A blow to the phone-free classroom
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
One day last February, Joel Nam, a student at Van Nuys High School in Los Angeles, emerged from class at lunchtime and heard a sharp banging noise echoing around the quad.
That morning, his school had distributed Yondr pouches, fabric smartphone pockets that schools around the country are using to enforce bell-to-bell cellphone bans. Some four hours later at Van Nuys, students had figured out that whacking the pouches against tables and railings at a particular angle would cause them to spring open, freeing the smartphones trapped inside.
Soon, Joel’s classmates had figured out that a strong magnet available on Amazon could unlock the pouches, too, he said. “A lot of kids picked rocks up off the ground, flat rectangular rocks, and just slipped them in,” said Joel, 18, a senior. “You can’t tell if it’s a phone or not.”
Read the full story | NEW YORK TIMES
