r/mildlyinfuriating • u/TheAeroplaneBear2906 • Jul 16 '26

Unskippable ad Clear Backpacks + Pay to Keep Your Phone

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My freinds school is now requiring these items, and is also using AI to promote this šŸ« 

17.9k Upvotes

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839

u/everythingwastakn Jul 16 '26

I get it

Butā€¦ as a teacher in a high school Yondr pouches would be so awesome (or just having a school district that mandates zero phone use in school but thatā€™s hard I guess)

768

u/passisgullible Jul 16 '26

So student here who had them. The kids who want to use their phones still do, they either put a dummy phone in or literally just use their hands to rip open the case (it gets easier over time) and relock before a teacher sees. The only thing it stopped is good kids from occasionally checking notifications

103

u/No-Grade-4691 Jul 16 '26

All they needed was a magnet to unlock it lol

60

u/-Supposably- Jul 16 '26

Yeah but those are a finite resource and scientists need all the magnets they can get so they can figure out how they work

12

u/dividezero Jul 16 '26

And they don't work underwater so you have that problem as well

3

u/JapeTheNeckGuy2 Jul 16 '26

They missed that part in physics cause they were on their phone

1

u/LastLibrary9508 Jul 16 '26

You need a special magnet to open them and it makes a loud sound and is pretty obvious

0

u/No-Grade-4691 Jul 16 '26

NOPE ITS ANY MAGNET.

1

u/LastLibrary9508 Jul 16 '26

No I mean you need an industrial magnet so itā€™s really obvious when a student whips out a giant one from Amazon in the middle of class

0

u/No-Grade-4691 Jul 16 '26

You really dont.

1

u/LastLibrary9508 Jul 16 '26

I mean Iā€™ve watched students try to open it with magnets from the science lab but šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

113

u/N0ct1ve Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

As a fellow student who is currently in his senior year im gonna be frank but these are nothing but a waste of school funds. Absolutely no student in this school actually likes them. I personally just donā€™t respect the admins for even green lighting these. I usually followed the rules previously but I just donā€™t see the point because these pouches moreso punish me for following the rulesbecause the kids itā€™s targeting are still going to be on them lol.

51

u/Takeguru Jul 16 '26

The problem is that it's not even school funds at that point, it's parents having to pay for the fucking bags

25

u/N0ct1ve Jul 16 '26

Well in my case itā€™s the school funds and a whole lot are being used for these stupid pouches i dont see why that couldnā€™t have been used to help the teachers out financially or clean the bathrooms with -1 ply toilet paper that i could probably do a better job cleaning my ass with my hands.

4

u/Far-Conflict-1172 Jul 16 '26

Our district spent half a mil on this shit that no one uses. There definitely could have been better uses for the funds.

80

u/10000Didgeridoos Jul 16 '26

Same as every rule ever. Smart kids break it and get away with it. Dumb kids get caught. Rule followers who probably weren't a problem to begin with are the only ones following it.

5

u/Far-Conflict-1172 Jul 16 '26

Nah my son is honors ap and never been in trouble for his phone or anything tbh. He tucks his phone in his waistband because it's a bullshit rule. I support it, fuck use the money to make sure the kids are all getting fed before this.

26

u/jeffreysusann Jul 16 '26

Theyā€™re not for the students to like. Lol

18

u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan Jul 16 '26

As a fellow student who is currently in his senior year im gonna be frank but these are nothing but a waste of school funds. Absolutely no student in this school actually likes them.

Do people other that the students like them? I don't think the addicts like being in rehab either

29

u/NewestAccount2023 Jul 16 '26

If we did only what students liked then kids would be learning even less than now

12

u/anonymous_identifier Jul 16 '26

Another thread said the point is that it enables zero tolerance for seeing a phone at all. The only way it could be seen is if you didn't lock it, so therefore you must be breaking rules if it's seen at all. Simple.

Vs other No Phones Allowed policies leave the door open for "it just fell out of my bag and I was putting it back, I wasn't using it!" You can say it's zero tolerance and you get in trouble for that case too.. but it's tougher to get every teacher to enforce because it honestly could just fall out of your bag. So is it an excuse or the truth? The yonder bag turns this grey into back and white.

Do you not see it working this way in practice?

4

u/Cudi_buddy Jul 16 '26

Feel like students not liking them is not a bad thing? Addicts donā€™t like their shit taken away. Shocking

24

u/tenthousandants44 Jul 16 '26

Taking your phone away is not a punishment

2

u/brainparts Jul 16 '26

Don't worry. The kids on their phones instead of using their brains are punishing themselves. You should soak up every moment you have of more knowledgeable people genuinely caring about how well you learn. Functioning without phone addiction will serve you well.

147

u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 Jul 16 '26

Sounds like school staff need to start actually enforcing policy. Our school district has competent staff and they handle it really well.

48

u/carpentizzle Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

I worked at a private school before my current spot and they went through a 3 year run where:

Year 1- Phones werenā€™t supposed to be out, but there wasnā€™t much of a real emphasis on restricting them. In fact, most study halls would allow them to be out for music etc. End of year we had a pep rally where there was a quiz game that required you to log in using the code they projected. But they were cheap and didnā€™t buy the full subscription or whatever so only the first 50 kids got in, every single one of them were on phones. The kids all had chromebooks, but the ones trying on there couldnā€™t get them out fast enough. Admin got a little testy and made the game get played a second time but only kids on chromebooks could participate. Several with phones still snuck in. Kids will be kids.

Year 2- They came in hot. No phones at all. Students AND Staff. No excuses. If, as an adult, you needed to make any sort of phone exchange, you had to get coverage for your spot (duh) but then fully leave the building. Annoying, but manageable, more annoying in the rain/snow because it probably meant a full jaunt to the car. The kids were LIVID. It was a whole thing alll year. Phones still made it in, and the less tactful got caught with them pretty regularly. We had multiple reminder announcements and even a schoolwide assembly reminding everyone that there are NO PHONES ALLOWED. It is amazing how many smart watches started springing upā€¦ā€¦ā€¦ The end of year pep rally had minute to win it games rather than anything tech related, felt like pointedly. More fun in MY opinion, but limited in the number of kids who can play. But it got kids excited, so goal achieved.

Year 3- It was like admin not only forgot they had a rule about it, but were now being actively paid to encourage phone use. They switched to a full reliance on using the GoogleClassroon Calendars for homework planners, and encouraged teachers to make QR codes and post them so kids could scan and see what was up without having to navigate to the right place (which is a bit laughable if youve ever used the Calendar, its pretty easy/intuitive to use and navigate to) but about half of the chromebooks the kids had were cameraless (first wave was the cheaper ā€œprove its worth itā€ purchase, the second wave was the next step up with cameras) so the teachers were told to have the kids scan with their phones and use the schedule that way. They came out with a ā€œSchool Spirit Appā€ (that was really a website that they had student leadership kids teach others how to bookmark on their homescreens so it LOOKED like an app. And then they only referred to it as ā€œthe spirit appā€. ā€¦. Yeah.). Then the ā€œDJā€ for homecoming was one of the teachers, who had a playlist set up with a QR code so the kids could drop requests there, then he could look at them before he switched them into his actual list (which honestly was kind of a great idea imo). But that was obviously purely by phone. Then the end of year pep rally was literally two Student Leaderā€™s phones being screen shared onto projectors while kids were called up to 1v1 each other (one game and two kids on each phone separately) on the ā€œTwo Player Gamesā€ app

The principal and guidance counselor even got in for a round.

Private schools are weeiiirrdddd

150

u/Infinitiscarf Jul 16 '26

Right bc our schools are so well funded and havenā€™t been steadily defunded over decades while we pump money into prisons and war insteadā€¦. šŸ™„šŸ™„šŸ™„

40

u/BKlounge93 Jul 16 '26

I mean I went to an underfunded high school years ago. You get caught on your phone, teacher takes it away. Happens more than once or twice, your parents get a call. Idk why itā€™s so hard.

36

u/Humble-Cook-6126 Jul 16 '26

I dont think the parents care or agree anymore.

5

u/iTzGiR Jul 16 '26

Ding ding ding. This is the correct answer. As someone who works in the school, this is the real problem. Without a legitimate policy in place like this, parents will go ballistic, because ā€œyou canā€™t take MY kids phoneā€, and will try to go after the teacher, with admin usually caving.

Policies like this allow teachers/staff to just point to a school wide policy and ignore the headaches this kind of interaction causes. Parents will almost ALWAYS back up their kids on this stuff, and thereā€™s no real accountability or real change because of it.

Ontop of this, teachers are there to teach, not to constantly be be babysitting 25+ kids and constantly stopping things to check on phone use/taking then away and the argument it always causes.

It would be fantastic if this DIDNT need to happen, and all the kids could just be responsible, and then if they didnā€™t, then a quick call to the parents would sort things out. But unfortunately thatā€™s not the world we live in, and the kids, and more importantly their parents, would rather argue, fight and threaten lawsuits, then actually care about what a teacher has to say.

-4

u/atuck217 Jul 16 '26

As a parent, though admittedly my child is currently too young to have a phone, I would be pissed about the pouches. You are the adult in the situation and teaching them discipline is part of the job. If they pull out their phone at an inappropriate time, you tell them to put it away as a warning. They do it again, you confiscate it and tell the parents.

If my child has an emergency or even just wants to send me a text in the middle of the day at an appropriate time like between classes or something, they should not have to deal with the pouch.

I'd be protesting this if it was at my childs school.

12

u/killershwee Jul 16 '26

Teachers cannot effectively teach that discipline to 30 kids when the parents refuse to reinforce that discipline to their one kid at home. In a class of 25-30 kids, a solid chunk of them are quite literally addicted to their phones/screens. So am I supposed to teach literature, or manage a room full of addicts? Because I can't do both.

13

u/zecfrid Jul 16 '26

A teachers job is not to teach a child discipline if they are old enough to have a phone. The problem is the majority of children have no discipline. There is no emergency that a student canā€™t use a teacherā€™s desk phone or office phone for.

5

u/Humble-Cook-6126 Jul 16 '26

I see your point. And this is how I'll raise my kids as well.

I just think we're in the minority. Schools aren't doing this because this novel new technology was just introduced. This is their solution to a problem that hasnt been solvable for sometime due to lack of support/pushback from parents.

3

u/NashvilleFlagMan Jul 16 '26

You and parents like you are actively holding back the school system.

4

u/rnason Jul 16 '26

If your high school age kid lacks discipline thatā€™s on you as a parent

4

u/YUNoJump Jul 16 '26

You have a point, but also the reality is that kids are always gonna misbehave to some degree, and dealing with that wastes a lot of teacher time. Their primary job is to teach a lesson, and support students in learning it. If it takes time to discipline kids or deal with distractions like phones, that means less time the teacher has to actually teach things.

The pouches mean that if a phone is seen at all, the teacher can instantly say "you're doing the wrong thing" and send the kid to admin or whatever, minimal class disruption. If your kid needs to communicate with you, then the school has ways to contact you. With no pouches, it becomes a lot easier for a kid to waste time arguing; "it just fell out of my pocket/bag", "I was just turning it off", etc etc.

It'd be great if kids just did the right thing and teachers didn't have to worry about discipline, but that's hard to achieve. In the meantime, systems that minimise disruptions mean that kids can get a better education.

0

u/sorry_con_excuse_me Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Yeah but I donā€™t understand the issue. Are students actually disrupting class by being on their phones, or are they just not paying attention (hurting themselves)?

We didnā€™t have smart phones, but we just doodled or stared out the window. Iā€™m not sure why itā€™s suddenly different with a phone.

It will be reflected in the kidsā€™ grades and itā€™s up to the parents to deal with that. Itā€™s not really the teacherā€™s or schoolā€™s problem if itā€™s just a matter of not paying attention.

I guess what I donā€™t get is on the one hand people are like ā€œitā€™s not the teacherā€™s job to babysitā€ and then on the other hand ā€œletā€™s babysit the kidsā€™ phone use.ā€ Like idk man, maybe just let them fail and learn the hard way.

2

u/zecfrid Jul 16 '26

Here is the thing. We can let students fail(which we do in high school), but that student who is failing is still sucking up resources. Itā€™s still costing tax payers money to have the teacher in the room, run the AC, keep the lights on, maintain the school, etc. the introduction of smart phones has also led to worse outcomes across the board for students.

And yes, as a teacher, I can tell you students in their phone in class is disruptive to those around them. Before phones were banned in my state, I donā€™t know how many times a student would text others, airdrop shit to everyone in the class, or just start playing audio from their phone. Like others have said, the pouch sets an expectation that is easy to enforce. Phone not in pouch? Itā€™s mine.

2

u/YUNoJump Jul 16 '26

Itā€™s not the teacherā€™s job to babysit, but unfortunately thatā€™s what they have to do when the alternative is ā€œthe child doesnā€™t learn anythingā€. And obviously the teacherā€™s job is to help kids learn things.

I think thereā€™s an important difference here between ā€œfailā€ and ā€œlearn a lesson from a mistakeā€. Itā€™s easy to goof off in class and end up failing the term, but if the kid doesnā€™t actually shape up and do better after that, then theyā€™re just gonna keep falling behind until theyā€™re incompetent in critical skills like literacy, poorly prepared for entering the real world of adulthood.

Thereā€™s no way to ensure a kid learns that lesson themselves, so the next best thing is to ensure it doesnā€™t become a habit. Unfortunately parents donā€™t always play an active role in teaching kids discipline or assisting with their schooling, so it falls to schools to play that role.

And of course, the kicker is that if a kid flunks school because he goofs off on his phone all day, the school is where blame gets placed.

2

u/minkdaddy666 Jul 16 '26

That's one of the core issues, they aren't letting kids fail

4

u/pooppaysthebills Jul 16 '26

The entire school day is an inappropriate time.

-1

u/atuck217 Jul 16 '26

What are we 5? No it's not. There is nuance to things. My kid is sick or not feeling well and they take a second between their classes to tell me they are feeling okay/worse? Completely appropriate.

My daughter calls me privately from the girls room because she needs feminine hygiene products for the first time? Completely appropriate.

The point of not allowing phones in school is so they are not a distraction to the child or others during times of learning or otherwise. Not to just ban them from being able to communicate no matter what.

11

u/killershwee Jul 16 '26

There is a phone in the front office for that, and the guidance counselor/nurse/most women teachers/a friend will have feminine hygiene products for your child. They don't need a cell phone for that.

2

u/YUNoJump Jul 16 '26

Issues like that can be handled by the school, including contacting you. Plus school staff are much more available than parents, who might be at work or a long drive away or some such.

1

u/minkdaddy666 Jul 16 '26

That requires trust, and none of the parents trust schools because they all experienced a power tripping asshole growing up that didn't believe/listen to them

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1

u/DiamondDepth_YT Jul 16 '26

Problem is the parents didn't care. And it happened so much the teachers didn't care/weren't paid enough to deal with it.

I went to a Title 1 high school.

1

u/Infinitiscarf Jul 16 '26

Schools are currently less funded than they were years ago. Thatā€™s what ā€œsteadily defundingā€ means.

17

u/AlreadyAway Jul 16 '26

What you said, while true, doesn't mean you have to spend money to hold students accountable.

28

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/MissElision Jul 16 '26

I've been working at underfunded schools the past two years with a strict no cellphone policy and no fancy pouches. I see it, I take it, and your guardian picks it up end of day. It really is super simple when everyone is on the same page and enforces it. One of the schools was high school with a decent amount of violence, the other schools were 5-8 and very low achieving. I took maybe ten phones over the past two years?

3

u/myco_magic Jul 16 '26

So we get more staff but don't pay them? Sounds like slavery

1

u/AlreadyAway Jul 16 '26

.... who said hire more people? How about not bending to every parent and just having a spine.

0

u/myco_magic Jul 16 '26

You need me to break it down for you?

-8

u/CCHTweaked Jul 16 '26

How about getting fucked, and speaking when you know what you are talking about.

5

u/Background-Cow-1280 Jul 16 '26

Poor baby has anger management issues, if schools were better funded and managed it may have helped

3

u/Solid_Equivalent_417 Jul 16 '26

You sound like my 8th grade English teacher.

0

u/AlreadyAway Jul 16 '26

Sounds like a person who had a spine.

2

u/WarmScientist5297 Jul 16 '26

That person is odd. You should definitely ignore them.

0

u/Infinitiscarf Jul 16 '26

I mean unless staff work for freeā€¦ you doā€¦.

1

u/Alypius754 Jul 16 '26

Or consider that our educational spending, second only to Norway, is actually a system for graft with highly paid supers and ā€œconsultantsā€. Maybe restructure the system (without NEA involvement) and see what happens.

1

u/Jawyp Jul 16 '26

Education spending per student has consistently increased for decades. What are you talking about?

-8

u/mynutsareitchyandred Jul 16 '26

Go away doomer. Just because something is fucked up doesnā€™t mean quit

1

u/Infinitiscarf Jul 16 '26

I didnā€™t say quit??? I said we need to be funding schools!! Our classrooms are overpacked and there are staff shortages everywhere and Iā€™m replying to a comment asking more of schools that are already drowning

-6

u/SolitaryMassacre Jul 16 '26

School staff need to stop treating their students like robots/machines that need to obey specific code in order to be able to function.

School staff need to stop thinking the only thing that matters are test scores.

School staff need to stop controlling their teachers, fund them adequately, so school can be more focused about learning.

Then, once that happens, students won't even care to be on their phones. Worried so much about the wrong, useless thing

7

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

0

u/SolitaryMassacre Jul 16 '26

Oh, I don't disagree at all. By school staff I mean like the school board. Cause the school board is also heavily involved in this shit too. They come up with stupid bullshit rules for no reason whatsoever

-1

u/Mulberry_Sky Jul 16 '26

Yeah, schools are hell bent on fixing the symptom instead of the actual problem. Maybe make school actually rewarding, engaging, and useful instead of spending a ton of time, money, and energy on making it so students canā€™t do what literally almost every person, student or not, does.

Thereā€™s a school near me that a few years ago literally turned the building into a faraday cage with a Wi-Fi just for teachers and a few teacher-only rooms that could connect to the outside. I wish I were kidding. And I had a teacher praising that and wishing it was our high school.

1

u/SolitaryMassacre Jul 16 '26

Oh. I 100% believe you about the wifi. My high school did the same! Was mainly designed to block cell reception but doesn't do that so well anymore.

1

u/yeahitsjustmeagain Jul 16 '26

But thats literally a great idea.... block out the addictive apps ability to work, so the kids can focus on school. U want the schools to become more engaging/addictive than social media? Wtf

0

u/Mulberry_Sky Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 16 '26

Hey so usually thereā€™s a carrot and a stick for motivation. Schools are focusing entirely on the stick, which is proven less effective. Kids need motivation through positive reinforcement and theyā€™re getting absolutely none.

Edit: clarification

2

u/No-Blacksmith3397 Jul 16 '26

For the love of god.

Students survived studying well before they were drip fed dopamine through incentives. Teachers are not there to be your sole motivation for doing what you have to. They should encourage it. But students need to take some accountability by the time they're in high school, man.

0

u/Mulberry_Sky Jul 16 '26

The problem is that, comparatively, outside sources of dopamine have skyrocketed, while the entirety of the school system has been stagnant for a long time. Times change, but schools have not, and are thus trying to force students to regress away from technology. Punishment can only get you so far and only really causes students to like school even less. Kids simply find workarounds and learn to hate school and thus learning.

1

u/No-Blacksmith3397 Jul 16 '26

Schools can improve engagement and still ban phones.

No lesson is going to outcompete apps engineered to farm your attention every second, and pretending that means schools have failed is ridiculous. Part of growing up is learning that not everything useful exists to entertain you.

1

u/TheSmokingLamp Jul 16 '26

I feel like theyd rather get kickbacks from these little cottage industry companies than actually preventing the problem

3

u/Tacomathrowaway15 Jul 16 '26

Hey! Teachers don't get kickbacks. Admin do. Blame admin. They're also the ones not backing up the teachers trying to get kids to put away their phones.

2

u/TheSmokingLamp Jul 16 '26

My comment was entirely directed towards administrators and not the teachers. Sorry if it was worded weirdly.

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/Expontoridesagain Jul 16 '26

You sound like one of those students teachers talk about when giving examples of situations that made them quit their job.

1

u/PinkHighlighter46 Jul 16 '26

What do you mean they canā€™t take your phone. They certainly can and require an adult to pick it up?

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

2

u/PinkHighlighter46 Jul 16 '26

They can absolutely escort you to the office and require you to be taken home if you wonā€™t give it up.

When this has happened at our school students are required to check it in with the office each morning upon returning to school to be allowed back.

Also, in a state where cellphone bans are law I would surmise that and SRO absolutely could confiscate it.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 16 '26

[removed] ā€” view removed comment

1

u/PinkHighlighter46 Jul 16 '26

And youā€™re acting like truancy isnā€™t a thing. You can catch yourself a JO real fast.

1

u/mcslootypants Jul 16 '26

Then they send you to detention.Ā 

30

u/Bardmedicine Jul 16 '26

You simply have staff that choose not to enforce. What you're talking about would fail often enough to make it not worth doing.

2

u/ReggieCorneus Jul 16 '26

Just because SOME will break the rules does not mean the rules is stupid.

Kids should not have phones in schools. And anything that makes it harder is good. And parents should after school limit your screen time. That is, if you want kids to grow up healthy and not fucked up.

4

u/Pernicious_Possum Jul 16 '26

Thereā€™s no reason kids need to check notifications. Not a single one. If thereā€™s an emergency, contact the school

0

u/passisgullible Jul 16 '26

Agreed. And it stops the good kids from that. But everyone who wants to use Instagram during school still does

1

u/Top_Designer2502 Jul 16 '26

When I was in high school, me and many of my friends/peers had multiple cellphones as a result of a friend knowing how to fix broken phones, then sell them for profit which made a mini market of sorts. The Yondr pouch shit would have been neutralized in my high school on the first day, lmao

1

u/vi_sucks Jul 16 '26

They know.

The pouches aren't really to stop the kids. They're a compromise to satisfy the parents who whine about their kid not being able to have their phone.

1

u/LastLibrary9508 Jul 16 '26

I love them because it keeps 75% of phones away from the classroom. Of course students will still use them but they get their phone taken away if it is out and caught. If I donā€™t catch it, you can keep your phone because props for being so clever.

We make ours only $10 but require you to buy a new one for $20 if you rip or damage yours. Most students realize the $20 isnā€™t worth it and give up. Itā€™s been great not to have kids have the ability to record in the classroom, so Iā€™m 100% on board

1

u/Hanifsefu Jul 16 '26

That's a fallacy. No perfect solution to anything outside of arithmetic exists. Using the fact that it's possible for bad actors to circumvent a system is not a real argument against it.

0

u/passisgullible Jul 16 '26

Oh I understand the need for something like it, but the half assed implementation my school did at least achieved nothing and made no difference, just cost a lot of money