That’s the question students at New Haven Academy—including myself—are asking this spring, as we enter the second month of using Yondr pouches—basically, a time-out for your technology—to store our cell phones during the school day.
For students, this policy shift is complicated yet simple, a positive advancement in my school and one that I and many others are resistant to.
As an 18 year old in the year 2025, I have basically known technology my whole life. Although my mother may have been stricter about screen time than the average parent, once I started high school I became responsible for my own screen time. At New Haven Academy, my phone became something I relied on for security. Not actual safety: the kind of security I felt when I pretended to be doing something on my phone to avoid talking to someone, and to avoid feeling socially anxious or shy.
And yet, I wasn’t initially sure what to make of a message that came to the student body in early December of last year.
The email, from Principal Greg Baldwin, read: “Important Policy Shift set for February- please read carefully” in bold letters. The message explained that starting in February 2025, the entire school would transition to a full phone-free policy that would implement the strict use of Yondr pouches.
Yondr pouches lock your phone in a pouch. They can be unlocked with a magnet that students get access to at the end of the day. The message also noted that “off and away” is NHA’s policy and has been since cell-phones became prominent in society. The message didn’t note that students, by and large, do not follow that when their phones are present.
My initial exposure to the message was not from checking my inbox, or from logging onto Jupitergrades, the site NHA uses for grades and communication. Instead, my phone buzzed off the hook, blowing up with messages. I opened Snapchat to find friends—one other peer at NHA, and the rest at Wilbur Cross High School and Hopkins—jumping into the Yondr conversation.
“Free you guys!” one of them wrote. zsq1`za“So glad this isn’t happening to us!” wrote another (there is a plan to institute Yondr across New Haven high schools next year).
My first reaction? I was annoyed. Not upset or angry. Just annoyed.
Why? I just don’t want to feel like an experiment.
If I’m being completely honest, I understand the benefit. I agree that phones are getting in the way of public education—and in the way of our social skills and development. I have at times wished that cell phones were not a part of my generation's “normal.” In my opinion, phones put a barrier on social interactions that generations before us did not experience, and they also create a constant connection between people even in distance.
It’s harder to be present with the people you are with in the moment, if you have the ability to be connected to a dozen others through a screen. Parents are able to track the exact location of their child at all times, friends text each other all day and expect an immediate response, and even when we are stimulated, us teenagers seek additional entertainment on social media or otherwise– often, it’s exhausting.
In the weeks leading up to the transition, I participated in various conversations with my teachers and peers about what was in store for us. As a senior advisory leader, I also participated in a meeting with fellow advisory leaders and our school student council, where our principal asked us to share our opinions and concerns.
Almost across the board, my peers shared irritations and concerns such as language barriers when parents would have to communicate with administration instead of with their child directly, what would happen if students disobeyed the policy, or if this policy was one we really had to implement, but it seemed as though our administration had found a solution for all of them.
The biggest drawback, to me, is that sometimes we—NHA and its students— just feel like an experiment. NHA is the right size to do that: we have a relatively small student body compared to a larger district school like Cross or James Hillhouse High School. We’re “piloting” this new approach that will be implemented into the rest of the New Haven Public High Schools next school year. There are often times that it feels like we're a part of a case study.
For instance, every morning at 6:30 a.m. on the dot an automated message is sent out to the school from Greg Baldwin. “REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR POUCH!” it reads—because if we don’t, our devices will be handed over to administration. The first handful of days we were required to lock up our phones, we received warm messages, congratulating us on a job well done at following the policy and complying to locking our phone inside our pouch.
Do I appreciate this? No.
I think since it’s different, and genuinely a big advancement as a high school, there are eyes on us and eyes on our school. Sometimes I find this a little funny, because being without a phone for six and a half hours is something that should not specifically be groundbreaking.
And yet, it is. Most immediately, the biggest difference I have experienced is not having access to the news. As a young person, I consume most of my news initially from social media, before I look up if it’s factual. In some ways, it’s nice to not feel bombarded by external news, or the daunting nature of current events; it’s way easier to connect with the people I am physically with when I don’t have a distraction.
But on the other hand, it’s weird to be isolated or feel cut off from information. Sometimes when I walk down the stairs, click my pouch on the magnet mounted to the wall and slip out my phone, I feel like I’ve missed a whole day of updates.
Although I think this benefits my education since it’s important to remain focused, I have noticed that sometimes I use my phone more in the afternoon, maybe because I’m compensating for the time I haven’t spent on it during the day. This fact only proves the severe (and unhealthy!) attachment I, and the others my age, have developed to our cell phones.
It’s been almost a month now in a phone-free school. Sometimes I definitely resent it. As I approach my high school graduation, I often find myself wishing seniors were exempt from the policy. Icatch myself disagreeing with the mandated phone ban, simply because in a few short months it won’t apply to me. Having gone through my entire high school career with access to my cell phone definitely affects this attitude towards the shift in policy.
And yet, I am proud to go to New Haven Academy and be a part of a community that models leadership. In a few short months, it will be up to me to monitor and minimize my own cell phone usage and make sure it doesn’t disrupt my education.
So although the change in routine sometimes irritates me, and sometimes the whole procedure makes me feel like my classmates and I are guinea pigs, I also think that the school is committed to helping its students have healthy environments.
As for how my Yondr pouch annoys me, it’s going to have to stick with me, until June my pouch and I will have to be friends.