(NewsNation) — Sales at Yondr, maker of magnetic pouches that lock up cellphones, are reportedly booming.
A big client adding to those sales are U.S. classrooms, where many students are increasingly required to secure their cellphones before studies begin each day in some schools.
Since 2021, Yondr sales have increased from $174,000 to $2.13 million, according to GovSpend. And “All signs point to 2024 being even busier,” Sarah Leader, the company’s spokeswoman., told Yahoo News.
It’s estimated that 2,000 schools will use the pouches this year, and Yondr has doubled its employee size to 80.
Stopping students from using their cell phones during the day has fueled controversy. Educators appear ecstatic about getting students off their phones during class, but there are lingering concerns from both parents and children about being phoneless in emergency situations and whether this is the best way to address the problem.
Renesha Parks, chief wellness officer at Richmond Public Schools in Virginia, told NewsNation’s “The Hill” of a pilot policy they are implementing in six schools at the beginning of 2024 to stop cellphone usage, partnering with Yondr. The measure will impact around 4,200 students and cost approximately $75,000.
“It’s a very costly initiative. But we do feel like it will decrease the amount of infractions that are happening as a result of student’s cellphone use and increase productivity and academic instruction in the classroom. It’s worth the investment,” Parks said.
One study found that test scores increased by 6.4 percent after schools banned cellphones, and the effect was doubled for low-achieving students.
But along with improved academics, experts say cellphone bans can help children with socio-emotional learning.
“What’s happening is that kids and teens are telling me that they’re not sitting with their feelings because if something happens in class, if a teacher looks at them wrong, where they get a bad grade, they say they have to go to the bathroom, and they go to the bathroom and they’re texting their mom,” said Roni Cohen-Sandler, a clinical psychologist and author of the book “Anything But My Phone, Mom!” “And so, they’re sort of dumping all of this on their moms and they’re not sitting with feelings themselves.”
“They’re not developing tolerance for frustration. They’re not sort of pushing themselves in terms of developing coping skills for dealing with uncomfortable feelings and they’re not solving problems by using the resources that are available to them in school,” Cohen-Sandler said.
However, outside of arguments about students having access to phones in emergency situations, some say bans don’t teach children how to use cellphones responsibly or solve the primary problem.
“The far better approach is to make sure you create a culture in your school of healthy tech use. And there are schools all over the place that have done it, and it’s great and it works. But schools don’t do it and don’t take the time to create a healthy tech culture and just want to ban tech, and that just harms kids,” said Richard Culatta, CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education.
Culatta said schools need to be looking at how to teach students the “dos” of technology as well as the “don’ts” and not tackle the issue by avoiding it.
“We got to teach those skills. They’re essential. Nobody on the planet would tell me that healthy tech skills aren’t needed for future jobs and future life happiness, right,” Culatta said. “So then why on Earth would we not be teaching those skills that we know are so important?”
