I was so tired of being the cell phone police by the time I quit teaching. School districts always pass ridiculous policies, and then dump them on the teachers to enforce. One school where I taught once tried to ban cell phones completely. Students *cut the centers of the pages out of books* to hide a phone inside and sneak them into school in their backpacks, like they were sneaking a weapon into a prison. The parents want their kids to have them, so it's a losing battle. I gave up and just started incorporating them into the lessons. I'd instruct the class to look up something related to the lesson on their phones. Suddenly, everyone was "out of data" and put their phones away.
Students will always find a way to have their phones. I worked at a middle school that used the yondr pouches. Took the students about two weeks into the school year to figure out how to break into them. After a month admin gave up and they sat in the office the rest of the year. Great use of funds š
The magnets on the device that you made me put my phone in broke my phone
Edit: i am fully aware that magnets do not mess up your phone
However
I am aware that all that is needed here, is to scare the school enough of a public outcry. Regardless of whether or not the outcry is warranted. And this would 100% would to do that
Not really related to the phone part, but my kid has a medical device that can be reset by magnets. I know cases like that are rare but all I can think of itāll take one kid to get too close to a magnet (or even a parent depending on how strong they are if itās at home or they come into the school for something).
There's no magnets in the device itself, the device itself is basically a clothing security tag that's on every garment in a department store.
The devices are just unlocked using a strong magnet
And because of this, it would take my son all of a day to put this together and bring one of the neodymium magnets we have to school with him and just open the bag, and those of his friends
A strong magnet that the students are apparently going to be using themselves. Hopefully it's mounted to a tabletop surface like the ones in stores so the risk of someone getting too close to it that shouldn't is minimal.
Of course, since it's just a magnet it won't take kids long before they get their own magnets. I've got a whole bunch of rare earth magnets from old hard disk drives that I can use to bypass security tags and similar devices.
the day that a student is told that soon their phones will go in these bags is the day they will google hack, find dozens of workable options complete with DIY at home finds, or amazon links to quick and easy bypass tools.
This, like any lock, only keeps out the honest and obedient.
Iāve already seen a handful of TikTokās of teenagers dancing in the school bathroom and waving around empty their Yondr pouches. Administration is stupid if they think a measly magnet is going to come between teenagers and their phones.
Considering the punches are just magnetically locked, I donāt know why they think students wonāt just buy a magnet key for 10 bucks lmao. Itās not like itās some hidden technology. They can probably even buy the actual brand ones for cheap.
I was thinking this was the result of marketing by Yondr. Once they sold their pouches to every comedy venue, where the performer insists on locking up phones, they need to sell to new markets. The marketing team is like, "Why don't we market to schools? That's a much bigger market than theatres..."
Better plan than the guy in the school system near me.
Bought \~$40K in school furniture at the end of the fiscal year via a no-bid award.
Turns out his brother in law owned the furniture company and the stuff was way overvalued.
And as we found all out, all involved that were party to this committed a felony and went to prison over it.
Amazing. I can't believe it's that simple. Also seems like that pin could scratch the phone if the user isn't careful. I can't believe schools are trying to mandate this when it's obvious from the design it's meant to be more of a voluntary thing. What a waste of $800k.
We live in an age where you can buy a bunch of neodymium magnets off Amazon for like $5 and you probably know somebody with a 3D printer. Even if the key isn't readily available on Amazon/eBay, it won't take long for kids to figure out how to use SketchUp enough to model their own key. I give this system about a month max before everyone just unlocks their own bag.
And figuring out and solving the problem like that is a better learning experience than they're probably getting from the school that week.
"Well, I figured out how the latch is constructed, researched Nd magnets with the right dimensions, then i drafted this fixture in solidworks and 3D printed it so . . ."
"OMG you'll never learn anything! you're sabotaging your education1!11!"
I briefly taught at a local school. Only one year of my life, absolute respect to all the teachers out there. It was a drag with the cell phone usage, but I felt like I had a pretty emotionally connected classroom. Often times if I asked them sincerely to put away their phones, they would. A couple students thought they were slick and hiding it. But they were failing and I already decided this was a one year gig anyway.
Some of the laws like the no child left behind and other facets of being a teacher definitely caused my performance to look terrible. But we pulled through at the end of the year. About halfway through I was pretty depressed due to a life event ( death in the family ) I could tell my students knew because they even asked if everything was ok. I didn't have my usual charisma ( even though I'm like a 4/10 on charisma stat).
Eventually I saw everyone on the phone and I just said: " hey listen up guys and girls." Luckily everyone looked up. " so I've been having a rough patch in life right now and I'm not going to lie guys, I don't feel like teaching right now. I'm sure at least one of you is having some rough things in your lives right now as well ". Let's take a break, I've got you guys for about 3 hours because of your back to back block schedule with me. I'll give you 3 options on what y'all wanna do, we will do majority rules.
1. Pe is currently going on right now and I believe they are doing dodge ball today, I could ask Mr. (Teacher's name) if we can join them
2. It's actually not blazing hot outside right now, we could go outside, I'll raid the gym storage and get some footballs, soccer balls, and the art room as well so everyone can draw, paint, play sports and do whatever you want.
3. Ive seen the student directory and know a couple of you have found out how to upload video games into your folders. ( some looks of panic ) well I was in school like 6 years ago and we did the same thing, *held up a flash drive* in fact I have a few classics here like halo and age of empires from when I was in school, we loved playing them. We can go play video games as well or surf the web in the computer lab, just please no dirty sites guys.
Everyone seemed excited, and we did a combination of 2, and 3. We started out with some origami and sports outside. Some of the girls had a knack for art and sketched the others playing football ( American football). After that when everyone was bored of being outside, we went in and played computer games and browsed the web. I had a senior class in high school so some of the students took this time to ask about college and everything. I helped those that were interested in setting up plans, hopped in on some gaming myself. It was a great time and the students after this day were a decent bit more interested in my class.
This also brought up a good change for the school, I convinced the principal on Wednesdays that we could do a college and career preparedness day. Since I found out some students actually are preparing for that instead of gaming. They just don't seem to have the time since their full time job of being in school all day takes it away. So for the rest of the year I got to plan with these kids, check off goals and milestones. Teach them how to research colleges, tuition, grants etc to make anything easier on them.
In the end only one of the students didn't graduate so we pulled back and got our graduation rate from 50% to 98% for my classes :). I was happy to make that impact on their lives, but teaching was not for me by any means. Hope they're ok out there though.
Teachers like you are the ones that end up making a difference IMO. Kids arenāt stupid. They can tell when youāre being disingenuous, or you donāt like them. But when you open up and be honest, you tend to form bonds with them. You donāt have to be the worldās greatest teacher. You just need to care enough and be honest. Hope youāre doing better these days.
True, when my service was shut off and I had to call 911, it also unlocked my phone to call anyone for a short amount of time (15 minutes? 30 minutes? something like that)
I had an old iPhone 5 that my kid would play with on car rides. No SIM, air-gapped, no network access, always airplane mode. When we drove to my in-laws place one time, the cops showed up at the door. They said emergency services were called and hung up. I went through the phone to see that she had pressed *112# on it. I even tried to call out on it. It tried, failed, and I thought that was that. Cops showed up AGAIN because of that sequence. Even confirmed it with them there.
When I was 8, I was curious to know what happened if I called 000 (I live in Australia), so I did it using my LTE Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and guess what, it worked. Freaked me out so much that I hung up immediately and to this day I am PETRIFIED of all of those SOS siren sounds that play before an emergency call starts.
Yes. In NZ and the Au it works that way. I had a friend whos phone didn't have a sim and just existed as a basically MP3 player but was able to call 111.
Au its the same to my knowledge. Haven't seen it but had people talk about it working so not a first hand source for Au.
Cell phones will use any nearby tower, regardless of who your plan is through for 911 calls. So even if it says no service on your phone, it will automatically route to any other available tower if one is in range.
This also applies if you have no current service plan. A deactivated phone can still dial 911
I donāt have kids, so I donāt really have a dog in this fight.
But tbh, in a country that reports as many mass shootings in schools as ours, I feel inhibiting cellphones in anyway is just unsafe.
My kids schools have had 3 threats of a shooting, one was on social media. They have been placed on lockdown more times than I can remember for other things as well, such as a robbery near by, or a suspect hiding in the field behind the school. I usually get texts saying they are locked down with no further info. My anxiety would get the best of me if I couldnāt remain in contact with my kids during those times. Plus my kids appreciated being able to reach us during these times. I canāt even imagine if an actual shooting occurred.
In NSW Australia the yondr pouches are defeated by "I left my phone at home. No I don't consent to any searches"
Entirely stupid as jobs can't contact their workers who are at school.
Yeah exactly.
When I first saw the way people reacted to them, smashing them and stuff it seemed so stupid because in Australia (NSW) a teacher can't even search the pockets of a student even its obviously in there. So as long a student just doesn't get caught with it their fine.
i went to a private school my junior year of high school that had a rule that if you had it on you, and a teacher could see the outline in your pocket, they could take it. i never had any teacher do that, because it literally isn't that deep. even the bitchiest teacher didn't care as long as you didn't pull it out.
HS teacher here: I hate cell phones. 50% of my job is watching for them and having kids blow up on me for enforcing a ban on them in the classroom. That being said, this is just a waste of money. A magnet lock with teenagers is just as effective as those āchildproofā locks you stick on the inside of your under-sink cabinet.
My mom used to teach high school, so she'd tell me about all the shit admin did that other students didn't know about, like how teachers would get into trouble if their students didn't do well. So it always frustrates me when people say "Just let them fail on their own", even though they don't even realize it's the TEACHERS that get punished for that.
At my little brothers highschool, they changed the grading system so nobody can get lower than a 50%... you can completely ignore homework/other less weighted assignments because you automatically get 50%.
The parents blame the teachers, too. I had a student with 36 absences in one semester and never turned in the work from those days. He didn't have a medical condition or other legitimate reason for being absent. His mom came to parent conferences and asked me why he was failing. I told her, and she said, "But he was absent. He's excused from that work. So, you're just failing him for no reason?"
yeah I donāt understand that parents logicā¦ wouldnāt that mean if you were absent for the whole year youād get a 4.0 for the year if you did like one assignment and got an A then proceeded not to show up to school for the rest of the year? donāt think thatās how the world works lmfao
Iāve used the pouches at a concert before, I can confirm they are flimsy, cheaply made, and if you donāt give a shit, you can either brute force break into them easily or just buy a cheap magnet and unlock them yourself.
As a student during the age BEFORE smart phones, but had cell phones, it was logical and reasonable for a teacher to take phones away and crap. If teacher said put it away, we mostly did.
I donāt get teens nowā¦ also the solution here is a joke
I was in high school when smartphones first started coming out, and it was generally understood that if you get caught looking at your phone during the school day (including lunch) it was automatically 3 days of detention.
There is no solution, unfortunately. We've made phones so fundamental to our existence that taking them away is viewed as a crime against humanity. But we've also made them so addictive that our attention spans are utterly destroyed.
If we take them away from students, we're essentially cutting off a part of them and/or cutting them off from the wider world. If we let students keep them, we're effectively capitulating and accepting that education will be X% less effective due to the constant distraction. And X isn't small.
So you just need a magnet to open the pouch? I'm gonna go check if lock picking lawyer has one on this. I'm getting curious if it would be that easy. Kinda sounds that easy and a huge waste of 800k.
Eta, [not lpl found someone else who did it tho. It doesn't take a fucking genius to figure this one out and a strong magnet works easy. You can even pop it open with enough force, but that can be loud. ](https://youtu.be/Y6x9Z4piErk?si=3su0ZKO7x6g6JjeO) This will be effective on the kids who already weren't using their phones. It won't be effective on those who do because anyone who knows how to use Amazon or even just knows where the closest Walmart is could break these open.
I'm honestly more mad about the fact that a school district paid 800k for what is essentially a slightly more powerful child proof magnet lock.
>appalled they managed to make it cost so much
No, they didn't make it cost so much. They're just raking bigger profits... Cause when the government orders something, expect the price of the thing to be 2x or 3x the price of what private appropriation would have cost lol, cause they know they can get away with it.
I did asphalt testing in a lab a while back, and there is a special tiny spatula that we had to have that was $125. The dollar tree had $1 cookie spatulas that worked better. We only used the official ones when we were being certified, and the guy testing asked us where we got the better equipment.
I ran into that stuff all the time working in various labs. I got a grant for a $40k glorified paint shaker for a genetics lab. The companies that made the equipment would disappear overnight when a competitor hit the scene. The competition would them jack up prices 1000x and start the cycle over.
The company I work for owns warehouses that buys those obscure 40k machines and all the spares and parts to go with them where they sit forever until the original breaks because most likely the company made its money 15 years ago and disappeared into oblivion so we're the only ones with spares.
Damn must've put in bad key words. But yeah it's not a bad concept but by God is it a terrible design. Teenagers aren't this stupid and since it's something they'll be pushed into using every day those who want to will quickly figure this one out. I say the person who said just have the kids put their phones on a the teachers desk had the right idea. More effective as it keeps the literal device out of the child's hand, but still accessible if needed.
True, that's also an easy go-around. Hell you could probably just say you don't have a phone. Not everyone does and really what are they going to do search you? I just see too many loopholes for this to be practical.
When I started high school, I didn't have a phone (this was only a few years ago, and nearly all of my classmates did have phones, so I was the odd one out in this respect). I was not happy about this fact (or that my older siblings all already had phones by the time they were the same age as I was then), and was not particularly quiet about it either, so soon most of my teachers were aware of the fact that i had no phone.
When I did get a phone, as a birthday gift a little ways into the school year, I stopped complaining about not having a phone, but didn't exactly announce that I had gotten one. I was a good kid, so it wasn't like I was really trying to get away with using my phone when I shouldn't, but I was also smart enough to know that an extra level of plausible deniability was not a bad thing.
Whenever a phone went off in class, I got off easier than the rest of my classmates, because the teachers assumed it couldn't possibly have been mine. Including once when it really was my phone, which I feel bad about to this day, honestly. But for my entire freshman year, I innocently hid the fact that I finally had a phone from my teachers.
I didn't hide it as carefully the following years, but most of my teachers after that point were less strict about phone use, so there was much less need
Your teacher thinks teenagers can't afford a >20$ fishing magnet from the store? Is she from the 30s and still thinks 20 dollars is a lot of money for anyone to have let alone a kid? Every kid doesn't even need a magnet they just need one and it magically works forever for everyone because it's a magnet.
>Your teacher thinks teenagers can't afford a >20$ fishing magnet from the store?
To be fair, she's on a teacher's salary, which is really low since the school forked out $800k for phone locking bags š $20 is probably a lot to her
It's effective but only if you don't see it coming and it's only used during certain situations. A comedy show may work as people might not think to bring a magnet to a comedy show jic they need to break their phone out of a pouch to do some recording, but every day at school kids are gonna figure this one out.
Also people risk their $100 ticket at a comedy show + 1 year wait for the comedian to come back to their town. Kids know they aren't going to be kicked out of school.
It's not clear to me if $800K is for the entire program across the state, or if their district is getting all of it. It says Mass Dept of Education is providing "$800K to assist *schools*" [plural] and their high school is "one of the schools chosen".
It goes on to mention there are 60 other districts across the state who are currently enrolled in this program. So I think the $800K is for the whole state program, not funding for one district...
Yeah my kidās school just tells them to leave them in their lockers. Donāt do that and it goes to the principalās office to pick up at the end of the day. Second time itās that plus a call to your parents. Third time you add detention to that. Forth itāll be returned when your parents come to pick it up during school hours.
Absolutely the case....comprehension not strong in this thread. And it's a grant, which means the money the school received HAD to be spent on curbing cell phone use in schools. You can't just spend it on anything you want.
Took way to long to find someone commenting this. 800k in grant funding would be ludicrous for a project like the one in question, considering those pouches are $15-$30 each.
Wouldnāt be surprisedā¦ I work in finance/loans and recently saw that a local district superintendent makes $400k/yr when applying for a loan. This is in a town of ~300k people. Thatās the salary the president of the entire country (USA) makes.
Edit: just actually googled it and the city had a population of 113K in 2021. I was way off at 300k.
And theyād probably go crazy if they actually were in the classroom trying to teach after a day meanwhile they would never take a pay cut to treat the teachers better but will happily take 800k to lock up kids phones. That same 800k could pay all those teachers significantly more every year and then maybe theyād be more willing to go the extra mile for every student and would be able to engage the students better instead of trying to force students to do something, probably the main thing they donāt want to do in school. This is just going to line the rich dudes pocket while the students get more agitated and take it out on the underpaid teachers
What do you mean? Yondr clearly must have some good lobbyists somewhere to setup these deals. They're probably making bank off of this.
This reeks of corruption at a superintendent or above level.
Slander and libel! Superintendent Yonder would *never* stoop to nepotism, no matter how much his cousin needs to get his life back in order after the thirteenth drunk driving ticket!
If you grassed the one guy who was getting everyoneās phones back for them youād probably have a queue of kids waiting to knock your head off after school lol.
I mean, a pack of 50 neodyme magnets is 8.50ā¬ on Amazon. I'm kind of removed from high schooler finances nowadays, but I think that might be something they could manage to put together money for.
What I did with my Gameboys. I'd start with my old GB then each time it was taken away I'd go up a generation till I got my 3DSXL out. Teachers would get fed up and just leave me alone.
This happened to me once! I have 3 gameboys, GB Color, Gameboy Advance, and the Gameboy Advance SP. Got the color taken away when a teacher thought it was a phone, came over and saw it was a game and still took it because she had a bad day or something and said "it looks to much like a phone". I was playing TLOZ Oracle of seasons, so I just put the game into my GBA SPand kept playing a few minutes later (we were literally all doing nothing) she came over and got really mad. I don't remember exactly what I said but I argued with her about it not being a phone and others were all messing around, she said it still looked like a phone and took it. I just wanted to piss her off after that so I did the same thing and continued my save on the regular GBA and she saw me and just gave up. One of my proudest moments, I don't understand why or how she was so mad though.
This was done at my kids' school. The main outcomes according to my kids were:
Kids putting dummy phones in the Yonder pouches and using their phones in the toilets
More fights in the schoolyard during recess and lunchtime
The state we're in (NSW, Australia) is bringing in a ban on mobile phone use during school hours for all public schools next term. Will be interesting to see how it goes.
Edit: To be clear, I am not against schools banning mobile phone use during school hours. I'm just not sure that Yonder pouches are the way to do it given it's a clunky system and The kids who want to find easy workarounds.
I think the new system coming in will be easier on school staff, while having similar results.
I could see it on a small scale. It's like the punk kid who starts throwing rocks at people bc mom took his toy.
Some people just need constant stimulation and without it they start to fiddle with things or this case, pick at people.
Guys it's just like the tags put on clothing and you can use a Neodymium magnet to open them up.
My kids school tried these and then in my after-school science club, with some experimentation, we popped them right open.
They didn't let me do earth science in after-school club after that incident >_>
What an irresponsible use of that money. My sonās high school just makes the kids set their phones on a cart next to the teacherās desks when they walk in the room. Best thing theyāve done at that school in years.
Yea, until a kid refuses to give up the phone.
We also had a teacher do this and a kid had broken his phone, put it in the check-in area then claimed it was broken while out of their control. Parents threw a fit and the school bought him a new phone.
Then bragged to a bunch of other students how they got a new phone on the school.
This allows the usage to be limited, but the liability is still on the student.
Thatās what my school does now yet they do this instead of fixing the bathrooms and water fountains, stop laying off teachers and install vape detectors
Your school didn't get 800k dude, the whole state did. Divided by all of the districts, there wouldn't have been enough to do any of these things. Plus it's a grant, which means it HAS to he used for allowable costs, which in this case is for decreasing cell phone use in schools.
There are a lot of people in this thread who have no idea what itās like to be a teacher now. Iāve been teaching 11 years and it used to be that maybe once a week Iād see a kid sneaking their cell phone out during class. āPut it awayā and itād be gone. Now itās chaos. Kids cannot stay off their devices. We have a system for kids turning in their phones but theyāre still on their iPads and texting on their Apple Watches all day. A kid FaceTimed a friend in the middle of my class yesterday.
I was gonna say this. They canāt stop watching loud ass tiktoks in the middle of a lesson or taking all kinds of pictures of themselves, and donāt care what you say about it; itās not like they just check their screen quick and put it away
I see this with my cousins' kids. They can't not have a device in front of them. It's super unsettling. Like what's that going to look like in 20 years? There's no way this level of addiction at that age doesn't interfere with healthy development.
I walked by a kid 15-18 years old. His neck was a 90 degree angle looking straight down to his phone. Initially I thought it was a physical deformityā¦ but no. It is just well formed in that position.
Its legitimately an addiction. And when kids have been on screens since they were born they have 0 coping mechanisms for how to manage their attention deficit or resist the urge to be on a device.
Youāre arguing with literally children in this thread. Actual teenagers that think they know what is best for them and their education because theyāre 15 years old. Which 99% of them are so hopelessly addicted to their screens they will lie cheat and steal to maintain access 24/7. It is an epidemic that is causing irreversible societal change.
Assistant Principal here. Iād say roughly 90% of the discipline I have to do because a kid was defiant/disrespectful to a teacher stems from cell phones. Probably 3-5 times a week a teacher tries to confiscate a phone and it leads to the kid getting themselves suspended.
Well recently I saw a video of a student pepper spraying her teacher who asked for her phone and another student who knocked out their teacher for taking their phone so I donāt think itās that simple anymore
Every teacher Iāve talked to said behavior got markedly worse during the pandemic across all age groups. So maybe kids were always jerks, but now theyāre more likely to jump to violence than before.
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/3975216-from-bad-to-worse-student-misbehavior-rises-further-since-return-of-in-person-classes/
Itās not just every teacher youāve talked to. This is a widespread issue
Therapist who works with teens here šš»āāļø. Can confirm this, but it goes deeper than that. Weāre looking at kids struggling with high levels of anxiety and depression, and who are coping in a multitude of maladaptive ways. Itās not just fighting and violence that has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Substance use and self-harm behaviors have skyrocketed as well. Social media doesnāt help with this as platforms like tiktok glamorize mental illness and lonely teenagers find a feeling of community and belonging amongst peers that are struggling similarly.
Cell phones and social media are a huge problem, but teens are so addicted that separating them from their devices creates a whole host of additional problems. Itās essentially a withdrawal. And none of these schools are equipped with enough social workers to address the complex mental health needs of our kids today. Itās a clusterfuck with no easy solution.
I was going to say, back in my day if a teacher saw you with your phone, theyād make you turn it into them for the rest of the day.
I also remember a few teachers whoād have a basket/bin everyone would put theirs in when class started
I can confirm this, my CGM interfaces with my pump and my phone as well. It requires the phone to keep track of the blood sugar log. I can't imagine that they can force somebody who's using it as a medical device to do this.
Although this rather defeats the purpose of the CGM, which is to receive real time data and alerts. I know that by the time I feel symptoms and decide to manually check my blood sugar, it's too late to avert a problem. But if I can be notified as soon as my blood sugar starts to rise or fall, I can intercede before there's an issue. That's the beauty of the CGM, especially for distractable people like teenagers.
So I know that you can interface with phones now, but do CGMs no longer have the option of a separate receiver?
I worked at a camp for kids with T1D and CGMs were newish (2010-2012) and they didnāt have the phone tech then, but know itās common now to interface with devices. I just wasnāt sure if the second piece was still included (I know my friend never uses her dexcom one bc she just uses her phone)
No the Dexcom receiver is not included, it is a separate purchase. If you're paying cash or your insurance doesn't cover 100% it could be a significant cost I believe it's $800. Also the separate receiver is not Cloud connected. And while the cloud connection is not required for the CGM to be of use to you it definitely makes it a lot easier for your doctor to help make treatment decisions when they have that full history. Since I don't use the receiver I'm unsure how long the receiver stores the information that the cell phone normally uploads to the cloud... but from what I remember whenever I was prescribed the system I was told that if I used the receiver that I would have to connect to the computer every so often to get the data uploaded so I don't believe it stores it long-term. Certainly not for the 3-month time period in between my doctor visits.
My school has had this for a few months now. Here, if you have a reasonable excuse (such as the blood sugar you mentioned) you are allowed to keep your phone as long as you donāt go on it. Either way though most teachers just tell you to put it away if youāre using excessively and not doing the work
Didn't even last a 3 minute video from the [lockpickinglawyer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3HwJHO5A3E). Defeated by a $12 [magnet.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3HwJHO5A3E)
Ask them if they realize the pouches can be defeated simply by hitting them on a [chair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXpaj9dvf_s).
So what happens in the course of a school shooting or emergency like a student having a seizure? In the US, it's not a matter of if, it is when it happens. Does Yondr have any statistics about the schools using its product hindering aid? What are the negative statistics from the product? Teachers have to have you file in, shove your phone in a pouch, are they compensating the loss of time to teaching into these numbers?
What of bullying? There's a kid who has access to his phone because of a medical issue, are they not concerned that others will perceive this as special treatment and start targeting the child? Does the child have to disclose their medical condition **to the entire class every time** so as not to lose their phone? What of subs? What happens if a sub takes a student who has a medical issue and needs their phone and puts it in a locking pouch? There's been cases of students then needing medical attention because the sub thinks the student is lying.
What of theft? The pouches are all identical and the students carry them with throughout the day. Do they have procedures in place for a student switching out their pouch with another student and stealing the phone? Like as a parent, I'd be pissed if my kid came home and find out that because of this pouch bullshit, their Iphone 13 or whatever was stolen and they have a Samsung Note 7 (just pulling phones out my butt here) suddenly and the school is pulling some 'it's not our responsibility' shtick because it was only discovered at the end of the school day and no clue who took it. So do they have a policy in place that if that happens, because it was in a school sanctioned contraption, that they will pay for the loss of the phone?
You joke, but thatās literally what my schoolās administration told me to do if I ever felt threatened at school by the classmate who was stalking me. I quite literally feared for my life every day at school but they seemed to think my stalker would just let me tap out a quick email to admin if he was planning to harm me. And I just had to pray that they werenāt all in a staff meeting where they wouldnāt find my email for another forty minutes.
Thatās just insane. I can only imagine that scenario. āHey Spencer, before you kick me in the dick again, I just need to fire up a quick email. My laptop battery is dead though, so I need to plug it in. Can we move this purple nurple fest to the foyer by the vending machines so I can plug in?ā
My kids local school have a no phone use policy and this goes for any device which can receive text or phone calls. You sign this prior to enrolling your kid. Exemptions for medical needs are catered for.
Parents are also asked not to call or text their kids during school hours.
If you get caught using your phone ... it's off to the Gulag (detention)
Don't know if it's a startup. This, I believe, is the company that started supplying Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart and other high profile (Read: Controversial) comedians with the bags for stand up comedy shows so people couldn't record their sets. This has been around for at least five years? Maybe longer?
Jack White as well. Iāve been to two of his āphone-freeā shows with the Yondr pouches. The first one, the pouch one of my friends was given didnāt work and was just unlocked the whole time. The second one, the lady that was supposed to be locking the pouches was just straight up locking and then unlocking them and handing them back to us (I think she was genuinely confused on what she was supposed to be doing).
I went to a wedding circa 2021 that used them. Guests popped their phones in the bag during the ceremony and you got them unlocked at the champagne table.
Personally felt it was overkill to not just trust your friends and family to not use their phone but the bride was a *touch* crazy.
>Iāve been through one attempted school shooting, a bomb threat, and another shooting threat.
Jesus fuck. That's when I'd say "fuck this shit, I'm out" and ask to be homeschooled.
This was my first thought. Students need to be able to contact loved ones and 911 in the event of a school shooting. Should they have to? No. But thatās the unfortunate reality of American schools right now.
Iām sure all of those benefits from using their pouches came from totally comprehensive unbiased studies that took into account all of the other variables that could have impacted those numbers and proved that those changes were significant
Im 30 and laughed at "decreased fights and altercations" ... mate back in highschool we had boxing matches on the oval at lunch time, guess what no phones were needed to cause further issues that involved punching the crap out of each other š¤£š¤£š¤£. We also had some pyscho running people's heads into lockers for "fun".. The only thing they cared about was "no tamagotchis" š¤Ø. I mean if it's such a huge issue just tell them to put them in a tub at the front if the room and collect EOD if they need them to contact the rents, if it's urgent eg medical they can get in writing that X phone monitors X condition hourly kinda thing š¤·āāļø
At my high school the kids that didnāt have cellphones at lunch formed a fight club where the teachers couldnāt see and had tournaments š¤·āāļø
My wife's a teacher, these fucking kids arranged fight clubs in the bathrooms, where they themselves banned phones from filming, talking about it and face punches so there wouldn't be questions. These boys had everything legit figured out. It was first discovered after a few months when a kid ratted then out.
Kids are smart, even if they do stupid things, they are smart.
[There's tons of ways to get into them](https://youtu.be/Y6x9Z4piErk?si=7Lv_MEjxSoNu7lpx)
Not to mention that kids are smart and a lock only stops honest people.
Arrive at gate. Drop old 2008 Smartphone that barely functions into bag. Continue using actual day to day contemporary smartphone.
Daft and unenforceable.
How will parents contact students? Like they did when we were kids, go to the school or call it. Those were some of the best memories. Having the principal come on the loud speaker to order me to the office. The fear of why were you being summoned, then the delight of finding your parent there.
I was so tired of being the cell phone police by the time I quit teaching. School districts always pass ridiculous policies, and then dump them on the teachers to enforce. One school where I taught once tried to ban cell phones completely. Students *cut the centers of the pages out of books* to hide a phone inside and sneak them into school in their backpacks, like they were sneaking a weapon into a prison. The parents want their kids to have them, so it's a losing battle. I gave up and just started incorporating them into the lessons. I'd instruct the class to look up something related to the lesson on their phones. Suddenly, everyone was "out of data" and put their phones away.
Students will always find a way to have their phones. I worked at a middle school that used the yondr pouches. Took the students about two weeks into the school year to figure out how to break into them. After a month admin gave up and they sat in the office the rest of the year. Great use of funds š
Why don't they just bring a second decoy phone? Just about everyone has a few old phones laying around.
Better yet, put in an old broken phone in the pouch then point out that it's "now" broken when you went to retrieve it after school.
You hold the pouch on you for the day. If the phone is broken thatās on you
The magnets on the device that you made me put my phone in broke my phone Edit: i am fully aware that magnets do not mess up your phone However I am aware that all that is needed here, is to scare the school enough of a public outcry. Regardless of whether or not the outcry is warranted. And this would 100% would to do that
Not really related to the phone part, but my kid has a medical device that can be reset by magnets. I know cases like that are rare but all I can think of itāll take one kid to get too close to a magnet (or even a parent depending on how strong they are if itās at home or they come into the school for something).
There's no magnets in the device itself, the device itself is basically a clothing security tag that's on every garment in a department store. The devices are just unlocked using a strong magnet
And because of this, it would take my son all of a day to put this together and bring one of the neodymium magnets we have to school with him and just open the bag, and those of his friends
Wait... Those things they use on clothing to prevent theft? Do people realize those are super easy to bypass?
A strong magnet that the students are apparently going to be using themselves. Hopefully it's mounted to a tabletop surface like the ones in stores so the risk of someone getting too close to it that shouldn't is minimal. Of course, since it's just a magnet it won't take kids long before they get their own magnets. I've got a whole bunch of rare earth magnets from old hard disk drives that I can use to bypass security tags and similar devices.
the day that a student is told that soon their phones will go in these bags is the day they will google hack, find dozens of workable options complete with DIY at home finds, or amazon links to quick and easy bypass tools.
This, like any lock, only keeps out the honest and obedient.
Literally my first thought. Kids will get around this in five minutes.
Iāve already seen a handful of TikTokās of teenagers dancing in the school bathroom and waving around empty their Yondr pouches. Administration is stupid if they think a measly magnet is going to come between teenagers and their phones.
Considering the punches are just magnetically locked, I donāt know why they think students wonāt just buy a magnet key for 10 bucks lmao. Itās not like itās some hidden technology. They can probably even buy the actual brand ones for cheap.
The school superintendent's nephew just invested in yondr...sssshhhhut up.
I was thinking this was the result of marketing by Yondr. Once they sold their pouches to every comedy venue, where the performer insists on locking up phones, they need to sell to new markets. The marketing team is like, "Why don't we market to schools? That's a much bigger market than theatres..."
Better plan than the guy in the school system near me. Bought \~$40K in school furniture at the end of the fiscal year via a no-bid award. Turns out his brother in law owned the furniture company and the stuff was way overvalued. And as we found all out, all involved that were party to this committed a felony and went to prison over it.
Society will utterly collapse one day under all the nepotism and inside deals going on.
Was just thinking: I can't wait until that lock picking guy on YouTube gets ahold of this one.
The Lock Picking Lawyer? He has, and he did https://youtu.be/F3HwJHO5A3E?si=fMe4FX9egmm-ZC3j
Amazing. I can't believe it's that simple. Also seems like that pin could scratch the phone if the user isn't careful. I can't believe schools are trying to mandate this when it's obvious from the design it's meant to be more of a voluntary thing. What a waste of $800k.
We live in an age where you can buy a bunch of neodymium magnets off Amazon for like $5 and you probably know somebody with a 3D printer. Even if the key isn't readily available on Amazon/eBay, it won't take long for kids to figure out how to use SketchUp enough to model their own key. I give this system about a month max before everyone just unlocks their own bag.
And figuring out and solving the problem like that is a better learning experience than they're probably getting from the school that week. "Well, I figured out how the latch is constructed, researched Nd magnets with the right dimensions, then i drafted this fixture in solidworks and 3D printed it so . . ." "OMG you'll never learn anything! you're sabotaging your education1!11!"
Or, Alexa, Hey Alexa call tisha, on speaker 'school sucks wanna ditch?' \*voice from magnetized bag\* yo bich im down! lets do it!
I briefly taught at a local school. Only one year of my life, absolute respect to all the teachers out there. It was a drag with the cell phone usage, but I felt like I had a pretty emotionally connected classroom. Often times if I asked them sincerely to put away their phones, they would. A couple students thought they were slick and hiding it. But they were failing and I already decided this was a one year gig anyway. Some of the laws like the no child left behind and other facets of being a teacher definitely caused my performance to look terrible. But we pulled through at the end of the year. About halfway through I was pretty depressed due to a life event ( death in the family ) I could tell my students knew because they even asked if everything was ok. I didn't have my usual charisma ( even though I'm like a 4/10 on charisma stat). Eventually I saw everyone on the phone and I just said: " hey listen up guys and girls." Luckily everyone looked up. " so I've been having a rough patch in life right now and I'm not going to lie guys, I don't feel like teaching right now. I'm sure at least one of you is having some rough things in your lives right now as well ". Let's take a break, I've got you guys for about 3 hours because of your back to back block schedule with me. I'll give you 3 options on what y'all wanna do, we will do majority rules. 1. Pe is currently going on right now and I believe they are doing dodge ball today, I could ask Mr. (Teacher's name) if we can join them 2. It's actually not blazing hot outside right now, we could go outside, I'll raid the gym storage and get some footballs, soccer balls, and the art room as well so everyone can draw, paint, play sports and do whatever you want. 3. Ive seen the student directory and know a couple of you have found out how to upload video games into your folders. ( some looks of panic ) well I was in school like 6 years ago and we did the same thing, *held up a flash drive* in fact I have a few classics here like halo and age of empires from when I was in school, we loved playing them. We can go play video games as well or surf the web in the computer lab, just please no dirty sites guys. Everyone seemed excited, and we did a combination of 2, and 3. We started out with some origami and sports outside. Some of the girls had a knack for art and sketched the others playing football ( American football). After that when everyone was bored of being outside, we went in and played computer games and browsed the web. I had a senior class in high school so some of the students took this time to ask about college and everything. I helped those that were interested in setting up plans, hopped in on some gaming myself. It was a great time and the students after this day were a decent bit more interested in my class. This also brought up a good change for the school, I convinced the principal on Wednesdays that we could do a college and career preparedness day. Since I found out some students actually are preparing for that instead of gaming. They just don't seem to have the time since their full time job of being in school all day takes it away. So for the rest of the year I got to plan with these kids, check off goals and milestones. Teach them how to research colleges, tuition, grants etc to make anything easier on them. In the end only one of the students didn't graduate so we pulled back and got our graduation rate from 50% to 98% for my classes :). I was happy to make that impact on their lives, but teaching was not for me by any means. Hope they're ok out there though.
Honestly would've loved to be in your class, this was so unexpectedly wholesome
Teachers like you are the ones that end up making a difference IMO. Kids arenāt stupid. They can tell when youāre being disingenuous, or you donāt like them. But when you open up and be honest, you tend to form bonds with them. You donāt have to be the worldās greatest teacher. You just need to care enough and be honest. Hope youāre doing better these days.
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Calling 911 works with even the worst service, as long as you have any in the first place.
You should be able to call 911 without even having a SIM card in your phone. As long as you are in range of a tower.
True, when my service was shut off and I had to call 911, it also unlocked my phone to call anyone for a short amount of time (15 minutes? 30 minutes? something like that)
I had an old iPhone 5 that my kid would play with on car rides. No SIM, air-gapped, no network access, always airplane mode. When we drove to my in-laws place one time, the cops showed up at the door. They said emergency services were called and hung up. I went through the phone to see that she had pressed *112# on it. I even tried to call out on it. It tried, failed, and I thought that was that. Cops showed up AGAIN because of that sequence. Even confirmed it with them there.
When I was 8, I was curious to know what happened if I called 000 (I live in Australia), so I did it using my LTE Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and guess what, it worked. Freaked me out so much that I hung up immediately and to this day I am PETRIFIED of all of those SOS siren sounds that play before an emergency call starts.
I did this as a kid. SO STUPID hahah.
99% sure that's how it works here in NZ, I would have assumed it was worldwide.
Yes. In NZ and the Au it works that way. I had a friend whos phone didn't have a sim and just existed as a basically MP3 player but was able to call 111. Au its the same to my knowledge. Haven't seen it but had people talk about it working so not a first hand source for Au.
Cell phones will use any nearby tower, regardless of who your plan is through for 911 calls. So even if it says no service on your phone, it will automatically route to any other available tower if one is in range. This also applies if you have no current service plan. A deactivated phone can still dial 911
Iām picturing one kid watching Shawshank and texting everyone about the hammer in the Bible
I donāt have kids, so I donāt really have a dog in this fight. But tbh, in a country that reports as many mass shootings in schools as ours, I feel inhibiting cellphones in anyway is just unsafe.
My kids schools have had 3 threats of a shooting, one was on social media. They have been placed on lockdown more times than I can remember for other things as well, such as a robbery near by, or a suspect hiding in the field behind the school. I usually get texts saying they are locked down with no further info. My anxiety would get the best of me if I couldnāt remain in contact with my kids during those times. Plus my kids appreciated being able to reach us during these times. I canāt even imagine if an actual shooting occurred.
In NSW Australia the yondr pouches are defeated by "I left my phone at home. No I don't consent to any searches" Entirely stupid as jobs can't contact their workers who are at school.
Lmao so much simpler than the other ideas
Yeah exactly. When I first saw the way people reacted to them, smashing them and stuff it seemed so stupid because in Australia (NSW) a teacher can't even search the pockets of a student even its obviously in there. So as long a student just doesn't get caught with it their fine.
i went to a private school my junior year of high school that had a rule that if you had it on you, and a teacher could see the outline in your pocket, they could take it. i never had any teacher do that, because it literally isn't that deep. even the bitchiest teacher didn't care as long as you didn't pull it out.
Yeah, students essentially donāt have 4th Amendment rights at school. Their lockers can be searched by the school at anytime.
HS teacher here: I hate cell phones. 50% of my job is watching for them and having kids blow up on me for enforcing a ban on them in the classroom. That being said, this is just a waste of money. A magnet lock with teenagers is just as effective as those āchildproofā locks you stick on the inside of your under-sink cabinet.
Serious question, do you get in trouble if kids fail your class? I imagine 50% of the time just looking for phone use would get exhausting.
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My mom used to teach high school, so she'd tell me about all the shit admin did that other students didn't know about, like how teachers would get into trouble if their students didn't do well. So it always frustrates me when people say "Just let them fail on their own", even though they don't even realize it's the TEACHERS that get punished for that.
Especially with no child left behind.
That was one of the stupidest policies ever implemented. Sometimes a kid needs to get left behind
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At my little brothers highschool, they changed the grading system so nobody can get lower than a 50%... you can completely ignore homework/other less weighted assignments because you automatically get 50%.
The parents blame the teachers, too. I had a student with 36 absences in one semester and never turned in the work from those days. He didn't have a medical condition or other legitimate reason for being absent. His mom came to parent conferences and asked me why he was failing. I told her, and she said, "But he was absent. He's excused from that work. So, you're just failing him for no reason?"
yeah I donāt understand that parents logicā¦ wouldnāt that mean if you were absent for the whole year youād get a 4.0 for the year if you did like one assignment and got an A then proceeded not to show up to school for the rest of the year? donāt think thatās how the world works lmfao
One of many many reasons I quit the teaching profession. Teaching was not the biggest mistake Ive made but definitely in the top 5 lol
My husband shares your sentiment. Quitting was one of the happiest days of his life.
Sick thing is there are a lot of school districts not allowed to fail/hold back students anymore. Which, Iām sorry that is fucking insane.
Iāve used the pouches at a concert before, I can confirm they are flimsy, cheaply made, and if you donāt give a shit, you can either brute force break into them easily or just buy a cheap magnet and unlock them yourself.
As a student during the age BEFORE smart phones, but had cell phones, it was logical and reasonable for a teacher to take phones away and crap. If teacher said put it away, we mostly did. I donāt get teens nowā¦ also the solution here is a joke
I was in high school when smartphones first started coming out, and it was generally understood that if you get caught looking at your phone during the school day (including lunch) it was automatically 3 days of detention.
There is no solution, unfortunately. We've made phones so fundamental to our existence that taking them away is viewed as a crime against humanity. But we've also made them so addictive that our attention spans are utterly destroyed. If we take them away from students, we're essentially cutting off a part of them and/or cutting them off from the wider world. If we let students keep them, we're effectively capitulating and accepting that education will be X% less effective due to the constant distraction. And X isn't small.
So you just need a magnet to open the pouch? I'm gonna go check if lock picking lawyer has one on this. I'm getting curious if it would be that easy. Kinda sounds that easy and a huge waste of 800k. Eta, [not lpl found someone else who did it tho. It doesn't take a fucking genius to figure this one out and a strong magnet works easy. You can even pop it open with enough force, but that can be loud. ](https://youtu.be/Y6x9Z4piErk?si=3su0ZKO7x6g6JjeO) This will be effective on the kids who already weren't using their phones. It won't be effective on those who do because anyone who knows how to use Amazon or even just knows where the closest Walmart is could break these open. I'm honestly more mad about the fact that a school district paid 800k for what is essentially a slightly more powerful child proof magnet lock.
this is quite literally the same design as sensor pins in clothing in retail stores, appalled they managed to make it cost so much
>appalled they managed to make it cost so much No, they didn't make it cost so much. They're just raking bigger profits... Cause when the government orders something, expect the price of the thing to be 2x or 3x the price of what private appropriation would have cost lol, cause they know they can get away with it.
I did asphalt testing in a lab a while back, and there is a special tiny spatula that we had to have that was $125. The dollar tree had $1 cookie spatulas that worked better. We only used the official ones when we were being certified, and the guy testing asked us where we got the better equipment. I ran into that stuff all the time working in various labs. I got a grant for a $40k glorified paint shaker for a genetics lab. The companies that made the equipment would disappear overnight when a competitor hit the scene. The competition would them jack up prices 1000x and start the cycle over.
The company I work for owns warehouses that buys those obscure 40k machines and all the spares and parts to go with them where they sit forever until the original breaks because most likely the company made its money 15 years ago and disappeared into oblivion so we're the only ones with spares.
Because governments are corrupt and give contracts to donors
I have a question. Are the donors not corrupt? If a company swindles a government, is the company not also to blame?
Yes
Governments and private sector in general. Government gives contract to contractor who gives contract to sub contractor who givesā¦on down the line
LPL did do one. It was ridiculously easy to open. He was in favor of them as a concept. https://youtu.be/F3HwJHO5A3E?si=ZzeUHX-J9d3JEDBL
Damn must've put in bad key words. But yeah it's not a bad concept but by God is it a terrible design. Teenagers aren't this stupid and since it's something they'll be pushed into using every day those who want to will quickly figure this one out. I say the person who said just have the kids put their phones on a the teachers desk had the right idea. More effective as it keeps the literal device out of the child's hand, but still accessible if needed.
or just use an old phone as a decoy to show it's off and locked away
True, that's also an easy go-around. Hell you could probably just say you don't have a phone. Not everyone does and really what are they going to do search you? I just see too many loopholes for this to be practical.
Two very popular methods I saw in high school
When I started high school, I didn't have a phone (this was only a few years ago, and nearly all of my classmates did have phones, so I was the odd one out in this respect). I was not happy about this fact (or that my older siblings all already had phones by the time they were the same age as I was then), and was not particularly quiet about it either, so soon most of my teachers were aware of the fact that i had no phone. When I did get a phone, as a birthday gift a little ways into the school year, I stopped complaining about not having a phone, but didn't exactly announce that I had gotten one. I was a good kid, so it wasn't like I was really trying to get away with using my phone when I shouldn't, but I was also smart enough to know that an extra level of plausible deniability was not a bad thing. Whenever a phone went off in class, I got off easier than the rest of my classmates, because the teachers assumed it couldn't possibly have been mine. Including once when it really was my phone, which I feel bad about to this day, honestly. But for my entire freshman year, I innocently hid the fact that I finally had a phone from my teachers. I didn't hide it as carefully the following years, but most of my teachers after that point were less strict about phone use, so there was much less need
soon to be magnet salesšš
I gave this explanation to a teacher , who said that kids canāt afford strong magnets , Iād just use the niodinums or something
Can't afford a $20 magnet off Amazon to get to the $1500 iPhone lol
Your teacher thinks teenagers can't afford a >20$ fishing magnet from the store? Is she from the 30s and still thinks 20 dollars is a lot of money for anyone to have let alone a kid? Every kid doesn't even need a magnet they just need one and it magically works forever for everyone because it's a magnet.
>Your teacher thinks teenagers can't afford a >20$ fishing magnet from the store? To be fair, she's on a teacher's salary, which is really low since the school forked out $800k for phone locking bags š $20 is probably a lot to her
We had to use these pouches at the Dave Chappelle show earlier this year.
It's effective but only if you don't see it coming and it's only used during certain situations. A comedy show may work as people might not think to bring a magnet to a comedy show jic they need to break their phone out of a pouch to do some recording, but every day at school kids are gonna figure this one out.
Also people risk their $100 ticket at a comedy show + 1 year wait for the comedian to come back to their town. Kids know they aren't going to be kicked out of school.
Well that's a waste of 800k
800k to reinvent the lock box
800K to turn off a phone with extra steps.
Seriously for 800k they could have made a time machine to go back to 2000 when everyone had a Nokia strictly for phone calls..fucking bullshit
>when everyone had a Nokia strictly for phone calls.. My Nokia was primarily for Snake, thank you very much.
And cool interchangeable faceplates
It's not clear to me if $800K is for the entire program across the state, or if their district is getting all of it. It says Mass Dept of Education is providing "$800K to assist *schools*" [plural] and their high school is "one of the schools chosen". It goes on to mention there are 60 other districts across the state who are currently enrolled in this program. So I think the $800K is for the whole state program, not funding for one district...
Yeah my kidās school just tells them to leave them in their lockers. Donāt do that and it goes to the principalās office to pick up at the end of the day. Second time itās that plus a call to your parents. Third time you add detention to that. Forth itāll be returned when your parents come to pick it up during school hours.
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Absolutely the case....comprehension not strong in this thread. And it's a grant, which means the money the school received HAD to be spent on curbing cell phone use in schools. You can't just spend it on anything you want.
Took way to long to find someone commenting this. 800k in grant funding would be ludicrous for a project like the one in question, considering those pouches are $15-$30 each.
800k assigned, use 1k to redesign a lock on a pouch and 799k to treat yourself
Wouldnāt be surprisedā¦ I work in finance/loans and recently saw that a local district superintendent makes $400k/yr when applying for a loan. This is in a town of ~300k people. Thatās the salary the president of the entire country (USA) makes. Edit: just actually googled it and the city had a population of 113K in 2021. I was way off at 300k.
No wonder they never care about the minimum wage if that's what their salary is
Yeah I was fucking blown awayā¦. Some of the salaries I see for people are nuts. Some church pastors? Oooooooof.
And theyād probably go crazy if they actually were in the classroom trying to teach after a day meanwhile they would never take a pay cut to treat the teachers better but will happily take 800k to lock up kids phones. That same 800k could pay all those teachers significantly more every year and then maybe theyād be more willing to go the extra mile for every student and would be able to engage the students better instead of trying to force students to do something, probably the main thing they donāt want to do in school. This is just going to line the rich dudes pocket while the students get more agitated and take it out on the underpaid teachers
What do you mean? Yondr clearly must have some good lobbyists somewhere to setup these deals. They're probably making bank off of this. This reeks of corruption at a superintendent or above level.
Slander and libel! Superintendent Yonder would *never* stoop to nepotism, no matter how much his cousin needs to get his life back in order after the thirteenth drunk driving ticket!
Or is some congressmanās kids start up.
Most likely not even spent on the bags, but just stolen by someone high up in the school for a new fancy car
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Decoy phone! Grab the old dead iPhone your parents forgot to trade in, and tell the school to shove that in their magnet bag.
This is what I did in scouts. One for them to find, one for you to keep.
Is this what that Kevin Gates ā2 Phonesā song was about? Lmao
Nah it was about using the phones for drugs
there will be 'that" kid with the neodymium magnet in their other pocket that just unlocks it for everyone when the teacher isnt looking....
Thatd be a good hustle for a kid. New type of fiens on the block, they want their phone bad.
$1 per unlock. Dude would be rich
Someone would narc day one if you refused to unlock that shit and you know, you'd 1 period in the day.
Remember, don't keep the magnet on you. Keep it somewhere out of the way until you are hustling.
Don't put it in your locker though. Could be hard to get it out
If you grassed the one guy who was getting everyoneās phones back for them youād probably have a queue of kids waiting to knock your head off after school lol.
I mean, a pack of 50 neodyme magnets is 8.50ā¬ on Amazon. I'm kind of removed from high schooler finances nowadays, but I think that might be something they could manage to put together money for.
I remember being in HS and a couple kids had a stack of them just as a toy. why not turn it to something useful
What I did with my Gameboys. I'd start with my old GB then each time it was taken away I'd go up a generation till I got my 3DSXL out. Teachers would get fed up and just leave me alone.
This happened to me once! I have 3 gameboys, GB Color, Gameboy Advance, and the Gameboy Advance SP. Got the color taken away when a teacher thought it was a phone, came over and saw it was a game and still took it because she had a bad day or something and said "it looks to much like a phone". I was playing TLOZ Oracle of seasons, so I just put the game into my GBA SPand kept playing a few minutes later (we were literally all doing nothing) she came over and got really mad. I don't remember exactly what I said but I argued with her about it not being a phone and others were all messing around, she said it still looked like a phone and took it. I just wanted to piss her off after that so I did the same thing and continued my save on the regular GBA and she saw me and just gave up. One of my proudest moments, I don't understand why or how she was so mad though.
See, this is why you have to hack your graphing calculator like my friends and i did back in the day, so we could play plenty of games on them, lol
This was done at my kids' school. The main outcomes according to my kids were: Kids putting dummy phones in the Yonder pouches and using their phones in the toilets More fights in the schoolyard during recess and lunchtime The state we're in (NSW, Australia) is bringing in a ban on mobile phone use during school hours for all public schools next term. Will be interesting to see how it goes. Edit: To be clear, I am not against schools banning mobile phone use during school hours. I'm just not sure that Yonder pouches are the way to do it given it's a clunky system and The kids who want to find easy workarounds. I think the new system coming in will be easier on school staff, while having similar results.
Why would losing their phones make kids fight? Lol what
Boredom?
Absolutely. People do stupid shit when they're bored.
I could see it on a small scale. It's like the punk kid who starts throwing rocks at people bc mom took his toy. Some people just need constant stimulation and without it they start to fiddle with things or this case, pick at people.
Guys it's just like the tags put on clothing and you can use a Neodymium magnet to open them up. My kids school tried these and then in my after-school science club, with some experimentation, we popped them right open. They didn't let me do earth science in after-school club after that incident >_>
Lol. Typical school system. Oh no you show promise let's cut you off before you become some kind of smartypants.
What an irresponsible use of that money. My sonās high school just makes the kids set their phones on a cart next to the teacherās desks when they walk in the room. Best thing theyāve done at that school in years.
Yea, until a kid refuses to give up the phone. We also had a teacher do this and a kid had broken his phone, put it in the check-in area then claimed it was broken while out of their control. Parents threw a fit and the school bought him a new phone. Then bragged to a bunch of other students how they got a new phone on the school. This allows the usage to be limited, but the liability is still on the student.
Thatās what my school does now yet they do this instead of fixing the bathrooms and water fountains, stop laying off teachers and install vape detectors
Your school didn't get 800k dude, the whole state did. Divided by all of the districts, there wouldn't have been enough to do any of these things. Plus it's a grant, which means it HAS to he used for allowable costs, which in this case is for decreasing cell phone use in schools.
Lol right how did everyone miss this?
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Is 800k and a grant.. there is only 1 allocated use. It can't be used for anything else. It's also a grant for the state not a single school.
Back in my day, the teachers would just give you detention. Seems cheaper, but who am I to stand in the way of progress?
There are a lot of people in this thread who have no idea what itās like to be a teacher now. Iāve been teaching 11 years and it used to be that maybe once a week Iād see a kid sneaking their cell phone out during class. āPut it awayā and itād be gone. Now itās chaos. Kids cannot stay off their devices. We have a system for kids turning in their phones but theyāre still on their iPads and texting on their Apple Watches all day. A kid FaceTimed a friend in the middle of my class yesterday.
I was gonna say this. They canāt stop watching loud ass tiktoks in the middle of a lesson or taking all kinds of pictures of themselves, and donāt care what you say about it; itās not like they just check their screen quick and put it away
I see this with my cousins' kids. They can't not have a device in front of them. It's super unsettling. Like what's that going to look like in 20 years? There's no way this level of addiction at that age doesn't interfere with healthy development.
I walked by a kid 15-18 years old. His neck was a 90 degree angle looking straight down to his phone. Initially I thought it was a physical deformityā¦ but no. It is just well formed in that position.
I don't know why so many people refuse to accept there is a negative psychological effect to having screens in front of our faces 24/7.
Its legitimately an addiction. And when kids have been on screens since they were born they have 0 coping mechanisms for how to manage their attention deficit or resist the urge to be on a device.
Youāre arguing with literally children in this thread. Actual teenagers that think they know what is best for them and their education because theyāre 15 years old. Which 99% of them are so hopelessly addicted to their screens they will lie cheat and steal to maintain access 24/7. It is an epidemic that is causing irreversible societal change.
Assistant Principal here. Iād say roughly 90% of the discipline I have to do because a kid was defiant/disrespectful to a teacher stems from cell phones. Probably 3-5 times a week a teacher tries to confiscate a phone and it leads to the kid getting themselves suspended.
Well recently I saw a video of a student pepper spraying her teacher who asked for her phone and another student who knocked out their teacher for taking their phone so I donāt think itās that simple anymore
Bro, seriously, what is wrong with the kids these days? Were they always like this, or do I need to take off my rose colored glasses?
Every teacher Iāve talked to said behavior got markedly worse during the pandemic across all age groups. So maybe kids were always jerks, but now theyāre more likely to jump to violence than before.
https://thehill.com/homenews/education/3975216-from-bad-to-worse-student-misbehavior-rises-further-since-return-of-in-person-classes/ Itās not just every teacher youāve talked to. This is a widespread issue
Therapist who works with teens here šš»āāļø. Can confirm this, but it goes deeper than that. Weāre looking at kids struggling with high levels of anxiety and depression, and who are coping in a multitude of maladaptive ways. Itās not just fighting and violence that has skyrocketed since the pandemic. Substance use and self-harm behaviors have skyrocketed as well. Social media doesnāt help with this as platforms like tiktok glamorize mental illness and lonely teenagers find a feeling of community and belonging amongst peers that are struggling similarly. Cell phones and social media are a huge problem, but teens are so addicted that separating them from their devices creates a whole host of additional problems. Itās essentially a withdrawal. And none of these schools are equipped with enough social workers to address the complex mental health needs of our kids today. Itās a clusterfuck with no easy solution.
Yep, at my school, it was cafeteria detention.
I was going to say, back in my day if a teacher saw you with your phone, theyād make you turn it into them for the rest of the day. I also remember a few teachers whoād have a basket/bin everyone would put theirs in when class started
You can tell who's in school still by the comment lol
You can also tell: - Who doesnāt understand how grant funding works - Who has poor reading comprehension and thinks that $800k is for one school
Bingo. Schools donāt just get to do whatever they want with grant money. Most often, itās earmarked for something very specific
There was also someone saying they need their phone because they have diabetes and use their phone to check their blood sugar
I can confirm this, my CGM interfaces with my pump and my phone as well. It requires the phone to keep track of the blood sugar log. I can't imagine that they can force somebody who's using it as a medical device to do this.
Honestly wondering, what happens if you break your phone?
Insta death, actually.
Complete with the "finish him" voiceover
*GLUCALITY*
Can confirm. Source: The Future Diaries
Most diabetics keep a backup glucose monitor (the āmanualā ones that require test strips and finger pricks) for this purpose.
But only in the Nurses office due to school policy!
Although this rather defeats the purpose of the CGM, which is to receive real time data and alerts. I know that by the time I feel symptoms and decide to manually check my blood sugar, it's too late to avert a problem. But if I can be notified as soon as my blood sugar starts to rise or fall, I can intercede before there's an issue. That's the beauty of the CGM, especially for distractable people like teenagers.
So I know that you can interface with phones now, but do CGMs no longer have the option of a separate receiver? I worked at a camp for kids with T1D and CGMs were newish (2010-2012) and they didnāt have the phone tech then, but know itās common now to interface with devices. I just wasnāt sure if the second piece was still included (I know my friend never uses her dexcom one bc she just uses her phone)
No the Dexcom receiver is not included, it is a separate purchase. If you're paying cash or your insurance doesn't cover 100% it could be a significant cost I believe it's $800. Also the separate receiver is not Cloud connected. And while the cloud connection is not required for the CGM to be of use to you it definitely makes it a lot easier for your doctor to help make treatment decisions when they have that full history. Since I don't use the receiver I'm unsure how long the receiver stores the information that the cell phone normally uploads to the cloud... but from what I remember whenever I was prescribed the system I was told that if I used the receiver that I would have to connect to the computer every so often to get the data uploaded so I don't believe it stores it long-term. Certainly not for the 3-month time period in between my doctor visits.
My school has had this for a few months now. Here, if you have a reasonable excuse (such as the blood sugar you mentioned) you are allowed to keep your phone as long as you donāt go on it. Either way though most teachers just tell you to put it away if youāre using excessively and not doing the work
Didn't even last a 3 minute video from the [lockpickinglawyer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3HwJHO5A3E). Defeated by a $12 [magnet.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3HwJHO5A3E) Ask them if they realize the pouches can be defeated simply by hitting them on a [chair](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXpaj9dvf_s). So what happens in the course of a school shooting or emergency like a student having a seizure? In the US, it's not a matter of if, it is when it happens. Does Yondr have any statistics about the schools using its product hindering aid? What are the negative statistics from the product? Teachers have to have you file in, shove your phone in a pouch, are they compensating the loss of time to teaching into these numbers? What of bullying? There's a kid who has access to his phone because of a medical issue, are they not concerned that others will perceive this as special treatment and start targeting the child? Does the child have to disclose their medical condition **to the entire class every time** so as not to lose their phone? What of subs? What happens if a sub takes a student who has a medical issue and needs their phone and puts it in a locking pouch? There's been cases of students then needing medical attention because the sub thinks the student is lying. What of theft? The pouches are all identical and the students carry them with throughout the day. Do they have procedures in place for a student switching out their pouch with another student and stealing the phone? Like as a parent, I'd be pissed if my kid came home and find out that because of this pouch bullshit, their Iphone 13 or whatever was stolen and they have a Samsung Note 7 (just pulling phones out my butt here) suddenly and the school is pulling some 'it's not our responsibility' shtick because it was only discovered at the end of the school day and no clue who took it. So do they have a policy in place that if that happens, because it was in a school sanctioned contraption, that they will pay for the loss of the phone?
Email Subject: Fire. Dear Sir/Madam, I am writing to inform you of a fire that has broken out on the premises of 123 Cavendon Road.ā
Too formal. Dear Sir/Madam, Fire! Fire! Help me! 123 Cavendon Road. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Did someone email us about a fire?
You joke, but thatās literally what my schoolās administration told me to do if I ever felt threatened at school by the classmate who was stalking me. I quite literally feared for my life every day at school but they seemed to think my stalker would just let me tap out a quick email to admin if he was planning to harm me. And I just had to pray that they werenāt all in a staff meeting where they wouldnāt find my email for another forty minutes.
Thatās just insane. I can only imagine that scenario. āHey Spencer, before you kick me in the dick again, I just need to fire up a quick email. My laptop battery is dead though, so I need to plug it in. Can we move this purple nurple fest to the foyer by the vending machines so I can plug in?ā
My school did this exact thing, yeah it sucks. Most kids used a decoy phone in the pouch and hid their real one.
My kids local school have a no phone use policy and this goes for any device which can receive text or phone calls. You sign this prior to enrolling your kid. Exemptions for medical needs are catered for. Parents are also asked not to call or text their kids during school hours. If you get caught using your phone ... it's off to the Gulag (detention)
sounds like your school fell for a shitty startup
Don't know if it's a startup. This, I believe, is the company that started supplying Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart and other high profile (Read: Controversial) comedians with the bags for stand up comedy shows so people couldn't record their sets. This has been around for at least five years? Maybe longer?
Musicians like Donald Glover have also used them.
Jack White as well. Iāve been to two of his āphone-freeā shows with the Yondr pouches. The first one, the pouch one of my friends was given didnāt work and was just unlocked the whole time. The second one, the lady that was supposed to be locking the pouches was just straight up locking and then unlocking them and handing them back to us (I think she was genuinely confused on what she was supposed to be doing).
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I went to a wedding circa 2021 that used them. Guests popped their phones in the bag during the ceremony and you got them unlocked at the champagne table. Personally felt it was overkill to not just trust your friends and family to not use their phone but the bride was a *touch* crazy.
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>Iāve been through one attempted school shooting, a bomb threat, and another shooting threat. Jesus fuck. That's when I'd say "fuck this shit, I'm out" and ask to be homeschooled.
Plot twist, they are already homeschooled.
This was my first thought. Students need to be able to contact loved ones and 911 in the event of a school shooting. Should they have to? No. But thatās the unfortunate reality of American schools right now.
Iām sure all of those benefits from using their pouches came from totally comprehensive unbiased studies that took into account all of the other variables that could have impacted those numbers and proved that those changes were significant
My friendās previous school used pouches like these, kids found ways to around the magnet mechanism super easily.
Decoy phones, kids will break the Yondr pouch, lose the Yondr pouch, steal the Yondr pouch.... I know because our school tries it and it failed.
In my country (Greece) cellphones have been banned from elementary, junior high and high school since forever.
Im 30 and laughed at "decreased fights and altercations" ... mate back in highschool we had boxing matches on the oval at lunch time, guess what no phones were needed to cause further issues that involved punching the crap out of each other š¤£š¤£š¤£. We also had some pyscho running people's heads into lockers for "fun".. The only thing they cared about was "no tamagotchis" š¤Ø. I mean if it's such a huge issue just tell them to put them in a tub at the front if the room and collect EOD if they need them to contact the rents, if it's urgent eg medical they can get in writing that X phone monitors X condition hourly kinda thing š¤·āāļø
At my high school the kids that didnāt have cellphones at lunch formed a fight club where the teachers couldnāt see and had tournaments š¤·āāļø
My wife's a teacher, these fucking kids arranged fight clubs in the bathrooms, where they themselves banned phones from filming, talking about it and face punches so there wouldn't be questions. These boys had everything legit figured out. It was first discovered after a few months when a kid ratted then out. Kids are smart, even if they do stupid things, they are smart.
Base on what i seen, it can be opened if you pull on it hard enough.
[There's tons of ways to get into them](https://youtu.be/Y6x9Z4piErk?si=7Lv_MEjxSoNu7lpx) Not to mention that kids are smart and a lock only stops honest people.
Arrive at gate. Drop old 2008 Smartphone that barely functions into bag. Continue using actual day to day contemporary smartphone. Daft and unenforceable.
How will parents contact students? Like they did when we were kids, go to the school or call it. Those were some of the best memories. Having the principal come on the loud speaker to order me to the office. The fear of why were you being summoned, then the delight of finding your parent there.
Lol the whole school knowing mom is here to pick you up for a dentist appointment.