In September of 2024, the Yondr pouch policy was implemented throughout the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) district and the gray and green pouches flooded the halls. 

After a quarter of independent school decisions, where WHHS teachers could develop their own class rules regarding cell phone usage, Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) instituted a phone ban that required students to lock their phones during the school day. A year later, Yondr has become a ubiquitous part of school routines in public schools throughout Cincinnati. 

Numerous schools across the nation have adopted similar phone policies in recent years, aiming to curb distractions to learning. Schools in at least 41 states have adopted the use of these pouches, netting the small California startup a tenfold increase in sales since 2021, from $174,000 to $2.13 million.

The initiative for stricter phone control in Ohio was spurred when Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill requiring primary and secondary schools to create independent phone policies in May 2024. Before the 2024-25 school year had even started, CPS had already begun arranging how to implement Yondr pouches across the district. 

CPS purchased the pouches with an estimated $500,000 in Title IV funding, which the U.S. Department of Education distributes to improve learning conditions. The district plans to keep this policy for the 2025-26 school year. However, the district will have most expenses covered: many of the pouches from 7th-11th graders will be kept or reissued after the summer. 

“We will refurbish 20% [of the pouches] so that way, schools can have more [pouches] or newer ones… We really were able to purchase the bulk of this last year,” Amy Randolph, an assistant superintendent for CPS, said.

To accomplish this, administrators at WHHS will require returning students to keep their pouches over the summer. Although these policies are likely to vary between schools, administrators believe the approach will help accommodate the unique needs of each school’s student body.

“With our incoming seventh-grade students, there will be a roll out of new pouches because they’re completely new to the building,” Mathew Chaney, an Assistant Principal at WHHS, said.  

Additionally, administrators noted that students should be more wary about repeated phone violations next year. The Cum Laude committee will take Yondr-related offences into consideration when selecting the titular honor society for the 2025-26 school year.

“Any infraction of any school rule… [including] violations of Yondr or cell phone rules, is susceptible to elimination of consideration,” Francesca Bownas-Rayburn, a member of the Cum Laude selection committee, said.

In an anonymous survey conducted by The Chatterbox, approximately 85% of the 56 staff who responded supported the current CPS phone policy. Research also indicates that most US citizens support phone restrictions in schools. For instance, a survey from Siena College of New York state voters found that 60% of respondents favored a phone ban, regardless of their political affiliation. 

“I’ve appreciated having the Yondr pouches put responsibility on the students for keeping the phones put away, as opposed to the teacher having to keep an eye on stuff,” Anne Ramsay, a 7th-9th grade math teacher, said. 

Some teachers have also noticed an increase in student engagement.

“I feel like kids talk to each other more,” Ramsay said. “When I used to teach first bell with phones, they would have their faces in a game, and they wouldn’t be talking to anybody.” 

Many teachers acknowledged the pouches had downsides, but still ultimately benefited the school.

“We can separate those two [personal and school] lives, so that students know how to behave in school, and then they can… [use their devices] outside of school,” Samantha Stephenson, the academic advisor for Youth Philanthropy Council said.

In the same survey conducted by The Chatterbox, 75% of WHHS staff reported higher student engagement after introducing Yondr pouches. Teachers disagreed on whether this translated into academic benefits: 43% of teachers reported uncertainty about Yondr’s impact on student grades, and even fewer said it had helped. 

However, the district is not as concerned about the efficacy of the pouches when it comes to student academics.

“It’s easy to think about what could be the academic impacts, but I still think that just so many of us are tied to our phones, and having that release is important,” Randolph said.

Although most younger generations are aware of the negative effects of digital technology, particularly social media, they also view it as increasingly important to remain connected.

“I think we’ve put into the hands of children a tool that is…  not appropriate for them on some levels,” Ramsay said. “I’m not convinced that its usefulness is greater than its harm.”

However, as work becomes more intertwined with technology, some critics argue that banning phones sends the wrong message: that phones have no place in the workplace.

“If we are preparing students for the real world… students have to know how to use their technology effectively,” Brian Meeron, a math teacher at WHHS, said, “And so my question becomes, how do we prepare students to use technology that we’re not allowing them to have access to?” 

Although teachers take vastly different approaches to technology, some classes that take advantage of personal technology to facilitate learning face more difficulties because of the Yondr policy. 

“If we wanted students to have their phones now, which I understand our physics program, engineering programs, and our statistics program use… we’re going to be inconvenienced if we want students to use their technology,” Meeron said. 

Some students also believed that a blanket phone policy might cause more problems than it solves. They agreed that phones were a problem, but saw Yondr pouches as ineffective, instead preferring the first quarter when teachers could set their own class rules.

“You cannot just stick a policy on every single school and expect it to work the same,” Migdalia Lopez, ‘27, said. “Every kid is different. Every school environment is different.”

“[The student body initially reacted] with pure hatred, spite, and denial,” Sophie Krumm, ’25, said.

For many members of Generations Z and Alpha, who grew up alongside this technology, phones have become impossibly interwoven into daily life.  Since Yondr pouches were introduced, it has become more difficult for students to communicate with friends or family during school.

“I appreciate what the district was trying to do [with the phone policy], but I just think it was executed a little bit differently than we thought it would be,” Lopez said. “Cell phones are a tool for safety, especially for kids… so their parents know if they’re riding a bus or want to get picked up.”

Many students who rely on adults or older students for transportation have been forced to become more independent.

“Kids have to either get out of class and go to an office [to talk to parents], or get a pass written, or go during a study hall, which some kids don’t even have,” Lopez said. “So I think it [the current policy] is just way too tedious.”

There has also been a negative impact on club attendance since the Yondr system was introduced.

“I’ve definitely noticed a drop in club attendance, and I’ve talked to other teachers as well, and we’re noticing difficulty getting students to be involved in after-school activities,” Samantha Stephenson, the academic advisor for Youth Philanthropy Council, said.

Some students are also worried that restricting communication could have dire implications during a school emergency. A petition to retract the CPS phone ban, started by Aidan Mollohan, ‘26, has gained over 3,000 signatures since its creation in August 2024. The petition called the incoming policy “a disaster waiting to happen,” noting that students often need their phones during school shootings. 

These fears were partially realized a month before the phone policy was implemented. In September, a student in Georgia texted his parents, “I love you,” just minutes before a school shooting took the lives of four classmates.

Other than restricting communication, the pouches have also created additional barriers on student independence during the school day.

“Yondr pouches are a great idea in theory, but punishing those who don’t struggle with phone usage is absurd,” Lauren Staley, ’25, said. “It does nothing to teach self-control over when to use your phone, and those who want to be distracted by their phone will find other ways to be distracted.

 A recent meta-analysis from the London School of Economics indicates that phone policies may benefit students who struggle in school by removing distractions. However, the benefit for other students may be minimal: limited and conflicting studies prevented the researchers from making any further conclusions. 

A CPS end-of-year review found that 9th grade failure rates decreased after Yondr was introduced, indicating the ban may benefit academically struggling students. However, the district did not specify the extent or prevalence of this phenomenon across grade levels and did not respond to a request for a follow-up about the outcomes of this analysis. 

Some proponents of the phone ban also believe that it has been able to reduce minor incidents of school violence.

“We are not seeing from a disciplinary perspective as much negative interaction between students… face to face,” Chaney said. 

In her response to a survey of 140 students conducted by The Chatterbox, Lyla Fritsch, ‘28, explained that she observed a different trend: that student altercations have merely become more discrete, rather than declining. 

“I also have noticed that people are more inclined to cause trouble in person, bully someone, or gossip in person because they don’t have their phones during the day to do that, which in my opinion has made the problem they’re trying to fix worse,” Fritsch said.

However, without additional data, it would be impossible to make any firm conclusions about the subject.

Some students also feel that Yondr has normalized other restrictions that followed in its wake. Currently, students are prohibited from wearing non-wired headphones during the school day, and are required to put AirPods or smart watches in their pouch.

“If I want to listen to music and do my homework, if that’s how I study, if that’s how I operate during study hall, I should be able to do that,” Lopez said. 

Yondr pouches have caused additional holdups for some students in the mornings.

“I do not have a phone, so all the Yondr pouches have done for me is increase the time it takes to get through security,” Alex Flamme, ‘28, said in their response to the survey. “Last Tuesday, when I told the [security guard] that I did not have a phone, she questioned this and made me get my bag checked, which added 15 minutes to my morning.”

Many students at WHHS have found ways to circumvent the policy to make technology more accessible during the school day.

“A lot of students either don’t close their pouch completely or find loopholes to not put their phone in the pouch,” Lopez said. “I think kids have tried to adjust, but it’s really hard for people to move away from something they’ve been doing for so long.”

Yondr pouches have caused other issues for students at the end of the day as well. 

“I want to stress how much of a nightmare dismissal has become,” Felix Hart, ‘26 said in their response to the survey. “For this policy to remotely work, we need far more unlockers than are currently available. The crowds that form in the Blair lobby every single day are at best an annoyance, and at worst, risky.”

To unlock their phones at the end of the day, students currently must visit a Yondr unlocking magnet, which have been sparsely distributed throughout the school. 

“I’ve only seen the chaos up there once after school, but it has led me to believe we need more routes for students to unlock their phones,” Ramsay, said.

o begin addressing some of these complaints, particularly at larger schools like WHHS, some representatives at CPS have discussed introducing more unlocking stations across the district. 

“We’ve talked about maybe putting unlocking stations throughout schools,” Randolph said. “I do feel like that could alone combat some of that extra stress on schools or students when they have to try to find someone to unlock their phone.”

But with a constant battle against a dwindling budget, the additional financial burden to correct this unseen consequence may be impractical. CPS, like many other public school districts, has historically struggled with budget deficit management. Recent cuts to public education in Ohio are likely to make the district’s financial situation even more challenging. 

Regardless, whether school policy changes to address student concerns will become more apparent next school year. Additionally, the Yondr pouches don’t seem to be going anywhere, largely because of the support from teachers, parents, and legislators.

“My preference would be that we continue with it,” Ramsay said.  “I think it’s been very successful in terms of keeping students more focused on academics, but also then working on their interpersonal skills.”

This sentiment was echoed by Gov. DeWine, who recently said he would support expanding the current state policy to completely ban phones in schools across Ohio. Regardless, administrators at WHHS hope that phone policy will be easier to implement next school year.

“We’ll be starting the year with this policy, versus starting with one policy that didn’t involve Yondr… Hopefully, we’ll see a more seamless start to the school year,” Chaney said. 

Despite conflicting opinions about their success this year, Yondr pouches have made their mark at WHHS and across CPS. Students will likely have to adjust to whatever phone policy the district decides on for the foreseeable future.