NEW BEDFORD — When school resumes later this month, school administrators will take a new approach to cell phones. Normandin and Roosevelt middle schools and local charter school Global Learning will use bags and lockers to enforce cellphone restrictions. Meanwhile, New Bedford High School has relaxed its plan to lock away students’ phones.

Many schools in New Bedford already have policies restricting cellphone use during the school day. In June, The Light reported that New Bedford High School sought to enforce its cellphone ban by purchasing Yondr bags – rubbery pouches that can be used to lock away phones and can only be opened with an administrator’s key.

Instead, the high school will only use the Yondr bags for students who violate cell phone policies — that is, anyone caught using their phone during the day.

The change came after students objected to the use of Yondr bags, telling The Light that it “made no sense” or seemed “ridiculous” in New Bedford, where many students work or have responsibilities such as caring for younger siblings.

Elliott Talley, president of New Bedford High’s student council, said the proposal would exacerbate the school’s strict technology restrictions, which include blocking educational websites, limiting external email and banning PDFs – the widely used Portable Document Format.

But the benefits of limiting cell phone use in school are well documented. Students’ grades and physical activity improve without smartphones, and reduced time on social media also has positive effects on mental health. And this year, eight states passed laws or implemented rules banning cell phones and other personal technology in schools.

At the Whaling City alternative district school in New Bedford, students are already prohibited from carrying cell phones in the building. At the school’s June 5 graduation ceremony, students told The Light that this has significantly improved the school’s climate. “It’s not a big deal, you get used to it,” said Anderson Lima, one of the graduates. Alma del Mar, another charter school in the city, also uses lockers for students’ cell phones.

At the school board meeting this month, district administrators backed off the high school’s plan to use Yondr bags, but said two of the city’s middle schools now plan to use either Yondr bags or lockers to enforce their cell phone policies.

“We are fortunate to have pilot projects at two middle schools using different products to enforce cell phone policies,” says Tammy Morgan, a central office administrator.

Roosevelt Middle School will spend $16,000 to buy enough Yondr bags for all of its nearly 800 students, the district’s financial reports say. Students will lock their phones in a bag this fall and carry the locked phone with them during the school day.

Normandin Middle School will use lockers in student classrooms, Morgan said, and students will leave their phones in those lockers until classes end. The purchase price has not yet been disclosed.

At both middle schools, parents are asked to call the office if they need to contact their child.

At Global Learning Public Charter School in New Bedford, students will also be using Yondr bags every day when school starts again later this month. The school’s executive director, Stephen Furtado Jr., said, “By removing the proverbial ‘elephant in the room,’ we expect to see greater student participation.”

New Bedford High had already purchased a small number of Yondr bags and tested them with students this summer. Rather than increasing the purchase, Morgan said, the high school will only use the Yondr bags for students caught using their phones.

These decisions “are geared toward supporting our district-wide cell phone policy that cell phones are turned off and not visible,” Morgan said. She kept open the possibility that the high school will eventually implement lockers or bags for its students, saying, “Our ultimate goal is to implement a uniform system in our middle schools and eventually our high school as well.”

Morgan said the district will track the rollout of the new lockers and bags at Normandin and Roosevelt, as well as the greatly reduced rollout of Yondr bags at New Bedford High. She said both behavioral and academic data could be part of the district’s analytics.

For New Bedford students, these new guidelines will apply when they return to school—for most of the school district on Thursday, August 29, but for NBHS ninth and twelfth graders and all Global Learning students, they will begin returning one day earlier, on Wednesday, August 28.

Send an email to Colin Hogan at [email protected]