Jayla Bosley and Avin Davis, both seniors studying theater at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, or Co-Op. Lucy Gellman Photos.
On the first day of her senior year of high school, Avin Davis slid her cell phone into a magnetized pouch, already aware that the lunch rush, free periods, and time in between classes would look and feel different.
She understood why her school, and high schools across New Haven were pushing for a new cell-phone-free policy. She didn't fight it, as some of her younger classmates had during sections of their morning advisory. But she couldn't stop thinking of a day at the end of her sophomore year, when the school went on lockdown and she wanted to text her mom to let her know what was going on.
Davis, who is studying theater at Cooperative Arts & Humanities High School, is one of several students adapting to the district's new Yondr Pouch policy, which went into effect after a year of beta testing at New Haven Academy. Like many of her classmates, she acknowledges that phones can be distracting. She's not totally opposed to the move, which follows a $371,000 contract between the New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) and Yondr.
But her openness to the policy comes up against a uniquely American concern: that a lockdown or school shooting could leave students without a way to communicate with their loved ones. It's one of the ways that gun violence, which is now the leading killer of children in this country, has become woven into the fabric of everyday life. At schools like Co-Op, that anxiety—mixed with a suspicion of something new—is following students into the school year.
"I feel like this is unnecessary," Davis said as she settled in to a second-period theater class with teachers Rob Esposito and Sumiah Gay. "I see why they want us to have it [the policy], and it's okay, unless anything ever happens." She flashed back to her sophomore year, when the school went on lockdown. "What if something like that happens again?"
The fear is a rational one, she and other classmates added. This year, a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis killed two young children and injured 19 other people during a back-to-school mass on August 27, just 24 hours before New Haven students were due back in their classrooms. Closer to home, gun violence also feels alarmingly omnipresent, including a shocking five homicides over two weeks in August.
"What I care about is texting people if something happens," said Haelynne Diaz, who is also a senior in Esposito's theater class. "I think they are trying to find a solution [to phones], and I think there should be a way to ban TikTok and Instagram. But we should have more lenience."
For other students like Jayla Bosley (pictured at top of article), it's more complicated. Unlike some of her peers, Bosley is quick to describe cell phone use in the classroom as a problem. She's seen classmates pull out their phones to send a quick message, and then fall into a pattern of mindless scrolling that takes their attention away from the lesson, including group assignments like a class play or project. But she thinks that the pouches, particularly for upperclassmen, feel punitive.
"Everything has its flaws," she said, suggesting that the district might roll out a policy for freshman and sophomores, but encourage juniors and seniors simply to use their phones more responsibly. "Are we gonna take away cars just because you can get into an accident?"
What Bosley would like to see, she added, is more direction from her teachers and administrators, who have the power to monitor phone use, call it out, or take phones at the beginning of class and store them in a basket or box at the front of the room. Last year, she was in a pre-college course with Benjamin Pulliam, a math instructor who teaches everything from geometry and pre-college algebra to precalculus.
At the beginning of the year, Pulliam let students know that if he saw them on their phones, he would factor that into their final grades. If their grades fell because they checked a text message thread or social media post, it was on them.
For Bosley, that approach helped her think about college, and the fact that she needed to be more responsible for her actions. Her phone stayed in her book bag until the end of class.
Now, she would like having it just in case of an emergency, she said. "At the end of the day, I would just feel so much safer texting my mom, 'I'm okay. I love you,'" she said.
"Education Is Going To Come First"
Senior Sanaa Murphy: No phone, no problem.
Not all of the students are worried about the pouches. As she locked up her phone on a recent Thursday, senior Sanaa Murphy said she was ready to be divorced from it for a little while. In her time at the school, she's felt firsthand how much a handheld device can impact how she learns, and whether, how often and when she gets distracted.
"I honestly think it's a good thing," she said. She's still a little skeptical: multiple classmates have already found ways around the policy, like bringing an iPad or laptop that has iMessage on it. Others have snuck an old phone into the pouch instead. But she's hopeful that it will help her and her peers dive in to what's being taught, with fewer distractions.
Janely Marquez, a sophomore at the school, agreed. As she finished a bag of Hot Cheetos before the end of advisory, wiping the red dust from her fingertips, she said that the decision makes a lot of sense to her. She knows that she gets distracted by Instagram when she should be focusing on school work. Her brother, who goes to New Haven Academy, liked the Yondr pilot last year. "I think that I won't be as distracted," she said.
As he traveled from classroom to classroom, teaching students how to lock and unlock their pouches, Co-Op Principal Paul Camarco echoed that enthusiasm. As a father himself, he's sympathetic to student concerns, which he also heard from parents at a back-to-school orientation in August.
But as a school administrator, he's excited about anything that can increase student attention and engagement in the classroom (and beyond it too, like catalyzing conversation during lunch waves in the cafeteria). He's heard from colleagues in other schools who have seen the pouches help their students focus on what's being taught. He's also hopeful that they'll cut down on some of the bullying that takes place online, and can trickle down to real-life fights in the classroom, the hallways, and the cafeteria.
"This is a tool that is being used to help students refocus, and make sure we're all engaged," he said. "There's an understanding that education is gonna come first."
Read more about how schools are adapting to the new Yondr Pouch policy from our friends at the New Haven Independent here, here and here.