By Adam Swift
Thanks to a new policy, students at Chelsea High School are no longer allowed to use their cellphones during the school day.
At last week’s school committee meeting, Chelsea High interim principal Alan Beausoleil provided an update on how the implementation of the policy has been going with teachers and students.
“In December of 2024, the school committee passed the cellphone and electronics-free policy for the district,” said Beausoleil.
Soon after the vote, Beausoleil said the school staff began preparing for the policy to go into effect with the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. That work included getting out the word about the policy to students and families.
He said Chelsea High was also looking at how other schools in the region have implemented similar policies.
“We reached out to connections and tried to find the best practices that we could to implement at Chelsea High,” said Beausoleil. “In the spring of 2025, we decided to utilize Yondr pouches … and we ordered the pouches and magnets that go with them. They lock and then they unlock at the end of the day with the magnet.”
When students come into one of the four doors that are open at the high school in the morning, there is an administrator or a dean and the students are asked to turn off their phones and put them in the pouches and lock them. At the end of the day, there are multiple stations on the first floor of the school where the phones can be unlocked.
“We also have handheld magnets in case of emergencies, we also bring those out at dismissal to speed up the process,” said Beausoleil. “If kids need a magnet for any particular reason, they can get one.”
The school also came up with the violation process if a student does violate the policy, he added.
The policy includes not just cellphones, but also electronics including earbuds and headphones, said Beausoleil. He said it was decided that if there is a violation, the teachers did not want to take students out of the classrooms, so they call security, and then security radios a dean or administrator to go to the classroom and they talk to the student and then take the phone to a lockbox in the main office.
“For the first violation, the students line up at 2:45 to get their phone, we don’t want them lining up at 2:30 because that is right at the end of the day … and it is also a little penalty, a little wait, 15 minutes goes a long way with some kids,” said Beausoleil. “The second offense is a 3:30 pickup, so it is basically a phone detention.”
For subsequent violations, the parents have to come and pick up the phones.
If students forget their pouch, there is no penalty, but they are expected to put their phones in the main office. There is also a $30 fee if students damage their Yondr pouch.
“There are a lot of kids looking at TikTok figuring out ways to get around the system and break the lock,” Beausoleil. “Kids are trying to be one step ahead of us, so we are trying to figure out the ways they are figuring out their way around the system and keep ahead of them.”
Beausoleil said the staff are seeing a lot of positives from the new policy.
“We are seeing kids talk to each other, we are seeing kids more engaged in the classroom,” he said. “We are seeing less students in the hallways and less negative interactions and less physical interactions at the high school, which is a big thing.” Beausoleil said he has heard from teachers who have seen scores in their classrooms go up and have seen less fights in the classrooms and halls since the policy was put in place