Smart Phone 'Pouches' Coming To Salem Middle Schools

SALEM, MA — Salem middle school students will be able to keep their smartphones with them if they choose throughout the school day this year.

They just will not be able to access them.

Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said during his initial Facebook Live session of the school year on Wednesday that the district is implementing magnetized personal "pouches" in a pilot program that will apply to students in Collins Middle School, New Liberty School and Saltonstall School in grades 5 through 8.

Zrike said the pouches will lock when school begins and will only be unlocked during the school day if the student needs the phone for "educational purposes." The pouches will then unlock at the end of the school day.

In the case of an emergency, parents and guardians are asked to call the school office and someone there will then find the student and communicate the message.

"Our policy hasn't changed," Zrike said. "We expect cell phones will not be seen during the school day. But that has proven to be challenging for young people who are very addicted — and that includes adults too — to their phones."

Zrike said the goal of keeping students off their phones is that they can then better focus on schoolwork as well as engage with school staff and each other.

"We think this is really important," Zrike said. "All the research that we read about the impact of social media and technology has had on young people during the pandemic — and the distraction that we saw, and I saw personally being at the middle school last year — led us to this pilot program in these three schools."

Zrike said other districts have found "great success" with the pouch program and that the district will use what it learns in the early weeks and months of the middle school program to determine whether it can be expanded to include the high school.

"We understand this may be an adjustment for families and students," Zrike said. "But we really think that this is in the best interest of our young people to really focus on their academics and most importantly focus on the ability to socialize, interact and engage.

"It's something I do feel was lost for many during the pandemic."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)