By Ben O’Brien
A Japanese news crew was on the Branford High School campus last week filming a story on the use of Yondr pouches in the United States to limit student cell phone use during school time.
The three-person news crew, from NHK World-Japan News, captured student and staff opinions on the usage of phone-free technologies with the purpose of spreading awareness to their audience in Japan. Currently, schools there are looking to implement similar solutions for phone use like most Connecticut and U.S. schools have done.
“The documentary will be a short three to five minute feature broadcasting to NHK World Japan sometime in November,” Senior Correspondent Kenichi Mori explained in a brief interview. NHK World-Japan News is the international arm of Japan’s public broadcasting company. The segment featuring Branford High School is expected to air in November.
“The audience for this documentary is mainly students, parents, and educators. It will help inform them on what it’s like to have a Yondr Pouch in school,” Mori continued.
Mori and the others were on campus Tuesday morning, capturing shots of students entering the school, and putting their phones into their pouches. They interviewed about a dozen students and faculty members.
The crew also conducted interviews of students and staff on their opinions on a phone-free school. The group was composed of two additional members: Associate Producer Sarah Aoyagi, and Cameraman Toru Sotu. Aoyagi interviewed while Sotu recorded the conversations she had with BHS students and faculty.
Aoyagi asked a multitude of questions, some regarding students’ change in day-to-day life since the cell phone ban was implemented by the Board of Education for this school year. According to the Pew Research center, 72% of high school teachers surveyed reported that cell phone distraction is a major problem in classrooms today.
“Its been a lot harder to get in contact with people; I liked having the availability to get in contact with someone right away when I needed to,” senior Chase Barone said during his interview. “I’ve definitely noticed the lunchroom is a lot louder during lunch, and more kids are talking with each other.”
Aoyagi also brought up the issue of safety in light of America’s reputation for school shootings, and whether students felt safe in the event of an emergency without a cell phone.
Some students remarked they noticed significant pushback from many BHS students, bringing up a petition started by sophomore Matt Kazzi that received almost 300 signatures.
“Yondr makes it impossible for students with those responsibilities to ensure the safety of their loved ones or anyone who isn’t inside the school,” Kazzi wrote in a petition update in late September. “This creates more worry than it solves, and raises the anxiety in students.”
“We should be able to use our phones at lunch and in study halls. We also all should have Velcro Yondr pouches and put them in the front of the class. But when kids get caught using their phones, they get switched to [the ones with a] magnetic pin, and if the kids continue to use their phones, they should be required to turn in to the house principal,” proposed sophomore Destin Miller via the same petition update run by Kazzi.
Other students commented to the reporters on the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementry School shooting in Newtown, arguing how cell phones may prevent similar shootings in the future.
Overall, both students and staff remarked how the benefits outweigh the drawbacks of Yondr pouches at the high school.
Students and faculty members alike have mentioned how students are socializing more during lunchtime and how the general mood of the student body is improving as well.
Buzz Chief Reporter Owen Lentner contributed to this report.
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