Principal Fine talks cell phones as new pouch policy is rolled out at Treasure

Students at Treasure Mountain Junior High started using the Yondr pouch program on August 26, 2024. Photo: Yondr

PARK CITY, Utah – As the school year enters its second week, Treasure Mountain Junior High School students are getting used to a new and more restrictive cell phone policy for Park City’s 8th and 9th graders.

The new policy requires students to place their phones in Yondr pouches—secure, lockable pouches—at the start of the school day. The pouches remain locked during school hours, preventing phone use until students unlock them at the end of the day using designated unlocking stations.

Caleb Fine, principal at Treasure Mountain Junior High, said the policy was introduced to reduce distractions, improve academic focus, and foster face-to-face student interactions. Exceptions are made for medical needs or emergencies, with staff able to unlock pouches if necessary. The school says the policy is part of a broader effort to create a more focused and engaging learning environment.

“If you’re engaged in your phone, which is a constant pull for students, you’re less likely to be engaged with the lesson, or your peers in person,” Fine said.

One of the other major reasons for implementing a stricter policy regarding cell phones, Fine said, is that in the last ten years, there has been a lot more information about the impact of cell phones, specifically on adolescents, and some of the peak realities happen in eighth and ninth grade.

“There’s definitely a mental well-being element of taking a break and reducing that addictive tendency. These phones are designed to create addictive tendencies, which heightens anxieties. We don’t want our students being pulled to social media and all the potential negative repercussions of that during the school day,” Fine said.

Fine said he and the school staff at Treasure hope to see a decrease in discipline issues, including attendance ditching and other generalized negative behaviors.

“If your phone is locked, the pull to just leave school and leave class, we hope, is reduced, and that will be easily tracked because attendance data is something that we can do some quick comparisons on,” Fine said.

Other negative behaviors the new phone policy could help address are students meeting up to vape and other discipline incidents that stem from students being able to communicate via cell phone during the school day.

Many schools using Yondr pouches have reported an improvement in overall academic test scoring and a decline in disciplinary issues.

For example, La Vega High School in Bellmead, Texas, saw their passing rate in state exams double in English. Their biology passing rate tripled, and their U.S. History passing rate went up fivefold in the first round of testing after implementing the pouch system, according to a story published on KWTX.

Principal James Villa said, as far as improving student engagement, the policy has exceeded expectations. “We saw drastic changes in engagement levels,” Villa said. “Student disengagement dropped from 20 percent to around 8 percent.”

Not only that, disciplinary offenses dropped about 50 percent from the previous year, the school reported.

“These are all factors that over 1200 other schools using the Yonder program have seen improvement in. So, we hope that they continue here at Treasure,” Fine said.