Waterbury Public Schools will be adding Yondr pouches to the middle and high schools starting on the first day of the 2024-2025 school year. Our phones will be locked up in these pouches for the whole day, and we won't even be allowed to use them during lunch. Many of the higher-ups say that the pouches will improve behavior, grades, and socialization. However, the cons of having the pouches outweigh the few pros. A common example is if a student has an emergency and they need to contact a family member. Or if a school shooter enters the building, many students would want to talk to their parents or guardians, and contact authorities. Situations like this are already unsafe when we do have access to our phones. Another example is if a student doesn't have any friends or people to talk to at school, and they want to talk to friends from other schools or online friends on their phones during lunch. The craziest part is that even the parents are agreeing with the students! You should know you're doing something wrong when even the parents, who are much older and wiser than us students, are disagreeing with the system. Please sign this petition and help out to fight against Yondr.