Five years into a policy prohibiting cellphone use during school hours, San Mateo High School’s students are focusing better and socializing more.
“In the morning before class, kids are on their phones. Then, at lunch, it looks like a ‘90s movie,” English teacher Dave Pirie said. “People are talking to each other, sitting in circles, and even playing spike ball. It’s just nice to see kids enjoying each other’s company.”
Leia Asanuma, who used to work at M-A, has been teaching at San Mateo since 2021. Teaching with San Mateo’s phone policy is a “world of difference,” she said. She’s observed fewer interpersonal conflicts and finds students are more engaged in class.
“I don’t have to fight with kids about using their phones in class or worry about phones falling out of their pockets. The focus is on learning,” she said.
San Mateo uses Yondr pouches, which have magnetic locks. Students lock up their devices—including smartwatches—at the start of school, and teachers and staff have magnets to unlock them at the end of the day. In the same way students are expected to have a pencil and personal computer, a Yondr pouch is a necessary school material at San Mateo.
Campus culture: “You actually see their faces”
“We have a lot of noise during lunchtime because students are interacting with each other. The halls are a lot more boisterous,” Asanuma said.
“I don’t think they like Yondr, but I don’t think kids like homework that much either,” Pirie said. “It’s a rule, and teachers love it, and overall it’s better for the academic and social atmosphere.”
Teachers and staff have found that students are more involved in activities and socialize with peers more with the implementation of Yondr. “I think it’s a relief for them to not be so wrapped up in their cellphones at school. They feel better and safer interacting with their peers and joining sports and clubs,” Assistant Principal Gary Hong said.
“Students can play games or watch videos on their Chromebooks, but I think the time spent scrolling through DMs and looking at Snapchat and Instagram is cut down significantly while they’re on campus,” Principal Yvonne Shiu said. “They talk to each other instead.”
Junior Travis Okimura started using Yondr during his freshman year at San Mateo. “At first, I thought it was bad because I had to put my phone away, and before high school, I used my phone every day,” he said.
Over time, Okimura started to enjoy phone-free school days. “I got to connect better with my friends and peers,” he said. “I would like to be allowed to use my phone at brunch and then Yondr back up because sometimes you just need to check to see if you have any messages.”
Other students opposed the policy entirely. “I feel like we should be allowed to use our phones because, for some people, it’s another form of socializing,” junior Katrina Capeta said.
Junior Gabby Xiao transferred to Aragon High School from San Mateo this year. She said San Mateo’s phone policy played a large part in her decision.
“When I found out about Yondr, I thought it was really dramatic and honestly really weird. It just seemed like we didn’t need it, and they made a big deal about nothing,” Xiao said.
Xiao shared mixed feelings about the policy. “I guess not having my phone during classes made me focus more, like I didn’t have any distractions, so I understand that,” Xiao said. “But there were times during lunch or rallies when I wanted to take photos of my friends and record my high school experience and I couldn’t. I would see a lot of my friends at other schools post fun stuff and I was like, ‘I can’t show you anything because my phone was locked.’”
“I got kind of annoyed because sometimes my parents wouldn’t get it and be like, ‘Why don’t you get my texts?’ and I’m like, ‘I literally can’t see my phone,’ so I feel like that just ruined my life sometimes,” Xiao added.
“During in-school events like Halloween, spirit week, or grade level competitions, administration issues an exception for students to un-Yondr at lunch and take pictures,” Asanuma said.
Shiu noted some students now bring digital or film cameras to take pictures at school.
In the classroom: “That glowing screen is not calling your name”
“It’s hard for students to realize the benefits of paying attention in class in the moment. They’re like, ‘We miss out on everything.’ But what are you really missing?” Shiu said.
Teachers have found that students are more engaged in class with Yondr. “Before Yondr, even in a focused class, the norm was that everybody would put their phone on their desk and look at it a few times throughout class,” Pirie said. “Yondr allows me to spend the time and energy telling kids to put their phones away on teaching.”
“When you have your phone out on your desk, it’s so much easier to reach for it and get sucked in. When it’s in your backpack, that glowing screen is not calling your name,” Asanuma said.
Asanuma acknowledged some students find distractions on computers, but “it’s definitely a lot less fun than being on your phone.”
Students agreed that while computers can be distracting, using Yondr has improved their overall focus in class.
“Yondr helps me focus more in class, but, at the same time, I still think about my phone,” Capeta said. Capeta, however, does not feel distracted by her computer in class.
Despite improved focus levels and noted decreases in academic integrity cases, students shared they sometimes wish for more agency. “I think Yondr is really unnecessary because I’m pretty sure students are capable of staying off their phones,” Capeta said.
“I feel like as highschoolers, they should trust us, and they’re kind of treating us like babies,” Xiao said.
Teachers are no longer the “keeper of the phone”
Since students keep their Yondr pouches in their backpacks all day, teachers don’t have to worry about storing devices—and students don’t resent them for it. “It’s been a relief for all of us teachers to have students keep their phones and be responsible for them,” Asanuma said. “I’m not the ‘keeper of the phone’ now, so it keeps relationships in the classroom more positive.”
“I think there is a sense of safety for students that their phones aren’t being taken or put away in a caddy,” Shiu said. “Yondr moved the responsibility onto the student.”
Some students prefer the opposite. “If a teacher doesn’t want students on their phones, then they could just collect their phones on their own. I think Yondr is useless,” Capeta said.
After the bell
Although San Mateo might look like a ‘90s movie at lunch, it travels back to the present when the last bell rings.
“Everybody is bumping into each other because they’re heads down on their phones,” Asanuma said. “Perhaps the urge is just staved off. People are very eager to be back on their phones.”
Most students interviewed agreed. “Since I’m not allowed to use my phone as much in school, it makes me want to go on my phone more after to see everything,” Capeta said.
Some students have realized they weren’t missing much. “At the end of the school day, students see, “Oh, I have 100 notifications, but a lot of them are not really that important,” Shiu said.
“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,“ freshman Jana Davies said.
Making it happen
San Mateo conducted a pilot in 2018 where 13 teachers volunteered to use Yondr pouches in their classrooms. “The teachers reported back to the whole faculty about not having all the interruptions or constantly asking students, ‘Please put your cellphone away,’” Shiu said.
In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 272 into law, explicitly authorizing school districts to regulate phone use during school hours. That same year, San Mateo administrators and staff discussed implementing the phone-free policy with parents at town hall events.
“We answered a lot of questions about student safety,” Shiu said. “Ultimately, in an emergency, students need to be able to listen to the adult giving directions instead of texting and not paying attention to what’s happening. Once everyone is safe, teachers can un-Yondr, and students can communicate with their parents.”
In case of drills and emergencies, San Mateo’s administration communicates extensively with parents through emails and phone calls.
Asanuma believes students are more aware of their surroundings now, which improves campus safety.
“Life existed before phones,” Shiu added. “Parents can drop things off for their students, and we can send a pass instead of parents texting them and disrupting class.”
With money raised by their Parent-Teacher Organization and Foundation, San Mateo implemented Yondr campus-wide in the fall of 2019. The school continues to provide students with a new Yondr pouch each school year.
“During the initial pilot, I would have described myself as ambivalent. Phones were annoying, but I didn’t really see it as something that required a school-wide action,” Pirie said.
After the policy’s implementation, Pirie found his classroom changed for the better. “My ambivalence was proven wrong. I think it was so worth the investment of time to get Yondr,” he said.
How does the policy work?
When Hong became an assistant principal in 2022, he implemented a system for random classroom checks, asking students to prove their phone—and not a calculator or burner phone—is inside the pouch. Hong also developed three cards that students can show staff for exceptions: a “No Phone on Campus” card, a “Consideration” card, and a “Cell Phone Confiscation” card.
The “No Phone on Campus” and “Consideration” cards have custom expiration dates to fit students’ needs. The “Consideration” card allows students to open their pouch for an approved reason, like a diabetic student checking their blood sugar with an app. Students who forget their Yondr pouch can give their phones to the office without consequence.
If students are caught violating the policy by, for example, putting a different object in the Yondr or using their phone without permission, they receive a warning and subsequent detentions. Those students receive a “Cell Phone Confiscation” card for the day.
“Pretty much any student can un-Yondr at any time,” Shiu said. “They come to the office and say, ‘Hey, can I please call my mom?’ They make the phone call, Yondr back up, and go back to class.”
Starting Yondr young
San Mateo’s main feeder district, San Mateo-Foster City Elementary, implemented Yondr in 2022, so students now come to San Mateo accustomed to the pouches. “It’s a better adjustment when the middle schools also have Yondr,” Hong said.
Davies, who got a phone in eighth grade, likes Yondr and understands why schools are implementing it. “I feel like I can talk to and connect with my friends more, rather than be on my phone,” she said.
The future of phone policies in California
A.B. 3216, signed by Newsom on Sept. 23, 2024, requires all California public school districts to develop a policy limiting or prohibiting cellphone use at school by July 1, 2026, and will reimburse district spending on the policy’s implementation. The bill cites international data on improved academic performance and test scores at schools with phone bans.
Currently, San Mateo is the only school out of 10 in the San Mateo Union High School District using Yondr. “I’m not sure Yondr would work at other schools. We all have our own personalities,” Shiu said.
“As an administration, a lot of our time is spent supporting our teachers with Yondr so they can do their jobs without interruption,” Shiu added.
M-A’s current policy states teachers should call home every time a student has their phone out during class time. However, this is rarely enforced, and students often use phones in class.
“If I [called home] every time I saw a phone, I would do nothing else,” M-A Precalculus teacher Arminda King told the M-A Chronicle.
This year, 11 freshman teachers at M-A are testing a stronger policy. In their classrooms, attendance is taken through phone pockets to ensure all students put their phones away.
So far, the results are similar to San Mateo’s: students are focusing and interacting with peers more. “They’re getting further through assignments, and I feel like what I’m hearing in class is more complex and nuanced,” M-A freshman English teacher Erin Walsh told the Chronicle.
While teachers have individual policies, none extend past the classroom, meaning students use their phones during passing periods, brunch, lunch, and even in the bathroom.
“I encourage other schools to be on board sooner rather than later because it really helps the overall development of our students,” Hong said. “It’s hard to stop technology from advancing, but I think there’s a time and place. As students grow up, it’s important for them to understand there’s more to life than being on their phone.”
