Harrisburg School Board meeting on Tuesday.
Harrisburg teens will soon need to lock up their phones when headed into school.
The Harrisburg School District will purchase locking phone pouches aimed at reducing digital distractions at the high school level.
At a school board meeting on Tuesday, Receiver Dr. Lori Suski approved the purchase of 1,477 pouches from Yondr, a national tech company, at a cost of $47,591.
The pouches will be used at Harrisburg High School-John Harris Campus in a pilot program, according to Acting Superintendent Dr. Marcia Stokes.
“What we have found, along with all the other school districts across the nation, is that kids have become so reliant on their cell phones—it’s become like an appendage to them. And what that does is create a lot of distractions when it comes to the educational process and the teachers trying to teach.”
Harrisburg joins schools around the country that are increasingly updating phone-use policies and turning to tools like Yondr to assist in the fight against device distractions.
Once implemented, likely when students return from winter break in January, the high school will effectively restrict phone access from the beginning of the school day until the end, Stokes said. When students enter the building, they will place their phones in small pouches that will lock using a magnetic system. At the end of the day, students will unlock their phones with the same magnetic device at the door on their way out of the building. Throughout the day, the students will keep the pouches with them, but will not be able to open them.
The commonwealth in recent months announced millions of dollars in grant funds to support school safety initiatives, including allowing districts to purchase Yondr pouches. However, the district had already begun looking into Yondr prior to the grant announcement and will use general fund money for the cost, Stokes said.
The school district currently has a no-phones-in-school policy that was updated several years ago, however, it’s been hard to enforce, Stokes said.
“We feel that Yondr is going to give us that extra step to truly enforce that no-cell-phone distraction during the school day,” she said.
Outside of phones distracting students during class, Stokes pointed out the prevalence of online bullying, the harmful effects of social media and behavioral incidents caused by students communicating via phones during the day.
“If we can at least keep that distraction outside of the school day it hopefully will not only improve the academics but also the overall culture of the building,” she said.
The phone-use problem has seemingly become worse after the pandemic and as a generation that has had phones most of their lives continues to age, Stokes said.
“Kids got phones younger; now this generation has grown up having that phone with them all the time and it’s become such a part of how they function on a daily basis,” she said.
The district expects pushback from students and parents, but plans to begin talking to them about the process and helping them adjust.
And while parents won’t be able to contact their children on their phones during the school days, Stokes said that they can email students using their school email addresses, which are accessed through school Chromebooks. Parents can also call the school office if they need to reach a student.
“It will be different because we are used to being able to shoot that text off and that won’t be a possibility any longer,” she said. “We will do our part, but it’s going to take the cooperation of our parents and students.”
For more information, visit the Harrisburg School District’s website.
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