FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — New cellphone policies go into effect Tuesday in some Fairfax County public schools. For middle school students, this means locking their phones away in a magnetic pouch that cannot be unlocked until they leave the building for the day.
Students will receive an assigned magnetic Yondr pouch that they must bring back and forth to school each day. When they arrive, they must put their phones on silent or airplane mode and then enclose it in the pouch. Like anti-theft devices at stores, the pouch can only be unlocked by a special magnetic device. Pouches will be placed in their backpacks. If a student forgets their pouch, they must turn their phone over to the school office.
At the end of the day, students will head to unlocking stations where they can use the special magnets to unlock the pouches. Each school in the pilot has multiple unlocking stations based on how many students they have.
Frost Middle School, Irving Middle School, Jackson Middle School, Poe Middle School, Robinson Middle School, Thoreau Middle School and Twain Middle School are part of this pilot program.
Parents can call the school’s front office if they urgently need to reach their child.
Individual teachers will not be able to unlock phone pouches, even in cases of emergencies. If there is a lockdown situation, students will not be able to use their phones to contact their families, according to FCPS. The school system says students having access to phones can compromise their safety and even alert an intruder of their location.
Airpods must also be secured in the pouch or placed in backpacks. Smartwatches must also be off or on airplane mode.
Students who lose or damage their pouch or repeatedly leave their pouch at home will have to pay $18 for a replacement.
High school students, on the other hand, don’t have as strict of a cellphone policy, which also begins Tuesday. Schools in the high school pilot program just require students to put their phones in a cellphone storage unit at the beginning of each class. Edison High School, Falls Church High School, Justice High School, Lewis High School, Madison High School, McLean High School, Robinson High School and Westfield High School are a part of the pilot program.
The goal is to keep children away from social media, texting and phone calls during school hours.