The 2024-25 school year will bring about a drastic change for IMS and MIHS students: no cell phones. According to MISD Superintendent Dr. Fred Rundle, MISD will be breaking ground as the first school district in Washington state to partner with Yondr, a company producing pouches that magnetically seal to keep students’ phones away for the day.
District leadership started to consider implementing a stricter phone policy about a year ago as “tides shifted across the nation to take a firmer stance,” MIHS Principal Nick Wold said.
Rundle commented that as district leadership read articles last summer and fall, the increasing data about social media’s negative effects and kids’ reliance on phones was a major factor in deciding to ban phones. After talking to various parent groups and surveying students throughout the 2023-24 year, Rundle said that in June that district finally decided to implement a “rigid phone policy.”
Wold said that faculty input ended up highlighting just how many different applications of the previous phone policy there were, along with the issues that it presented.
“The looseness has created chaos,” Wold said. “We needed to have a better, more robust system, and so that system was the biggest change that we needed to make.”
For MISD, the answer to this systemic problem is the implementation of Yondr pouches. Students will magnetically lock their phones, smartwatches and earbuds into them at the beginning of each school day, and keep them in their backpack. At the end of the day, there will be “base unit” unlockers that students can use to open their pouches. Students caught using their phone at the high school will be subjected to a tiered discipline system.
Rundle said that since MISD is one of the first schools in the Pacific Northwest to partner with Yondr, many other district leaders have been reaching out to him.
“We were at a conference recently and three different districts sought us out to ask us about it,” Rundle said. “Hopefully, at the end of the day, we do something that’s great for our community, and if, as a second benefit, other districts can use our model to also do great things for kids, we’ll share anything we have. We don’t need the credit and the recognition if it’s going to be good for kids.”
Rundle says that while the district hopes that students use their pouches as intended, they know that some students might misuse them, which is when they will go down the disciplinary route.
“Nothing is foolproof,” Rundle said. “My hope is that the majority of our students see the spirit of what we’re trying to do. Give it an honest go and really try to embrace what life looks like in schools without access to a phone.”
Wold encouraged students trying to circumvent the pouches to engage in some self-reflection.
“What is your relationship with your phone if you’re on Amazon trying to buy a bootleg magnet so that you can get your phone out at nine in the morning? I would ask you to start reflecting. Whatever that distraction is, it takes a little moment away from your learning.”
Rundle doesn’t expect the transition to be seamless. In fact, he expects that schools will need the first few weeks to figure it out.
“We’re doing all the planning we can to be prepared,” Rundle said. “It won’t be perfect. Then we’re going to do it, starting on August 28. Then we’re going to study it in live time. We will then reformat our plans, and then make changes again. I fully expect us to make tweaks and changes throughout the fall as we learn.”
To help students better adjust, Wold said that MIHS staff and admin are planning to use the first day as a “slow rollout,” reminding students from period-to-period about the new policy. He says that by Labor Day, he hopes that most students will understand the new expectations.
Wold said he is enthusiastic about the new policy, despite the challenges that he anticipates having to work through.
“It’s going to be really exciting, but hard,” he said. “There’s going to be some bumps along the way, and I’m hopeful that we’ve built enough trust with our students and our community that this is rooted in the care of them. In that way, it’s not something that it’s doing to hurt our students, but really trying to think about what’s in their best interest.”
Rundle echoed these sentiments.
“This is the right thing to do for our students,” he said. “It’s not going to be popular by everyone, but I do believe that later on or down the road, it will be seen collectively as a positive.”
MISD has created a landing page for MI Phone-Free schools, which includes an FAQ for students, parents and staff about the policy, as well as about Yondr pouches.
