On September 23, California Governor Gavin Newsom passed Assembly Bill No. 3216 (AB 3216), the Phone-Free School Act, requiring schools to create or revise policies prohibiting phone use at school. AB 3216 will be fully enforced starting on July 1, 2026, and is set to be revised every five years. Previously, California passed AB 272 which was signed on July 1, 2019, authorizing schools to regulate phone use. The key difference between AB 3216 and its predecessor is that it is now mandatory for schools to regulate phone use.
Since AB 272 was passed, Tamalpais High School has had a system limiting phone use. It varies from teacher to teacher but many require students to put their phones in a phone caddy at the beginning of class and leave it there until the end unless further instructed. Other teachers have phone boxes that follow the same concept. No matter what method they use, students resist.
“Honestly, it is a pain. I don’t like taking class time to remind certain students over and over to put their phones in the caddy,” Tam math teacher Wendy Baumgartner said.
With student resistance, teachers have to monitor students when they walk into class in order to make sure their phones are away. This process can be long and frustrating for teachers at the beginning of class, so many have begun using the caddy to take attendance, forcing students to put their phones up. Baumgartner has been teaching for 29 years and has seen the evolution from no phones, to flip phones, and now to smartphones.
“I’m all in on an extremely minimal to nonexistent phone presence in classrooms,” Baumgartner said. “I’ve been a teacher for quite a while now, and from a purely educational perspective, I can’t point to anything positive about having access to a phone during class.”
According to the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world, in a survey, 72 percent of high school teachers reported phones as a major distraction to the learning process. Additionally, 60 percent of teachers believe that it is very or somewhat difficult to enforce phone policies.
With all of the struggles and the new passing of AB 3216, Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) has looked at a new approach to the phone dilemma. TUHSD sent out an email on Sept. 24 to parents about Yondr phone pouches with an attached survey asking for opinions. Yondr, a San Francisco-based technology company founded in 2014, has a phone pouch product that is developed to create a phone-free space. The pouch is designed for a phone to slip in and then get locked by a magnet.
TUHSD proposed that every student would get a Yondr pouch designated to them, which they bring to school every day, and lock up their phone in. In the district’s survey sent to parents, only 49 percent supported students’ phones being locked up for the entire day, and 66 percent supported students locking up their phones during each period. Similarly, only 50.7 percent of staff supported students locking up their phones for the entire day, and 62 percent supported students locking up their phones during each period.
“Yondr pouches could benefit students, related to the correlation of cell phone use being addictive and improving student mental health,” Corbett Elsen, Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operations, said. “There are pros and cons to everything, one pro is that with the Yondr pouches, there is less transition time and pressure on teachers and a con to the Yondr pouches is the cost.”
On Sept. 27, TUHSD sent this same survey to students. This sent out a shockwave among the student body. The student body was frustrated and it showed in the survey. Of the 1288 students who participated in the survey, only 1 percent of the students supported students locking up their phones for the entire day, and only 15 percent supported students locking up their phones during each period. In the same Pew Research Survey, only 30 percent of U.S. teens between 13 and 17 say cell phones cause more harm than benefit, and only 23 percent said it makes school harder.
“I don’t think they will change anything because students will still find a way around it so there is no benefit to having them,” Tam sophomore Rogan Burke said.
On Sept. 13, TUHSD received a threat of violence where Tam and the entire TUHSD was canceled and all students evacuated campus. With this new policy, students’ phones would be locked up, and who knows how long it would take for students to get their phones unlocked. Even though AB 3216 states that phones are allowed during emergencies, an emergency is called an emergency for a reason and that extra time to unlock the Yondr pouch can be detrimental in some rare cases. Even other situations like if a student has an allergic reaction or someone in their family has an emergency, with their phone locked in their pouch who knows the result.
Considering that in California the legal driving age is 16 years old, many students from sophomores through seniors have the ability to drive for lunch. If students’ phones were locked up during this time many students wouldn’t be able to communicate with their friends about lunch plans, know the time, and in case of a car accident or malfunction contact someone.
According to Consumer Affairs, a company that provides consumers with market information, teen drivers aged 16-19 account for only 3.6 percent of drivers in the U.S. but are involved in about 9.1 percent of all car crashes. It would be extremely unsafe for students to drive without phones when they are statistically at the time in their lives when they are at the most risk. Not having the ability to call 911 or a parent or guardian is obscene considering kids are operating vehicles.
“I don’t think the pouches are good because it would make it a lot harder for students to communicate with parents and friends for after-school activities and lunch,” Burke said.
The other possible use of the Yondr pouches proposed by TUHSD was similar, but locking up phones in the pouches at the beginning of the period and unlocking them at the end, allowing students to have phones during passing periods and lunch. This is nearly identical to most teachers’ current policies with caddies and boxes. With that in mind, the cost to install the Yondr pouch policy will be very costly for the district. Each student will need a pouch, and an “unlocking base” in each classroom to release the magnet that locks the pouches.
In the board meeting, TUHSD announced that implementing the Yondr pouches would cost an initial fee of $160,000 for the entire district, with an estimated $44,000 to install it throughout Tam. Additionally, it would cost about $20,000 to 30,000 yearly to maintain the system in school in the district. At the meeting, the board of trustees also emphasized that no bond money would go towards the new initiative.
Since this is an assembly bill passed by the California Constitution, the state is by law required to reimburse school districts for certain costs. AB 3216 does not state all costs it very clearly says “certain cost” which means that we don’t know how much of this proposed policy will come out of the district pocket instead of going towards other things such as better classroom equipment or more funding to school programs. Considering the significant costs will Yondr pouches even be better enforcers?
“I’ve had other friends at different schools [Terra Linda and San Rafael] use them and they said everybody either breaks them or just doesn’t use them,” Tam senior Logan Berry said.
It’s clear that kids today are reliant on their phones. According to Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that provides information about technology, 97 percent of students use their phones during the school day for a median of 43 minutes.
The TUHSD Board of Trustees will make their official decision about enacting the Yondr pouches at their Nov. 19 board meeting. The Yondr Phone pouches in theory make sense for our technology-based generation however there are many questions that have been raised that also need answering. Phones have become one of the most used forms of communication in recent years and can be an extremely helpful tool to students whether it be listening to music while studying or taking a picture of teachers’ notes. While it has many good uses, it can also be a large distraction if kids are texting, playing games, or surfing the internet during essential learning time. The issue of students being addicted to their phones won’t be solved with Yondr pouches. The time and money that would be spent on the new initiative would be a waste when we already have a system setup that can be extremely effective if done correctly.
