The Thorndale Independent School District has a plan to keep students focused on their studies while in the classroom.
And we imagine it won't be too popular with the young folks or at least some of their parents, either.
Thorndale, Texas, is in Milam County, about an hour northeast of Austin. In a letter to parents, the district's superintendent announced the middle and high school campus will become "a phone and personal electronic device free space" in order to "improve teaching and learning."
The district is adopting the Yondr system, which provides students with a storage pouch for their phones, smart watches, ear buds and other devices. The pouches are magnetically sealed when they come to school and only unsealed when the day is over. Students who violate the policy will be fined and suspended.
The letter claims the Yondr system has been shown to improve academic performance, student behavior and classroom engagement.
For those worried about emergency situations, the letter states, "Based on information from law enforcement it is actually safer for students to refrain from using their devices in an emergency situation. However, we are working on a plan in the event that those devices are deemed necessary in a lockdown situation. Additionally, we now have a phone in every classroom and office that can be used in an emergency."
Smart phones and other devices can be disruptive in classrooms. And, frankly, we don't see a lot of problems with this idea.
But with parents understandably worried about school safety, we wonder how this will go over? The district can claim students are safer not using a phone in an emergency, but how many parents will just accept that at face value?
We'll have to see how this goes. It could end up in court. But who knows? We may eventually see something similar in districts around here.