Imagine yourself as a high school student. Your phone is locked up in a magnetic pouch, completely inaccessible. The only way to get it out is by standing in line at a magnetic station when school ends. Lines are packed, similar to amusement parks, except it isn't fun. It's your safety, connection, and freedom on the line. 

With the growing mental health crisis, rise in climate change, and school shootings, disasters at schools have become more frequent and more dangerous. Think back to the Palisades, Maui, Paradise, and Madre fires. Think back to the Texas floods, Hurricane Milton, and Hurricane Katrina. And remember, California is long overdue for an earthquake.

Imagine a student not being able to contact their parent when they're in danger. Last year, my school was under lockdown, and parents weren't even notified until 5 hours later. What would've happened to the students at my school if the situation were a lot more serious? If there were a fire, students would have to risk their lives waiting in line for a magnet.

Yondr not only makes students more vulnerable to disasters, but it also completely removes student safety in the classroom. If any form of discrimination, altercations, or any inappropriate behavior happens in the classroom, from either teacher to student, or student to student, students no longer have any form of proof to show to the school's administration. Without any form of evidence, admins tend to think that students are lying. 

Yondr creates the idea that students can't be trusted, which can impact their ability in their future workforces and college. 

Although the idea of no phones on campus is a great idea, completely locking up your phone is a violation of your own rights and personal safety. If schools really care about students' screen time, why do they give us Chromebooks to do our assignments on? Why do they push technology like Promethean Boards rather than traditional whiteboards? And most of all, why did they force us to be on Zoom for 8 hours each day during COVID, affecting our mental health as students? The people implementing these rules haven't even gotten a chance to actually step foot in the classrooms to see the real issues, despite being in office for multiple years. 

 Schools should not feel like prisons, and instead of forcing a pouch like Yondr, we should be teaching students about online safety and how to control phone usage. We shouldn't be eliminating phones; we should be limiting them.