Illustration by John Kilpper
Schools Are Hanging Up on Phones in the Classroom
For most people, their smartphones are not just a tool or a gadget, but more like an extension of their being. People rarely turn their phones off or leave their homes without them. Text messages, social media, games, and more compete for our attention, making it difficult to resist succumbing to the distraction of looking at our phones.
Today’s students are no different than the rest of our phone-addicted society. Even though they are supposed to be focused on learning while in school, cell phones are increasingly becoming a near-constant distraction. According to a 2024 Pew Research study, one-third of teachers say distractions caused by cell phones are a problem in their classroom. That number jumps to an astounding 72% when only high school teachers are surveyed.
Many educators insist that cell phones not only hinder the academic performance of students but also negatively affect their mental health and behavior. This belief is supported by a growing body of research showing the detrimental impact of phones on the mental health of adolescents.
This problem has even drawn the attention of lawmakers across the country. In September, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law requiring districts to create rules to restrict student smartphone use. Florida passed a law to ban student cellphone use last year, while similar legislation has also been introduced in several other states, such as Oklahoma, Vermont, and Kansas.
Texas might also see a statewide ban if lawmakers listen to Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. In September, he testified at a Senate Education Committee hearing and urged lawmakers to ban the use of cellphones.
“If it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state,” Morath said. “So I would encourage you to consider that as a matter of public policy going forward for our students and our teachers.”
Any legislation to accomplish that would have to wait until 2025 when the Texas Legislature convenes. However, many school districts are not waiting for lawmakers to order phones out of the classroom. In some cases, they are even employing new technology to enact stricter bans than ones previously in place.
Locking Away the Phones
Killeen ISD is one of the districts moving toward a stricter phone policy after its board of trustees voted last summer to approve a plan to create phone-free schools. The plan requires all high school and middle school students to keep their phones in school-issued pouches. Students keep the pouches with them throughout the day, but the pouches remain locked while the student is at school. The pouches are made by a company called Yondr and are normally used at concerts and other performances to lock up attendee phones to prevent recording.
Mike Quinn, executive director for administrative services in Killeen ISD, has overseen the program’s implementation at all of Killeen’s secondary campuses. The district has issued almost 21,000 pouches.
Prior to this year, the district’s policy required students to turn their phone off during the day. However, in the past several years, Quinn says issues related to phone use in school became noticeably worse, and he had observed an increase in problematic behavior, including fights, illegal activity, and cheating—all tied to students using their phones.
“After the pandemic, it seemed like all of a sudden, cellphones were everywhere,” Quinn says. “Every student had a cellphone out. We started to see a big increase in what was being posted on social media, and we started seeing more cyberbullying. My wife is a recently retired teacher, and she would have to make seven versions of an exam because the cheating is that bad. It was tied to cellphone usage.”
Besides these problems, Quinn says the near-constant distraction caused by cellphones was perhaps the biggest ongoing problem.
“I found research on the number of notifications a student would get on their phones in a 45-minute class, and when you multiplied that number by 30 students, it was over 400 notifications. We did our own experiments with classroom teachers and found similar results.”
Faced with these ongoing problems, Quinn and his Killeen ISD colleagues began discussing what a stricter cell phone policy might look like—and it wasn’t long before a local news broadcast offered a potential solution.
“The assistant superintendent and I saw the exact same newscast one morning,” Quinn recalls. “It showed a nearby school district, La Vega ISD, was making students at their high school lock their phones in a pouch. The principal touted benefits such as fewer behavioral referrals and better test scores. I thought, that is something we need to look at.”
In addition to preventing students from using their phones during the day, the pouches also allow students to keep their phones with them, alleviating concerns of theft if phones were placed at the front of the classroom or in the office. Additionally, this policy promised to remove work from classroom teachers.
“This would allow us to take the burden of managing the cell phone policy away from our teachers and place it on the administration where it should be,” Quinn says. “Our teachers were the ones who were forced to say, ‘Give me your phone.’ What we heard from our teachers is that they didn’t have time to do this all day. We wanted to make sure the instructional day had the least number of distractions possible.”
Pouches Produce Promising Results
Although Killeen ISD has only recently implemented use of pouches to lock up phones, other school districts have seen results after using them for multiple school years. Richardson ISD has used pouches at various campuses for at least three years. Dr. Matthew Gibbins, assistant superintendent for administrative services for Richardson ISD, says his district was grappling with the same problems seen in Killeen ISD.
“We had teachers telling us they were losing lots of instructional time to cell phone management,” Gibbins remembers. “The bullying and behavioral problems were worse because the students had cellphones. As an administrator, I would sometimes see a post on Instagram about a fight before I even knew a fight occurred. I remember being at a high school a couple of years ago where a couple of students were pushing and shoving in the cafeteria. I couldn’t even get over there because of the crowd of students with their phones.”
Several principals reached out to district officials suggesting pouches might be a solution to problems with cellphone use. Richardson ISD started pouch use with a pilot program at just one campus. The next year, four additional junior high campuses began the program. In its third year, the program has expanded to eight total campuses that include all four of the district’s high schools. Gibbins says it is up to the campus principal to decide if the school will use the pouches.
Teachers reported they get back 10 to 15 minutes of classroom instruction per class.
The district conducted surveys of teachers at the campuses that use pouches showing that they are overwhelmingly in favor of the policy. Some teachers even report that they believe it allows them to get back 10 to 15 minutes of classroom instruction per class. Gibbins has even heard directly from teachers who say they have turned down job opportunities in other districts without pouches because they just do not want to fight students over cellphones.
Dennis Hataway, a U.S. history teacher in La Vega ISD, has seen firsthand how the pouches can give this type of time back to teachers.
“It was just a constant battle,” Hataway says. “They always want to have their phones out. When social media became a big thing, it was like they needed the distraction. They were constantly driven to seek out entertainment rather than focusing on what was going on in the classroom.”
However, since his district began using the pouches, Hataway says he has seen a remarkable change.
“I’ve definitely seen an improvement in behavior. I’ve also seen an improvement in grades, including test scores. Students are a little more focused. They can answer questions more readily, and I would say they are more involved. It’s definitely better now.”
Although Killeen ISD has not had the policy as long as either Richardson or La Vega ISDs, Quinn says early indications from campus principals using pouches show similar support. In a recent survey, 17 principals “strongly agree” they would want to start the year again with the pouches, while 19 “agree” they would want to. Only one principal did not select either of those answers. Additionally, 35 of 37 respondents “strongly agree” or “agree” that they saw fewer disciplinary issues after implementing pouch use.
With regard to discipline, both Gibbins and Quinn say that in their roles as administrators, they have seen a noticeable decrease in cellphone-related incidents compared with pre-pouch days.
“The number of times I have been called in to help with investigations around cyberbullying, fights on campus, or inappropriate pictures taken in the bathroom has been cut down significantly,” Gibbins says.
“We’re seeing fewer cellphone-related behavior violations,” Quinn says. “We used to have parents come in with their child and show us on the phone a fight that took place with their child. A lot of times they were upset that somebody else filmed it. Those types of incidents have decreased exponentially.”
Quinn also believes that it has helped the students academically.
“Failure rates for the first quarter are better than they were last year,” Quinn says. “Can we attribute that to the Yondr pouches? I think in a sense, part of that we can.”
Concerns and Pushback from the Community
While these districts have already seen benefits, initially these proposals generated controversy and pushback from the school community, especially parents. According to Gibbins, a common concern of parents centered on safety.
“We always get questions around safety, which I think is valid, and parents should be questioning how that works,” Gibbins says. However, he says he calms their fears by sharing some important information with them.
“First of all, if there is a big enough disturbance on campus, it’s not really very productive for every single student to be pulling out their phones and contacting people outside of the campus. There needs to be some clarity to make sure police, or whoever else is in charge of the situation, is able to figure out what is going on.
“We also have portable magnets that allow an administrator or a teacher to walk through a classroom and unlock the pouches if they need to. If it comes down to it, you can cut those pouches open. It is not something that is impenetrable in that regard.”
Quinn found that he could alleviate some of the concerns by openly communicating with parents and finding solutions to some of their concerns. Many parents wondered how they would contact their children during emergencies. Quinn says he worked to reassure parents that there were ways to relay messages to students as they had done before the advent of cellphones and how they currently do so with elementary students who typically don’t have phones. Some students were using phones throughout the day for medical purposes, such as monitoring their diabetes. Killeen ISD can provide special pouches sealed with Velcro that allow students to check their health information with their phone and return the phone to its pouch.
What Does the Future Hold?
Ultimately, Gibbins says the best metric of success for the program is whether it has changed the culture. They want to create a climate where students are not using their cellphones during the school day. According to the feedback he has heard, the pouches are helping achieve that. He says that you can actually see these results just by walking on campus.
“You walk down the hallway and see kids are talking to each other,” Gibbins says. “They are having conversations. To see kids interacting in that way, like they should be doing at school, it’s really positive.”
Quinn echoes that you could even hear positive results on campus in Killeen ISD.
“One thing you notice right off the bat is the noise level during lunch. The kids are talking to each other during lunch rather than sitting around looking at an electronic device. The students tell me that they are talking more in class as well. Teachers even say they are starting to see improvement with engagement in class.”
Quinn believes technology similar to the pouches will spread to other schools because of what it has helped accomplish so far in Killeen ISD.
“There’s been this total reset that helps get everybody back into that mode of learning and teaching again. And it’s getting kids engaged in the learning process.”
Gibbins agrees the policy will spread. In fact, he estimates officials at approximately 50 different school districts have contacted Richardson ISD to get more information about their experience using the pouches.
Given the success these districts have had locking up phones, as well as the current political climate, it seems certain moving forward that school officials will focus on finding ways to remove phones from classrooms in order to refocus their students on the task of learning.
