can always become useless eaters just watching their portfolio grow. I don't really give that much credence to a Rich Persons "education". What do they learn? That they are owners, and everybody else are their workers? Trump went to an elite school, and look at how stupid he is.
Re: (Score:2)
I've never seen it studied, but one possible advantage of the wealthy going to elite schools is they get to interact with the "bright" average wealth kids that broke thru. Those bright kids now get to be the ones that actually run things for the family biz of the wealthy.
Re: (Score:2)
I find very, very few "rich kids" that impressed me. They mostly seem to turn out to be psychopaths who would be in a nut house if they were poor.
Re: (Score:2)
Rich people as tend to watch the least tv. It’s almost if all these screens are designed to keep the poor and working class distracted so the rich can enjoy the actual good things in life with less competition.
Oooh, flip phone (Score:2)
> "Yondr CEO Graham Dugoni uses a flip phone, the article points out"
So? I just read that as a person who has zero self-control. I have a full-featured smartphone with me almost everywhere when not at home (where it sits on the desk with a charger). I have maybe one notification during the workday, or less. At lunch I might play a game for 15 minutes if sitting alone. You don't have to use a "flip phone" to accomplish that:
1) You don't have to install social media apps, or log into them.
2) You have c
Unlocked using magnets (Score:2)
Thank goodness magnets are not a technology [1]that children have mastered [twistedsifter.com].
[1] https://twistedsifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/icp-insane-clown-posse-magnets-how-do-they-work.jpg
Because the company bribed people (Score:1)
You can bet your ass this is because the company in question bribed somebody. It really doesn't take much just a few thousand dollars here and there for a local school council and you can make a small fortune.
You would be amazed how corrupt local politics is.
You're not going to be a billionaire of course but you can make a really good living off it. I remember back in the day a story of somebody getting himself on the local school board and then appointing his friends and family to various positions
Re: (Score:1)
yes, but I think MAGAs are the biggest violators of this. Glass houses and all... but Trump is corrupt as hell.
Cost (Score:1)
It certainly seems like the student should either pay the cost of the pouch, or leave their phone at home.
Of course, how they enforce someone using the pouch is a different issue. Are they strip searching everyone or what?
Re: (Score:1)
Most schools nowadays have metal detectors at the entrances. A smartphone will trigger a metal detector 99% of the time.
Re: (Score:2)
> Most schools nowadays have metal detectors at the entrances.
And here I thought it felt dystopian just having to go through security once in a while when going to the theme parks, a concert, or to the airport, but every fucking school day? No wonder today's kids are so messed up.
Surely they can figure it out. (Score:3)
The cost of buying the pouches â" roughly $25-30 per student â" has set off debates around how schools should be spending their limited budgets.
Just make the students pay for the pouches. If they can afford a phone, they can afford the pouch. They don't want to pay, fine, they can leave their phone at home or have it confiscated.
My sons have to use this (Score:2)
They call it the âoecanâ(TM)t call my parents to tell them I love them during a school shooting pouchâ. Heh itâ(TM)s pretty funny and a perfect protest.
Dave Chappelle is stealing from public schools. (Score:2)
Dave Chappelle is stealing from public schools. 2.5 million students. $25 each. That's almost $62 million in public funds being diverted from schools to a product that doesn't work and has no educational value.
This is pure blackhat villainy.
BTW I work in entertainment and these things literally don't work. Anyone who cares enough will simply buy a secondary device and offer that up to the Yondr'er. And beyond that, they lose strength over time and can simply be cut open with a scissor or pulled apart. Thi
Re:I'll take my phone (Score:5, Funny)
> Yes, because you're an adult.
He does not sound like an adult, actually.
Breaking the pouch? (Re:I'll take my phone) (Score:1)
> Kids are required by law to attend school, and have no choice about these phone rules.
Is this a rule on all schools? I have doubts this applies to private schools. If it does then that leaves home schooling where I doubt phones in the classroom were ever a problem to begin with.
I'm a bit astonished the lengths the students went to on getting access back to their phones. Breaking the pouch looks like addictive behavior to me. Putting a "burner" phone in the pouch, using an Apple Watch, and other tactics could be more like kids looking for ways to cheat the system than going so batty for t
Re: (Score:2)
> Putting a "burner" phone in the pouch, using an Apple Watch, and other tactics could be more like kids looking for ways to cheat the system than going so batty for their phone as to break the pouch and then be responsible for the cost of replacement.
Good on them learning early how to best work around the government. That in itself is probably more analytical skill than they will learn in the classroom anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Simplest way I thought of was to simply buy or obtain your own magnet to unlock it.
Disassembling an old spinning disk hard drive should give one powerful enough to do it.
Re: (Score:2)
Incorrect. They are requred by law to be educated, but it does not require them to do so in a school, either parochial, public or otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
I stuck my phone in your mom's pouch.