Escambia (FL) School Superintendent Learns About Alabama Program That Keeps Classrooms Phone-Free

September 9, 2024

Between classes at Flomaton High School, students walk down the hallway talking to each other. And at lunch, they talk to each other.

“Our lunches have gotten really loud,” Flomaton High School Principal Mark Harbison said. “The kids talk to each other instead of looking down at their phones all the time.”

Flomaton High and several other school in Escambia County, Alabama, are using what’s called a Yondr pouch to control cellphone usage in school and make classrooms phone-free. Students keep the pouch with them all day until the final bell, and it makes it impossible to take a picture, shoot a video, send a text, or access social media. The pouches are used by many big-name artists to stop recording at their concerts.

And officials say it is now transforming education.

“This is certainly something that we need to talk to our school board members about,” says Escambia County (FL) School Superintendent Keith Leonard. “And more importantly, get with our school-based administrators and our teachers — actually give them the opportunity to visit three or four of the schools here in Escambia County, Alabama, which have implemented the Yondr pouches. I believe it will help our students have more engagement at school and do better academically and socially for that matter.”

And Leonard is taking notes as his district just across the line in Florida is considering new cellphone restrictions for over 37,000 students. Leonard was so impressed, in fact, with the Yondr pouch system that he expects the Escambia County, Florida, district to do something in the next five to six months.

NorthEscambia.com was present recently as Leonard and Cody Strother, Escambia County (FL) School District coordinator for communications, visitedt to Flomaton High to see the Yondr pouches in action.

For more photos, click here.

Each student in the Alabama program is assigned one of Yondr’s form-fitting lockable soft pouches. Students place their powered-off phones and connected devices like earbuds and smart watches inside their individual pouch before they enter the school, and it locks the phone inside with a magnetic disk mechanism. The lock is much like those anti-theft clothing tags that stores remove after you make a purchase. If a student forgets the pouch, they surrender their phone to be locked up in the office for the day.

When students exit the building at dismissal, a specially designed magnet unlocks the pouch. It’s a process that Harbison said only slows down dismissal by just a few minutes as students funnel out of the building.

And, no, not just any magnet or super-strong rare earth magnet will unlock the pouch. It’s a specially designed magnet from the California-based pouch company. The unlocking magnets at school are closely guarded by school staff.

When students enter Flomaton High, they may be asked to show that their phone is locked inside a pouch, and there are random checks during the school day to make sure phones are secure.

“We have people all the time say what do you do if they cut them (the pouches) open,” George Brown II, Escambia County (AL) Schools assistant superintendent, told Leonard. “You can break into a locked house if you really want to. It’s discernment. You’ve got to choose right from wrong.”

If a student cuts open and destroys a pouch in Escambia County, Alabama, they are on the hook for a $20 replacement.

Teachers are in love, we are talking head over heels smitten, with the Yonder pouches. They say their classrooms are phone-free, students are paying attention, and students are actually learning more. Teachers also love that they are not burdened with collecting phones before class begin. Teachers don’t actually have to do anything with phones. If they see a phone, they let the front office know, and an administrator responds to deal with the policy transgression.

“I just love it,” Flomaton High teacher Amy Dullard said. “It has changed my classroom like I never could have imagined.”

Escambia County (AL) Schools Superintendent Dr. Michele Collier is also in love with the program.

“We are expecting to see real numbers from this in learning gains and scores,” she said.

But what about the students?

We visited a classroom where students said they were very apprehensive when they learned the pouches would be in place this school year.

“I didn’t like it at first. My phone is right here,” one student said, pointing at the Yondr pouch next to her with her phone locked inside. “I guess I feel better because it’s here with me all the time, but I still can’t use it.”

In the event of any kind of personal emergency or illness, students are allowed to go to the office to use a (gasp!) landline to call home.

In a more serious situation…just to talk about the worst that is sometimes a reality in our world…during a school shooting or severe weather, students’ phones would be locked inside the pouches as the situation unfolds.

Brown said that in the near-term that would be good, because perhaps hundreds of students would not call 911 at the same time. “They would tie up the lines,” he said. “They (emergency services) would be the first person to tell you that.”

“We have a procedure. We have Centegix (brand) badges. We can get police to a building when we press this,” as he held out a badge on a lanyard around his neck. “And once it’s cleared for it to happen, then they could come around and open them (the phone pouches). And they would. Severe weather, they would come around and do that as well.”

As the Escambia County (AL) Schools pilot their use of the phone pouches, they’ve developed a few exceptions to the program. Students with a medical reason — such as those that use their phones to scan a glucose monitor — are issued a pouch that does not lock. It instead has a Velcro-like closure. It’s loud when it opens. There’s just no way to open it quietly and sneak a phone out during class (We saw it tested by Stother, and it just can’t be opened without garnering attention.)

At Flomaton, yearbook staff members are given a press pass that allows them to sometimes have their phones unlocked for snapping yearbook student life photos at school events.

NorthEscambia.com will keep you updated on any future cellphone policy changes for Escambia County (FL) Schools.

For more photos, click here.

NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES 

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