Hold the Phone! Our Phones are Over Yondr
Art provided by Juliette Robertson ’25
On Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, students walked into Grace High School, tapped in, and gave up their phones entirely for the first time in the school’s history.
“The school is using a sledgehammer on a smaller problem than it needs to be,” said Micah W. ‘26, an 11th-grade student representative. “They need to find a way to reprioritize their resources and to redistribute them in such a way that the phone policy is equitable to all ages and all grades. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue.”
Of New York City’s 1,600 public schools, 350 currently have daily cellphone restrictions and 500 more schools are planning on restricting phones in this upcoming school year. Yondr pouches have become a popular method of phone control in many high schools, both private and public. About a third of New York City high schools have Yondr pouches to regulate phone use, and the numbers are rising.
In 2022, the NIH conducted a study on the effect of phone usage on college students’ mental health. The conclusion was that mobile devices may have negative impacts on an individual’s physical and mental health. The study indicated that the negative effects had a greater impact on high cell phone users and therefore, “Efforts should be made from stakeholders to assist student’s health and wellbeing through appropriate communication and policies.”
Studies like these have been motivators for schools to put phone bans into action, and some of these policies have not been well received by communities. In 2015, the city-wide cellphone ban for public schools was lifted by Mayor de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña because parents disputed that they wanted to be able to stay in touch with their children before and after school.
At Grace, many students hold the same concern about the policy. “Having my phone locked up simply stresses me and many others out,” said Apollo K. ‘26. “If something endangered me during school hours and my phone was locked up, I would feel helpless.”
Like Apollo, Molly S. ‘28 thinks it would be dangerous to not have access to one’s phone in an emergency. “I think it is better to trust the students and take any phones that teachers see,” Molly explained in a survey.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul refuted this stress, stating, “If there is a crisis that unfolds in the school, then you want these students to be focused 100% on the adult in the room who will lead them to safety.”
With the cell phone policy at the high school, Isabelle V-P. ‘25 thinks that students are being “treated like middle-schoolers” and not as mature high schoolers as they are. A few Grace students are legally adults but are still forced to lock up their phones.
Lorry Perry, head of the high school, said that it would be possible for students to access their devices in an emergency using a staff member’s magnet, but she underlined that the goal of the policy would hopefully allow students to confide in their community when in need. “It’s important that you have a trusting relationship with some adult here on campus — if that’s not the case, that’s something that I would like to work on,” Ms. Perry said.
Another concern has been the school budget, with money being spent not just on the Yondr pouches but also on supplies to adjust classes to not using phones. The Yondr pouches alone cost $25 to $30 per student. Families are asked to pay for a replacement Yondr pouch if a student’s Yondr pouch is damaged or lost. In classes like Journalism and Yearbook, phones facilitate the capturing of media. The administration has offered to provide digital cameras to these classes, with an estimated total cost of $10,000, according to Ms. Perry. The school will also provide iPads to the library so that students can upload work.
“This money could be used in so many other ways besides attempting to fix a problem we already have the resources to solve,” said Apollo.
Many students feel that this new policy is a waste of school funding, especially since many phone functions can still be used with laptops. Students are still able to send texts, watch TikTok, and use Snapchat from their laptops. Anika V. ‘27 said Yondr pouches are “kinda stupid because you can do everything you can do on your phone on your computer.”
Grace has no intention of going tech-free as “computers are too essential to school and life to give up for a nonsensical ban to achieve an obsolete impact,” said Simon S. ‘27.
Ms. Perry shared some further insights into how the phone policy can positively impact Grace. Last year, teachers were left with the task of regulating phone use outside of designated times and areas. Ms. Perry shared that the school “wasn’t loving the way it felt to students and faculty. It felt like a policing relationship.” Yondr may be able to alleviate the faculty’s responsibility of policing phone use, which should create less animosity between students and teachers and a more welcoming environment, according to Ms. Perry.
“Isn’t it better to teach students to use phones responsibly rather than take them away?” is a question frequently asked by students in the community and was written up on the Phone-Free School Community FAQ sheet. Ms. Perry explained that students can practice productive phone usage at home, but during the school day, “we want to develop the desire to lean into those ideals.”
Ms. Perry hopes that the new phone policy will help students become more attentive in school and life. “Right now is a time where we want your primary focus to be on learning and we would delay the thinking about managing cell phones.”
After deliberating over the issues of the new phone policy for a while, Micah W. ‘26 said, “I’m not going to come up with a perfect solution on this –I don’t think any one person could. I think there needs to be more discussions on this between the students and faculty.”
Many students share Micah’s sentiment that there is not enough room for student opinions at Grace, especially after the sudden announcement of the new phone policy.
Fiona Miller ‘26 and Zarina Medeiros ‘26, the authors, are staff writers for The Grace Gazette.