YONDR CASES SILENCE PHONES

al kids said, ‘I haven’t paid this much attention in class since the third grade.’ That gave me chills, because as a principal, this is my No. 1 job, to get students across the stage.”

He admits that for the first few days, students didn’t know what to do without a cellphone by their side.

“They were shaky almost,” he said. “It really showed the addiction that these phones give to kids.”

Now, Yondr is being used in 20 classrooms at Sierra Vista, and eight other high schools will begin testing the program this year, according to a Yondr spokesperson.

Anzalone said the initial cost was approximately $20 per case, or about $4,000, at Sierra Vista. The outlay was approved by the Student Generated Funds Committee with funds generated by students via vending machines and the student store, so no taxpayer dollars were used. They then added 600 more cases, approved by the same committee.

As for Yondr’s founder, Dugoni says it’s his way of helping people preserve meaningful moments — and nothing could be more meaningful than an education.

“For me, I didn’t think hyperlink culture was conducive to actual learning,” the CEO says. “It’s kind of impossible to do if you have devices everywhere.”

Dugoni isn’t against the technology, he says; we just haven’t developed the right social structure for dealing with such prevalent cellphone use.

“If you look at what a smartphone does, it’s difficult to resist,” Dugoni says. “It’s hypervisual stimulation and it’s hard not to look.”

Whether it’s at a concert, work or school, most people seem to agree that phone-free spaces are becoming more necessary. It’s “a way for people to temporarily unplug, a way for people to have some element of privacy and for artists to be genuinely uninhibited,” Dugoni says. “We believe it’s all kind of part of the next wave.”