ATLANTA — When Midtown High School students head back to school on Thursday, they’ll start the year with new policies aimed at curbing cell phone use and other digital distractions during the school day. The high school is among the growing number of schools and districts in the Atlanta area, turning to specialized locking pouches or other methods to physically limit the use of smart devices.
“We've tried a number of things over the years,” principal Dr. Betsy Bockman said of efforts to keep such devices out of sight and out of mind. “Some teachers started with like a hanging shoe bag. Some teachers have had baskets that kids put them in.”
Yet, there’s now a need for consistency, Bockman said, pointing to the school's 1,700 students and more than 100 teachers. As a result, Midtown High will employ Yondr pouches, which will be handed out to each student during their second-period class on Thursday.
“It’s really so the teachers can teach and students can learn,” Bockman said, adding that the system will hopefully remove such burdens from teachers.
Meanwhile, the use of Yondr pouches continues to spread across the metro. 11Alive previously reported that DeKalb County will launch a pilot program utilizing the pouches in several of its district schools this year. Marietta City Schools will also ban smart devices in the district’s middle grades as they start using the pouches on Aug. 1.
On the other hand, Decatur High School will implement a new school-wide cell phone protocol. Students will surrender their phones at the start of each class, secure them in a locked container and return them at the end of class.
“Students will not be allowed to access their phones during class but will be allowed to access them during class changes and lunch,” a spokesperson for Decatur City Schools said, adding that the change comes after conversations with the DHS School Leadership team, PTA and administrators.
“I think the number one thing is we're doing what we think is best for the student and the teacher,” Katie Ludlam, President of Midtown High School’s PTO, explained. As similarly noted by other districts, Midtown’s use of the Yondr pouches, she and Bockman said, was put into place following school surveys and parental input. Parents will still be able to communicate with students through the school’s learning platform, Schoology, as needed or reach the front office in case of emergency.
“As a parent, I had some hesitation about not being able to access my child on a daily basis,” Ludlam said. "But it's good for them to grow up and cut the cord a little bit.”
Bockman acknowledged there will likely be a learning curve as students get accustomed to using the pouches, and the school does have consequences in place for those who try to circumvent the policies. Bockman hopes such incidents will be few and far between and believes the effort will increase student engagement overall.
“Ever since coming back from virtual in 2021, everything’s different,” Bockman said. The way we interact with students, the way students interact with teachers, and vice versa. So everybody’s had to adjust, and this is just kind of the next normal thing of getting students back into a really positive learning environment.”