ATLANTA, Ga. – Like many other K-12 districts across the country, DeKalb County school officials are looking for ways to keep kids off their cell phones while they are in class. On Monday, the DeKalb County School Board unanimously approved a pilot program that takes two different approaches to keeping students focused on their studies rather than their cell phones during the school day.
One approach will involve Yondr pouches where students would turn off their phones and put their phones into a pouch they carry with them during the school day, reports WXIA. At the end of the day, they would touch the pouch to a magnet that would unlock it so the student could remove their phone, reports WSB Atlanta.
The pouch strategy is being implemented at Salem, Henderson, Sequoyah, Lithonia and Tucker middle schools and Lakeside, Cross Keys, Lithonia, Tucker and Martin Luther King, Jr. high schools.
The other approach DeKalb is piloting is cellphone lockers. That pilot will be implemented at Miller Grove, Druid Hills and Chapel Hill middle schools.
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Other Districts, States Looking to Ban Cell Phones at School
DeKalb County’s efforts to restrict student cell phone usage on campus follows similar approaches in other cities and states.
Last month Marrietta City Schools voted to require students to put their mobile phones in Yondr pouches during the school day. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board in June also voted in favor of banning phones and social media usage by students while they are at school.
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On the same day that LAUSD voted for the ban, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced he wants to restrict students’ cell phone usage. Additionally, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill last month against addictive social media feeds she says are targeting children and teens.
All of these efforts follow U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s call on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms regarding their effects on young people. The bans or limits on cell phone access might also reduce the rate of student-on-student cyberbullying.
