As state lawmakers in Montpelier ponder a ban on the use of cell phones in schools during the waning weeks of the current legislative session, school administrators, families, students and community members in the Mountain Views School District (MVSD) are having discussions about the future of the omnipresent digital devices in the hands of local youths during school hours.
At the heart of the discussions is concern that cell phone usage by students during the school day is untethered, with what often seems like an addiction to the hand-held devices posing real risks for the classroom environment, frustrating teachers, hindering learning, and exacerbating antisocial behavior.
Against the backdrop of the ongoing debate about cell phone usage in schools, Woodstock Union High School and Middle School (WUHS/MS) principal Aaron Cinquemani on Monday confirmed that WUHS/MS students will be required to secure their cell phones in locked pouches bell-to-bell beginning with the start-up of the 2025-26 school year in late August. The San Francisco-based high-tech firm Yondr is the industry leader in providing protective bags to secure cell phones and deter their use in schools, entertainment venues, and other settings nationwide. Upon entering a phone-free space such as the WUHS/MS school grounds, students place their cell phones inside a Yondr pouch, where a magnetic lock keeps it sealed inside the bag. Students retain possession of their phone throughout the school day but can only unlock the pouch by tapping it against a magnetic unlocking station when they depart the designated phone-free zone.
In a conversation at the end of the school day on Monday, Cinquemani told the Standard that he was able to obtain phone pouches for use by every student at WUHS/MS through a combination of private fundraising and the school’s budget for the 2026 fiscal year.
“Our goal is to ensure a distraction-free learning environment for all stakeholders, which includes teachers as well as students and the administration,” Cinquemani noted. “Students will be issued a cell phone pouch, just like they might be issued a sports jersey, a textbook or a Chromebook device, and it is their responsibility. Students will be expected to secure their devices in those pouches for the day. When students are dismissed early or heading off at the end of the day, there will be a variety of locations where they can unlock their pouches and retrieve their devices. They can do that if they have to leave for an appointment or before they go off to a sports event.”
For more on this, please see our May 15 edition of the Vermont Standard.
