See https://www.change.org/p/berkeley-school-board-yondr-pouches-should-be-banned-from-berkeley-high-school-0646d3a4-1417-44ea-bb35-95eb2b1195e6?redirect=false

TL;DR

We've already decided to use them this year, but we can still make a change by stopping them next year! Our school does not have a history of phone-usage behavior and everyone shouldn't be punished over a few bad apples. We support the usage of the pouches in places where it has a positive effect - not a detrimental one, such as forcing the students that actually use phones to just bring their backup, making kids late to class, and a general feeling of resentment and a lack of school spirit towards the administration. 

Here's the other reasons why Yondr is impractical for our school:

1. The pouches cost $15 to $30 per student annually depending on school size. Even with the lower estimate and roughly 180 people in the middle school, this is 2700 dollars every year, which can be used for other subjects. It is extremely impractical to use such an expensive pouch for the keeping of phones.

2. Why do people use Yondr in the first place?

From healthline.com - In a 2019 Statista survey, 44 percent of participants reported feeling at least some degree of anxiety about being separated from their phone. In fact, these feelings are so common that there's even a word for it: “nomophobia.”

As a result, we have the idea that letting students keep their phone in a pouch with them will solve that problem. While it solves 10% of it, the 90% of the anxiety is from not being able to respond to parents in an emergency - not able to use it knowing you'll miss an important call - the list goes on and on. While the marketing team at Yondr argues it solves the problems, the students can say it doesn't. "My mom will be so pissed when she doesn't respond" is a sentiment many students share.

3. Yondr is detrimentally contributing even more to an already lackluster school community.

Yondr pouches give this message: We don't trust you. While this is true for some students, the vast majority are perfectly model citizens. Yondr is a disruption to our school community and while some may say that people will get over it eventually, the trust will never come back until the Yondr pouches are removed. Let's have the student community stand up for itself. Thanks for reading.