Yondr pouches - why are some parents against them?

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

I’ve seen a lot of comments (online, never come
across anyone is real life, although it’s not a conversation I’ve had much) from parents that are massively against their child’s school supplying them with Yondr pouches.

For those of you that don’t know, they are fabric pouches with a magnetic closure. Pupils are expected to put their phones in them when they start school, and use the magnets stationed around the exits of the school to undo them at the end of the day.

My child’s school use them, and I have no negative opinions about it at all. They haven’t pulled the idea out of their arse or stumped up the cost for no reason - phones were obviously causing an issue.

I can’t see why any parent would be backing their child up with a refusal. Although, that wouldn’t stand in my child’s school. They would be suspended if they are caught without their phone in the pouch. Spot checks are done during the day.chat

But they don’t for many pupils!

That's the whole argument though.
If students just followed the "switched off and out of sight" rule then there would be no reason for these pouches.
Why can't they follow the rules?
What is actually gone wrong that a simple rule can't be followed?

Do you work in a school? See the many parents on MN who are happy for their DC to flout the rules. What hope do schools have?

No I don't work in a school.
I am very glad my daughter is in her final year so she is going to be away from all of this nonsense.
The whole (English) system sucks if I am going to be honest.

I like them and dds really liked not looking at their phone by habit. I prefer them to no phone at all as they walk quite a way - 15yos. They use them at the spa in Bath, and it’s fab to have the confidence no one is taking photos and no loud calls etc.

I do wonder if the government has shares in yondr.

If he really doesn’t access his phone during the school day then what is the point of taking a second dummy phone?

Addiction, peer pressure, rebellious teens 🤷🏻‍♀️

So he doesn't have to faff around lining up to lock/unlock presumably.

Or because he is using his phone when he shouldn’t be.

I hate them. I've read bad reviews about their durability and I've told the school there's no way I'm paying for a new one if DD's breaks. One of her schoolmates was given a faulty yondr that wouldn't lock and he was threatened with suspension before they even bothered to check if there was a problem. It's also a pain for afterschool clubs because the area where the magnets has been locked off when they finish. I much preferred the old system where the kids all handed their phones in to their tutor at the start of the day.

My main issue is the cost of this ridiculous bit of fabric that can be outwitted by a child. Totally pointless and costs thousands and thousands. Someone is making loads of money out of this silliness.

They’re focussing on the wrong problem. It shouldn’t be difficult for students to just put their phone in the bag and leave it there for a few hours. It shouldn’t be difficult to enforce a rule or confiscate a phone to tell a group of kids to turn off a stupid video. But these things ‘are’ difficult and unpicking why is far more important to me than spending thousands locking up fake phones. Lack of teaching staff, lack of sanction options, lack of parental involvement are a few things that come to mind but there are others. These are real problems and resourcing solutions to them is so much more important than some bit of nonsense that teaches the kids nothing about self discipline or respect.

You say it shouldn’t be difficult to enforce a rule, but parents can’t do it and won’t support the school when they try to. So unfortunately schools have to spend scarce resources on these things. Schools can’t fix everything but they are expected to

My school introduced them at the end of last year. State secondary in deprived area.
Vast majority of parents very supportive.
Anyone who brings in a ‘second phone’ - suspension (kids grass on each other so we know). Anyone who damages a pouch - suspension. Enough magnets on the walls by exits to clear the building in 5 mins. Diabetics who check insulin on theirs have a different kind of pouch.
It’s a game changer. ‘Keep it away and if we see it we will take it’ doesn’t work as a phone policy in a busy secondary and as others have said, it’s reduced the number of kids ‘desperate’ for the toilet (want to check their phone). It’s also reduced internal truancy as they can’t arrange to meet their mates to hide; and external truancy is pretty much unheard of because the boxes with magnet in are not unlocked til the end of the day!

@Nocameltoeleggingsplease hadn’t thought about the reduced external truancy benefit.

Big fan here. My friends Y7 daughter was covertly filmed on the toilet at school and it was widely shared before she knew. She was so traumatised she changed schools and still has panic attacks about the film being out there. Yondr pouches now introduced and my daughter says it has made a huge difference for how safe she and her friends feel at school.

Of course you always get those who break the rules or parents who don't give a shit but that is the same for every school rule and all the other kids know who they are!

I’m on the fence for cost benefit reasons. If a phone is off and away, with sanctions in place for being out or on, is that any different to a pouch and the risk that someone might have a spare phone? I think people are concerned that it’s a wasted cost. However, I personally would easily support any system my school brought in from away in bags, to lockers, to pouches, handed in to support no phone use in school, as long as it was limited to school only. I cannot support the one they did bring in which was no phones of any type could be brought onto the premises at all. This means a child cannot call anyone should they need to after they have left school. Teachers parole after school to check phones haven’t been brought in!

My issue with them is they only have 2 unlocking stations to serve an entire schools this means my child comes out approx 20 mins late every day and it throws everything out of sync!

There's a post up now from a mum asking where she can buy magnets to open her kids pouch 😂 it's more the parents that are complaining the kids for the most part are fine but the adults don't like the word no

I'm still tracking my DD and she is 19 and at uni. I like to wake up in the night and see that she has got back to her house after a night out and then I turn over and go back to sleep.

To be fair, I think she tracks me more than I track her!

I'm not sure when we will stop. She knows I don't question her about where she was, it's just to know she has made it to where she needs to be.

This is so weird. I get that you feel reassured she's safe, but tracking her at 19? It's like being stalked by your own mother! It feels to me as though some parents these days are far too enmeshed in their (grown up) children's lives and need to cut the cord. I mean when will you stop? You have to let them live their own lives.

It doesn’t stop the phone ringing so you would end up with a situation where some fool’s phone is ringing and buzzing and they can’t access it to stop it.

DD’s friend forgot this when she put her phone in her pouch without turning it off first and then it kept pinging throughout assembly.

In those circumstances I imagine the school work out which phone it is and it’s confiscated until the end of the week.

Why would it be confiscated if it was a genuine error that it wasn't switched off before putting it in the pouch?