Before school started this year,  a big topic people were talking about was phones.

On July 3, 2024, the state of PA passed legislation that allowed schools to apply for grants to buy magnetic pouches to lock student phones during the school day.

PA passed the bill so that schools could ban students’ use of cellphones to help improve their mental health and academic performance.

While Dallastown does acknowledge problems with cell phones, they are not going down the pouch path, at least for now.

Pouches started gaining popularity for schools so then students had to put their phones in them so they aren’t a distraction. That’s when Yondr pouches were being bought by many schools because it was one of the top quality magnetic pouches.

Yondr pouches were made in 2014 by Graham Dugoni. Dugoni believed that society needed safe places where the human spirit could thrive without technology.

At first Dugoni made just one pouch and walked to the bay area schools and music venues to see if they were interested in being phone free.

For now DHS has not banned phones or gotten any magnetic pouches, but for the middle school they must keep their phones locked away in their lockers.

Only minor changes have been made in DHS recently.

“Last year we tried to make a serious effort with the changes in classroom rules and when we got feedback from teachers we had made a huge improvement,” Dallastown Principal Dr. Wilson explained.

When asked, many students are comfortable with the current phone policy at DHS and do not want it to change.

“I strongly believe that DHS should NOT enforce a more strict cell phone policy because as a senior all I want to do is get my work done and live these last months of high school,” stated Dallastown senior, Tre’Jon Wright.

Gettysburg started implementing the phone ban policy and introduced magnetic locked pouches that they put their devices in for the day.

“Device free learning environment,” was posted by Gettysburg school district on social media. Each student gets their own Yondr pouch for their devices to be put in and will be able to unlock it at the end of the day with one of the magnetic bases around the school.

But pouches may not solve the problem. There are already some YouTube video hacks about how to unlock the magnetic pouch without its base.

“I know some schools are using phone lockers to enforce cell phone bans but I personally find this a step too far,” Dallastown senior, Alexander Mihalyov said. “I know legally schools are within their rights to do it, but I find it very invasive and inconvenient. In short, I would love to have limited but not banned cell phone usage in school just like it is here at DHS.”

After high school sometimes you might have to balance using your phone for a job or places where less distractions are needed.

“Being able to have cellphones now helps us for when we get a job because we will be able to be mature with our phones,” Dallastown freshman Jordan Stella remarked.

According to Dr. Wilson cell phones could be useful after high school and learning to balance that now will help.

“If we ban all together, we are not helping to learn a healthy balance for after high school.” Wilson said.