Starting the 2024-2025 academic year, all Clark County School District (CCSD) students grades six to twelve have been required to place their cell phones into phone pouches during class time.

These non-locking, signal-blocking pouches were designed to block any signals from being sent out or received while a phone is placed inside of them. They close using velcro strips, ensuring that devices are put away during instruction.

“Based on science, we perform at a lower level when our attention is placed on too many things at once,” Psychology 101 teacher Benjamin Lacombe said. “As much as we don’t not like having the availability of using our phones whenever we want, taking away that distraction is going to help kids learn better.”

These phone pouches will be kept near students during instruction, allowing them to access their devices in case of an emergency.

“I honestly think the pouches have been pretty beneficial for me,” junior Joanna Mengistu said. “I find my phone to be really distracting when I’m trying to do work, and when it’s away from me, locked up, I think it’s a good thing that keeps me on track during class.”

Another purpose of the new policy is to promote responsible cell phone usage and to teach students when it is an adequate time to use their phones.

“I am seeing that some parents are not teaching their kids when it’s appropriate to use their phones at home,” Lacombe said. “So when students come to school, it’s now [teachers’] jobs to teach them these vital skills. Some school districts are outright banning phones, though, and I think that’s going way overboard. We should be teaching students when they should and should not be using the phone. And to an extent, these cell phone pouches are doing that.”

When ordering pouches, school administration distributed them to teachers while giving priority to freshman and sophomore classrooms. Teachers who didn’t receive pouches are still required to create their own systems to manage phone use.

“I don’t have the phone pouches,” English 101 teacher Amy Lutz said.“I never received them, because now I teach English 101, and I have all seniors. I generally think you can trust upper grades more when it comes to phones. I still make my students put their phones away during class time, though. Because the end goal is that they’re not playing on them during class.”