Over the past 10 years, phones have become ubiquitous in our lives. At schools, kids hide their phones under their desks instead of having conversations, and teachers struggle to get students to put them away during instructional time. It doesn’t have to be this way.
San Mateo High School is one of over 4,000 schools worldwide that use Yondr pouches to keep phones out of schools. When I visited the school in 2024, I spoke with administrators, teachers, and students about their phone policy. During their classes, passing periods, and breaks, I saw students engaging with their material and each other instead of phones—and I saw a future for M-A.
While some San Mateo teachers were hesitant to implement the policy, they all found that it transformed their school for the better. Students overall felt they could focus better and socialize more without their phones. Research supports that phones harm people’s focus and engagement in conversations, and students’ test scores.
Beginning in the 2025-26 school year, cell phone charts will be mandated during instructional time in all classrooms. While this is a step in the right direction, this policy only begins to address phone use during class time and fails to account for usage between periods.
M-A should be phone-free from the beginning to the end of the school day to improve student academic outcomes and social environment.
Currently, the student handbook states that students “must have electronic devices turned off and put away during class hours,” or face a referral, call home, or detention. In reality, M-A’s policy is rarely enforced. The more phones are out, the harder it becomes to enforce this teacher-dependent policy.
The phone chart system burdens teachers every period of the day and is harder to enforce than a phone-free campus, where students put their phones in a locked system throughout the school day.
Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Delaware have passed legislation in the past year that will require public schools to be phone-free the whole day. Governor Gavin Newsom passed A.B. 3216 in September 2024, which only requires schools to limit or prohibit phone use by July 2026. M-A should take the next step and go phone-free.
California’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, began using Yondr in the 2024-25 school year. “The implementation of phone-free campuses represents a proactive step toward fostering a focused, respectful, and academically enriching environment for all students. By minimizing distractions, we are prioritizing student well-being, encouraging deeper engagement in learning, and supporting the development of essential interpersonal skills that will serve our students well beyond the classroom,” LAUSD wrote in a statement.
“One of our goals at Yondr is to take the burden of phone management off teachers,” Yondr Account Executive Frenchie Huey said. “We want to eliminate the power struggles over cell phones in the classroom, so teachers can focus on teaching. Our team works closely with school administrators to make sure they have the right messaging, systems, and support in place to make that happen.”
At San Mateo, administrators visit classrooms to check students’ Yondr pouches throughout the school day, and teachers don’t spend time gathering phones or checking phone charts.
In addition to burdening teachers, the phone chart system completely disregards students’ experience during passing periods and breaks. By being phone-free throughout the school day, students would reengage with their academics and, more importantly, with each other.
An ineffective phone policy poses a collective action issue: if some students are on their phones from the beginning to the end of the school day, other students can’t engage with their peers, and some ultimately revert to their screens too. When I keep my phone in my backpack or a phone chart during class time, passing periods, and breaks, I struggle to connect with others who are absorbed in their devices.
“Implementing Yondr is not just about the pouch itself. It’s about changing the culture and norms around phone use in school,” Huey said. “We want this to be a positive change, rather than a negative or punitive policy.”
For Robert Eagle Staff Middle School in Seattle, Wash., going phone-free brought a dance party to the cafeteria. At M-A, administration, Leadership, and other student groups can work on creating more lively replacements for phones. We could have more events on the blacktop or Green, more games on fields, and more active clubs during the school day.
Nine M-A students participated in a phone-free pilot in January 2025, where they locked their phones in a safety box throughout the school day. “Usually, when I finish my work or have a bit of free time in a class, my first instinct is to grab my phone. That not being an option helped me prioritize my work,” junior Kealy Bryman said about participating in the pilot. Bryman, like students at San Mateo, found that having her phone locked away stopped her from “itching to have it back.”
“Being a part of the pilot helped me think about my general phone usage off campus as well, and the toll it takes on my being able to focus and not procrastinate,” Bryman added.
During the pilot, Bryman couldn’t communicate with her friends over text about where they would be at lunch, and when other students went on their phones, she couldn’t go on hers. If every student used Yondr on campus, however, these issues would be fixed.
Some students, parents, and teachers argue that high school is about learning self-discipline and independence, meaning school policy shouldn’t regulate phone use. While these skills are important, there are other ways schools teach them, like studying and attendance.
Phones should be removed from schools because it’s even harder for students to make the right choices and learn lessons with a device that’s designed to be addictive and distracting—and the leading cause of the rise in youth depression and anxiety. Yondr can encourage students to rethink their phone usage and take those lessons to their time outside of school.
“Yondr has made me realize that phones are a distraction in study environments. I don’t need my phone as much as I think I do,“ San Mateo freshman Jana Davies said.
Going phone-free isn’t a far-fetched utopia: it’s ready to be implemented at M-A. Newsom’s bill allocates funds to support schools with their new phone policies. The Yondr program will help administration improve parent-to-administration communication in the case of anything from doctor’s appointments to campus threats.
M-A should properly remove phones from our campus, not just create more distractions, arguments, and micromanaging through a pocket system. Most of all, kids deserve a break from their phones throughout the entire school day.
