Cedar Springs School Tackles Smartphone Distractions With Yondr Bags

One West Michigan school has decided to take the same approach that famous comedians and musicians have to keep students off their phones.

Creative Technologies Academy in Cedar Springs has started using signal-blocking phone bags in the classroom, and they’re the same Yondr bags you see at concerts and live events.

The bags are simple and allow students to bring their phones to school and still keep them with them all day. But once the phone goes into the bag, it’s locked and unusable until the end of the school day.

From a theft and safety standpoint, it makes sense. Students personal cell phones aren’t sitting in lockers or being handed over to teachers, so no one can accuse someone else of losing or stealing a device that never leaves the student’s possession. On paper, it’s a pretty clever workaround.

The school also says it’s also working. According to administrators, Creative Technologies Academy reported 120 phone violations in the fall of 2024. This past fall, that number dropped to just 11, which is a massive change of pace.

They’re also seeing something else that feels nostalgic: kids are talking to each other again, and even having more social interactions at lunch. With fewer faces glued to screens, they’re back to living the kind of thing many of us remember as just… school. Back when the biggest distraction in your pocket was a folded note, not a supercomputer.

All of this is happening as Michigan lawmakers continue to debate a broader ban on smartphones in public and charter schools. In a way, Creative Technologies Academy is getting ahead of the conversation, trying to find a middle ground before the state makes a decision for everyone.

Still, as a parent, I can also see the other side.

This system sounds manageable in a smaller school. In larger districts, it feels like it could be a logistical nightmare. Someone has to make sure every phone is bagged, locked, and every student is compliant. And that responsibility inevitably falls on teachers and staff who already have more on their plates than anyone wants to admit.

That doesn’t mean the idea is bad. There are real benefits here, and the numbers back that up. But it does raise the question of whether we’re solving a problem or just pressing pause on it. Either way, it’s hard not to notice the irony. All this technology, just to get kids to do what we were already doing in the 1990s and before.