The 2024-25 school year will bring about a drastic change for IMS and MIHS students: no cell phones. According to MISD Superintendent Dr. Fred Rundle, MISD will be breaking ground as the first school district in Washington state to partner with Yondr, a company producing pouches that magnetically seal to keep students’ phones away for the day.
District leadership started to consider implementing a stricter phone policy about a year ago as “tides shifted across the nation to take a firmer stance,” MIHS Principal Nick Wold said.
Rundle commented that as district leadership read articles last summer and fall, the increasing data about social media’s negative effects and kids’ reliance on phones was a major factor in deciding to ban phones. After talking to various parent groups and surveying students throughout the 2023-24 year, Rundle said that in June that district finally decided to implement a “rigid phone policy.” …