Middletown High School is partnering with a company to build a distraction-free environment for its students.
Starting Feb. 28, all Middletown High School students will have to put their phones in specialized pouches upon arriving on campus and can not access them until the end of the school day.
The change is being made to help students overcome phone addiction, focus on their academics, and build face-to-face relationships, according to Middletown School District Superintendent Amy Creeden.
“We saw scholars dealing with anxiety, stress, conditions of depression, withdrawal from social situations, and staying very insulated,” Creeden told The Epoch Times on Feb. 7. “We want to help them by putting in place an opportunity for them to engage in academics, utilize the resources we have in our building, enjoy their peers and classmates, and engage in a different way.”
Under the policy, the roughly 2,500 Middletown high-schoolers are expected to put their phones—turned off or in airplane mode—and earbuds into pouches before passing the security check at the building entrance; they are not allowed to open the pouches except for special or emergency contact needs during the school day.
In those situations, an adult staff member will help them access an unlocking station.
Designed by the Yondr company, these pouches have special magnetic locks that cannot be opened by hand; rather, they get unlocked in seconds by tapping on a specialized station.
The pouches are considered school property, and students are expected to bring them to and from school each day and keep them in good working condition.
A student gets one free replacement if he or she loses a pouch for the first time, after which there will be a $20 fee per replacement.
If a student forgets their pouch at home, their phone will be held by the administration and returned at the end of the school day.
The pouch program, with a cost of around $46,000, is funded by grants.
At the beginning of the school year, the Middletown School District started a policy of no cellphone use during the school day to foster a more engaging, focused, and personal learning environment.
The district had just gone through a prolonged virtual-learning period due to the pandemic, during which many students spent an increasing amount of time on phones and computers.
Until recently, elementary students have had the most success as a result of the phone policy, but not so much for the high and middle schoolers, according to Creeden.
“The [high school] kids are having a hard time because their brains are wired to be always connected, to be constantly checking their phones,” Creeden told The Epoch Times. “So [the pouch] is our next intentional step to help them.”
If the idea works for high schoolers, the district might extend it to the two middle schools, she said.
