A Texas high school locked up cellphones. Here’s what happened
DALLAS -- Students streamed into Lake Highlands High School in Dallas on a recent morning, briefly stopping in front of an assistant principal.
“Good morning! How are you?” the administrator asked while she locked each teenager’s cellphone in a gray pouch.
The greetings and sealings continued until students marched off to first period.
Principal Kerri Jones looked around the entry way in her sprawling campus of nearly 3,000 students. High schoolers were talking and joking. They looked each other in the eyes instead of burrowing into their screens.
“The hallways get loud,” Jones concedes. “But it’s a good loud.”
Lake Highlands is in its second year of requiring students to store their phones in Yondr pouches, which are magnetically sealed at the start of the day and unlocked by special devices at dismissal. They’ve become a model for other districts considering cellphone-free policies.
Richardson ISD was an early adopter of the pouches, and schools across the country are now spending millions on them. Meanwhile, some state leaders want to consider a statewide cellphone ban in classrooms.
Texas Education Commission Mike Morath endorsed such a move during a fall hearing, saying legislators should “consider that as a matter of public policy.”
Educators lament the way cellphones can distract from learning, exacerbate bullying and quickly spread false alarms about school safety.
But limiting access can come at a price: Yondr costs about $25 per student. RISD is paying roughly $300,000 to use the pouches at eight secondary campuses.
In return, officials say teachers get more instructional time and cellphone-related discipline incidents are down. One RISD principal said it...