{"id":7457,"date":"2025-11-03T12:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=7457"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T17:16:02","slug":"a-year-of-yondr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/a-year-of-yondr\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year of Yondr"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A year later, the pouches that once sparked outrage in the student body now feel like a normal part of the Grace community\u2014 a sign that, for better or worse, Yondr is here to stay.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media provided by Maggie S. \u201826<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year ago, Yondr \u2014 a pouch that seals phones throughout the school day \u2014 arrived, surprising most faculty and outraging many students. Desperate to access their cherished electronics, some students looked for any way to escape the system: some going to the extreme lengths of breaking their Yondrs. Students petitioned the administration to get rid of Yondr, and candidates for student government promised to get the policy reversed. Yet, Yondr prevailed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The beginning of the 2025-2026 school year marks Yondr\u2019s one-year anniversary at Grace Church High School, and feelings about the pouch continue to shape daily life at Grace, sparking debate among students, parents, and faculty. Furthermore, in light of the smartphone ban in schools, the Grace administration\u2019s decision to lock students\u2019 phones throughout the day is no longer a novelty. Over a third of NYC public schools use Yondr<\/a>, and this number is set to rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One year before Yondr, Grace introduced a no-phone policy everywhere except the library and cafeteria. If teachers saw a student with their phone in the hallways or in class, they were required to confiscate the phone and give the student an infraction. \u201cTeachers were not in alignment on what our role was, and Yondr provides more continuity,\u201d stated Dr. Toby Nathan, the High School\u2019s Department Chair of History. Furthermore, Dr. Nathan explained that the need to confiscate phones \u201cwas a cost to my relationship with the students,\u201d and that Yondr allows him to focus on teaching rather than disciplining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Head of Grace High School, Tom James, agreed with this statement. \u201cAn air of surveillance doesn\u2019t feel good for anyone. One of the biggest advantages I see of Yondr is that we\u2019ve completely removed the friction between students and teachers,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m really glad we did this,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. James, along with High School Head Lori Perry and Head of School Robbie Penoyer, were the team responsible for bringing Yondr to Grace. Since he arrived in 2023, the Grace administration had been thinking about how to help folks engage with their phones differently. \u201cWe were also getting a lot of parental interest,\u201d Mr. James said. \u201cParents really wanted us to prevent phone use during the school day, and we realized we needed a definitive solution.\u201d In the summer of 2024, winds were changing nationally regarding the accessibility of smart phones in schools. Many of Grace\u2019s peer schools were also implementing Yondr pouches. Grace decided to follow suit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A year later, Yondr has become normalized, accepted, and even appreciated. However, students still mourn the loss of their smartphones. Iris J. \u201826, a senior at Grace, pointed out that not having your phone makes it difficult to make plans with people, like meeting up for lunch or to study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many students, the real tragedy isn\u2019t missing a test\u2014 it\u2019s missing the chance to capture and archive high school life in the form of photos. Senior Shailen S. \u201826 reminisced fondly about his freshman and sophomore years, where he could document his school experience in pictures and videos. \u201cI feel like photos and videos are how you develop memories,\u201d Shailen said. \u201cHow am I going to remember my time at Grace?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shailen is not the only student who expressed disappointment at not being able to capture school memories on camera. Truly H. \u201826 also mentioned this loss as a significant consequence of Yondr pouches. \u201cI\u2019ve lost all my memories of Grace Church,\u201d said Truly. \u201cI don\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, according to the same students, Yondr does have its pros. Truly is excited to get \u201cmore face-to-face connection.\u201d Shailen thinks that the pouches are useful because they make \u201c[his] screentime lower, and [his] phone\u2019s charged by the time he leaves school.\u201d He also finds that he is \u201cmore focused in class.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand why [teachers] like Yondr, and appreciate why they do,\u201d said Iris. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many students seem to have accepted Yondr as a part of their lives, but they almost all agree that there was a better alternative. The biggest issue with electronic devices, said all the interviewees, was getting distracted by them in class. Some students think that this issue would be better remedied by \u201cphone jails\u201d or cubbies where students place their phones for the duration of class, as opposed to Yondr pouches that take away access for eight hours of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Phones] are a tremendous distraction inside the classroom,\u201d said Allison M., parent of Grace student India B. \u201827. \u201cBut I feel like people, humans, are going to have to learn to live in a way where they modulate [cellphone usage], and keeping it out of the classroom seems sufficient to me. And I think at this stage, it seems oddly unrealistic and punitive to not have access to your phone at all from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Phone jails would be a vastly superior solution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Nathan, however, disagreed. Before Yondr, even with phone cubbies, he found himself counting phones at the beginning of class and questioning if students had actually just “forgotten their phone\u201d that day. He described himself as a Yonder \u201cconvert\u201d, initially questioning if they were necessary, but now appreciating that they relieve him of extra discipling duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, no system is perfect. It is no secret that there are Yondr leaks, such as screen mirroring on the MacBooks issued to every Grace student. However, teachers are aware of this \u201ctrick\u201d and don\u2019t find it a major issue. Dr. Nathan, who frequently meets with the teachers in his department, said that \u201cTeachers have been working to decrease the amount of time spent on laptops in classrooms. A lot of teachers are working towards handwritten assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, the pouches that once sparked outrage in the student body now feel like a normal part of the Grace community\u2014 a sign that, for better or worse, Yondr is here to stay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to express my gratitude to students for complying,\u201d said Lori Perry, the Head of Grace High School. \u201cSince we Yondr\u2019d phones, kids seem so much more comfortable expressing themselves. Had there been fear of being recorded, I\u2019m not sure that ninth graders would have gotten up in community meetings to dance. Mr. Taptastic [a guest at Grace\u2019s October Dance Chapel] wouldn’t have brought a third of the community to their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is what makes our community special,\u201d she added. \u201c And I\u2019m glad we\u2019re protecting it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caitlin L. \u201827, the author, is a staff writer for <\/em>The Grace Gazette.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A year later, the pouches that once sparked outrage in the student body now feel like a normal part of the Grace community\u2014 a sign that, for better or worse,… Continue reading “A Year of Yondr”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":7458,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,1002,992,984,1001,748,200,15,16,7],"tags":[180],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-7457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-current-events","category-faculty","category-inteviews","category-news","category-politics","category-recent","category-reviews","category-special-sections","category-school","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1Wh","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-03-at-12.14.33-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7459,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7457\/revisions\/7459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7457"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=7457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}