Sep 22, 2025 By Garrett Neese 4 min read

As Carmichaels Area School District weighs a move that would require students to keep their cellphones in a pouch for the entire school day, a mix of students, parents and community members asked the school board to return to the earlier policy.

Last week, the district heard a presentation from Yondr, a company that makes fabric cellphone pouches. While students would be able to carry the pouch with them, it could only be unlocked by a proprietary device at the end of the school day.

At the start of the year, cellphone use was dictated by the individual teacher, who could have phones placed in a designated area or put away with their personal belongings.

After the meeting with students and parents, Superintendent Amy Todd took the concerns raised to the board. Last week, it voted to implement a one-month trial measure requiring students to put their phones in their lockers between 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Todd said the district was looking at ways to improve test scores and deal with the social and emotional effects of cellphone access.

“We were looking at our test scores and our students and trying to work on ways that we could get them communicating and get them focusing on the academics,” she said.

Emma Bates, a senior at Carmichaels Area High School, said she had talked with hundreds of students about the policy.

She said at the start of the year, while some students had missed the phones more than others, overall the phone-free environment had led to an “atmosphere of creativity, socialization, and present-mindedness.” And leaving it up to the teachers meant that students were still able to use phones in situations where it assisted their learning or helped them develop a skill.

The conversation about Yondr pouches had alarmed students, she said — not so much because of the loss of their phones, but because of the sudden jump to “a more extreme approach.”

She thanked the district for their temporary policy of requiring students to place the phones in lockers, which she called a “more fiscally responsible alternative.”

Todd said the district would be able to use grant funding for the pouches. In an interview with NBC, Yondr CEO Graham Dugoni said they cost about $30 per student, factoring in training and support.

“I come before you this evening as a student and a proud community member of Carmichaels, asking, along my peers, for your consideration of a permanent solution moving forward that will allow for greater student autonomy as they transition into their post-graduation lives, while respecting the place of technology in the district,” Bates said.

At the very least, students should be able to access their phones during lunch time or the free “MIKES period,” Bates said. Students might need to coordinate their schedules for transportation needs or extracurricular activities, or job schedules, she said. And they might also have college courses or medical needs that require two-factor identification.

Nicole Marshall, director of the Flenniken Public Library in Carmichaels and a parent, said a blanket ban would harm students who need the phones for communications or media classes.

While a district policy might be a prerequisite for some grants, she acknowledged, she preferred a policy similar to the ones in place at Jefferson-Morgan or Bethel Park, where students place their phone in a holder on the wall.

“By taking away these tools completely, we are denying them the chance to learn how to responsibly manage the most important productivity device of their generation,” she said.

Katie Caffrey, a parent who also teaches English at Jefferson-Morgan, agreed.

“You cannot take something away from someone and expect them to be able to monitor themselves,” she said. “That is teaching our children nothing.”

Board President Fred Menhart thanked students for making a smooth transition to the locker policy after a rocky start, and Thursday’s speakers for their presentations.

“You’re handling it the right way tonight,” he said. “This is how you get things done, and we appreciate it.”

After the one-month period, Bates plans to confer with administrators to see if the locker policy is working before deciding on whether to recommend the Yondr pouches to the board.

After the meeting, Bates said she hopes the board not only hears the students, but implements the changes they requested.

“We’re not asking for a huge redress of policy,” she said. “We’re asking to not take drastic measures to this next step, phone lock up. We’re just asking to go back to teachers’ control of their own classrooms and to a school and a board that supports that.”