APS Yondr Pouch: Opening at home questions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swanson parent here. I don’t understand how the admin will oversee the masses of students entering the building to ensure every one of them puts their phone in the pouch. And will the school position a staff member at the door after the late bell to catch the many stragglers like my son?

And will staff search each backpack or do a body search of the students entering who claim to not have a phone?

Seems like APS is shifting the burden of cell phone policing away from teachers to its often overworked school staff.

Its simple. If they see a phone AT ALL, not necessarily in use, that student is breaking the rules and they can immediately render it useless with the pouch. Before the phone would be waved off as "putting it on silent" or "putting it away" etc when they were secretly using it, and pull it out again later or at next class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Ask to appoint a teacher to make sure students like yours are reminded to do this. Otherwise, leave that sh!t at home then and unlock it yourself. You have no business as a parent to teach your kid to do something that is egregiously against the rules.

I echo this but for different reasons. The school created this problem make them deal with it not you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Ask to appoint a teacher to make sure students like yours are reminded to do this. Otherwise, leave that sh!t at home then and unlock it yourself. You have no business as a parent to teach your kid to do something that is egregiously against the rules.

You know nothing. My kid is one who leaves the phone turned off all school day. It only comes on to coordinate after school activities. I can’t coordinate after school activities without this damn device being actually on the kid. Unlocked.if you have the luxury of never leaving Arlington or always being home ready to chauffeur larla, you probably have no effing idea what you’re talking about.

How much in the fly coordinating are you doing? Somehow people just 5 years ago managed without giving their kids a phone.
And 1000% your kid doesn’t keep it off all school day. It’s just unrealistic to think that

Believe it or not, the kid is a rule follower and really doesn’t. You probably also don’t believe that the phone is a brick during the school day, but it is. It never has Safari, it has no messaging abilities beyond to me, it doesn’t have App Store, it has downtime from bell to bell. There is no point to turning it on. I am confident 1000% (thanks for that) that the phone is off. I can see the parental stats. It’s called being a parent.

If the phone is truly off and put away all day he could just skip the pouch. No one would ever know.

DP. No, you can’t, because they make everyone put in a phone, right? Unless you lie & say you don’t have one?

My kid had NO PHONE and they are still making her take a pouch. The bounds of stupidity here are limitless. Who is responsible for this insanity???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is very good at wasting money.

I can't take most of the parents seriously who are complaining about the expense of these pouches because these are many of the same parents who thought the millions of dollar on the virtual academy was a good idea. The cost of these pouches is just a drop in the bucket in the whole budget.

The open schools now APE crowd are the ones lobbying for Away for the Day. You can thank them for these idiotic pouches. These people are still so triggered by virtual learning that they want to put other kids phones in phone jail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No parent that I've spoken to in person is in favor of this pouch nonsense. I sometimes wonder who is on the other side of the screen in here.

The pouches are a good idea and everyone will adapt. The helicopter parents who use their child’s possession of a phone to manage their own anxiety need to get a grip.

+1

My kid is at one of the Fairfax pilot MS, and after the first week, students don't care and teachers say it's drastically improved the atmosphere at the school.

MS is different than HS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

So many parents like this on the APS forum need to send their kids to private school. This much anxiety about something as simple as a phone pouch and looking for ways to break it open is setting a terrible example for their kids. Wait until you are dealing with high schoolers who have learned your ways of getting around the rules. But I have noticed that parents like these at the high school level just bury their heads in the sand and let their kids downward spiral.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Write to the school board about the ridiculous pouches. A shoe holder is much less expensive, doesn't but a financial burden on parents for damaged of lost goods and allows phones to be accessed, if necessary. Yondr is a gross misuse of taxpayer funds.

And, yes, you can buy a magnet on Amazon. Put Neodymium into the search bar.

Shoe holders are ridiculous. They don't prevent phone use in hallways, bathrooms, lunch time, etc . . . Phones get stolen regularly from them. Every class loses time spent checking that every kid's phone is there. Kids regularly have decoy phones that they put in the shoe holders. There really are no positives.

If the justification for the pouches is that kids aren't paying attention in class, why are we trying to regulate phone use at lunch? Shoe holders are $20/teacher and Yondr is at least $18/kid (they go for more like $200 online so who knows what APS actually paid). The Yondr pouch can be gamed with a decoy phone to exactly the same extent as the shoe holder so it is confusing to me why we are engaging in expensive overkill. If parents want their kids to not have a phone during non-instructional time, deal with that as a parent. The school's jurisdiction is instructional time and that is easily addressed with the shoe holder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No parent that I've spoken to in person is in favor of this pouch nonsense. I sometimes wonder who is on the other side of the screen in here.

The pouches are a good idea and everyone will adapt. The helicopter parents who use their child’s possession of a phone to manage their own anxiety need to get a grip.

+1

My kid is at one of the Fairfax pilot MS, and after the first week, students don't care and teachers say it's drastically improved the atmosphere at the school.

MS is different than HS

My kids are also at a Fairfax pilot MS. There is zero difference from last year other than the school system having spent some stupid money to create a nuisance. The school already had an away for the day policy. My one kid doesn't have a phone at all but was given a pouch. He leaves it at home because his first class teacher (the enforcers) told them on day one that he wasn't going to check. My other kid keeps an old phone in his pouch because he wants just-in-case access to his phone. He doesn't actually use his phone during the day. I'm fine with that and to the folks who will say I should not be teaching my kid to work around the rules, I disagree. Questioning rules and authority is a much more important life skill than obedience. I'm fine with him recognizing a ridiculous policy for what it is finding a workaround.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Write to the school board about the ridiculous pouches. A shoe holder is much less expensive, doesn't but a financial burden on parents for damaged of lost goods and allows phones to be accessed, if necessary. Yondr is a gross misuse of taxpayer funds.

And, yes, you can buy a magnet on Amazon. Put Neodymium into the search bar.

Shoe holders are ridiculous. They don't prevent phone use in hallways, bathrooms, lunch time, etc . . . Phones get stolen regularly from them. Every class loses time spent checking that every kid's phone is there. Kids regularly have decoy phones that they put in the shoe holders. There really are no positives.

If the justification for the pouches is that kids aren't paying attention in class, why are we trying to regulate phone use at lunch? Shoe holders are $20/teacher and Yondr is at least $18/kid (they go for more like $200 online so who knows what APS actually paid). The Yondr pouch can be gamed with a decoy phone to exactly the same extent as the shoe holder so it is confusing to me why we are engaging in expensive overkill. If parents want their kids to not have a phone during non-instructional time, deal with that as a parent. The school's jurisdiction is instructional time and that is easily addressed with the shoe holder.

It’s not just about class it’s about the impact social media and bullying on line has on their mental health and it’s about them staring at their phones instead of interacting with their peers. The phones are obviously also cameras which causes many issues which if you don’t know about that don’t know what to say. Use your imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Write to the school board about the ridiculous pouches. A shoe holder is much less expensive, doesn't but a financial burden on parents for damaged of lost goods and allows phones to be accessed, if necessary. Yondr is a gross misuse of taxpayer funds.

And, yes, you can buy a magnet on Amazon. Put Neodymium into the search bar.

Shoe holders are ridiculous. They don't prevent phone use in hallways, bathrooms, lunch time, etc . . . Phones get stolen regularly from them. Every class loses time spent checking that every kid's phone is there. Kids regularly have decoy phones that they put in the shoe holders. There really are no positives.

If the justification for the pouches is that kids aren't paying attention in class, why are we trying to regulate phone use at lunch? Shoe holders are $20/teacher and Yondr is at least $18/kid (they go for more like $200 online so who knows what APS actually paid). The Yondr pouch can be gamed with a decoy phone to exactly the same extent as the shoe holder so it is confusing to me why we are engaging in expensive overkill. If parents want their kids to not have a phone during non-instructional time, deal with that as a parent. The school's jurisdiction is instructional time and that is easily addressed with the shoe holder.

Sorry no. The school’s jurisdiction is the time they are in the school. What goes on in the hall and the bathrooms and the lunch room is their responsibility and their issue to deal with. I’m sure they’d rather it wasn’t!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Ask to appoint a teacher to make sure students like yours are reminded to do this. Otherwise, leave that sh!t at home then and unlock it yourself. You have no business as a parent to teach your kid to do something that is egregiously against the rules.

It’s not against the rules to be able to open it *at home*.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Sincere question:Why would you not let your kid deal with the natural consequence of not unlocking the phone?

That is such a weird sincere question. What was the poor behavior that needed a consequence? Locking the phone or choosing not to miss the bus so that her parent needed to leave work to pick her up?

Neither is a choice that requires a consequence. I would recheck your idea of “natural consequences”. Natural consequences in our house - not doing homework and failing a test. Not wearing pants and being cold. Not bringing a snack and being hungry (on a short term). But following the rules and being too overladen with sports equipment to manage getting out the pouch and not missing the bus? Not something that requires a consequence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Sincere question:Why would you not let your kid deal with the natural consequence of not unlocking the phone?

That is such a weird sincere question. What was the poor behavior that needed a consequence? Locking the phone or choosing not to miss the bus so that her parent needed to leave work to pick her up?

Neither is a choice that requires a consequence. I would recheck your idea of “natural consequences”. Natural consequences in our house - not doing homework and failing a test. Not wearing pants and being cold. Not bringing a snack and being hungry (on a short term). But following the rules and being too overladen with sports equipment to manage getting out the pouch and not missing the bus? Not something that requires a consequence.

Also, I’m replying to myself but - maybe you don’t understand the pouch? It’s that every kid locks up the phone, not just those who are pulling it out and get caught. So if the latter, the pouch is a consequence and not being able to unlock it is a natural consequence of the poor choice to pull it out in class. But if the kid never made that poor choice - the not unlocking it is not a consequence for anything. It’s just stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Sincere question:Why would you not let your kid deal with the natural consequence of not unlocking the phone?

That is such a weird sincere question. What was the poor behavior that needed a consequence? Locking the phone or choosing not to miss the bus so that her parent needed to leave work to pick her up?

Neither is a choice that requires a consequence. I would recheck your idea of “natural consequences”. Natural consequences in our house - not doing homework and failing a test. Not wearing pants and being cold. Not bringing a snack and being hungry (on a short term). But following the rules and being too overladen with sports equipment to manage getting out the pouch and not missing the bus? Not something that requires a consequence.

Natural consequences is not just for poor behavior. If you forget your shoes for practice you won’t have them. If you leave your water bottle somewhere carelessly you need to buy a new one. If mom always makes sure to fix everything for you, you’ll never figure it out.

The too overladen with sports equipment to get out the pouch is also quite the sob story though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I took the liberty of ordering a bunch of magnets to open this &$@! Pouch. Here is what works:

MEUOADA Rare Earth Magnet,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6RBXT71?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Put pouch on magnet
Tap the button vigorously
It opens

We went through a few that didn’t work.

Good luck - my kid is one who would have to make a choice between missing a bus and unlocking the pouch and freak out. This pouch was an unnecessary source of anxiety and I feel happy to have defeated it.

Sincere question:Why would you not let your kid deal with the natural consequence of not unlocking the phone?

That is such a weird sincere question. What was the poor behavior that needed a consequence? Locking the phone or choosing not to miss the bus so that her parent needed to leave work to pick her up?

Neither is a choice that requires a consequence. I would recheck your idea of “natural consequences”. Natural consequences in our house - not doing homework and failing a test. Not wearing pants and being cold. Not bringing a snack and being hungry (on a short term). But following the rules and being too overladen with sports equipment to manage getting out the pouch and not missing the bus? Not something that requires a consequence.

Natural consequences is not just for poor behavior. If you forget your shoes for practice you won’t have them. If you leave your water bottle somewhere carelessly you need to buy a new one. If mom always makes sure to fix everything for you, you’ll never figure it out.

The too overladen with sports equipment to get out the pouch is also quite the sob story though.

Seriously. Since when are consequences only for poor behavior?