‘This is unacceptable’: Student claims school spends $80K on Yondr pouches to lock up phones. Then they run out of lunch food
A Connecticut-based student is claiming that her school spent $80,000 on pouches that allow her school to be a phone-free zone, yet have been cutting corners on the food they're serving students.
The allegations come courtesy of TikTok creator Jenna Genovese, who interviews what appears to be her daughter in her car to make a point about school priorities. This video, which, according to the caption, was filmed "months ago," has generated more than 5.4 million views as of this writing, following its posting on Wednesday.
"This is unacceptable," Jenna says, asking the student to repeat what she said as she started recording on her phone.
"Our school spent $80,000 on Yondr pouches," she begins before Genovese asks for clarification on what that is.
The student describes it as a pouch that "traps your phone ... so you can't take it out," attributing the locking device to a "magnet."
Genovese then moves on to ask about the situation in the school cafeteria.
"I don't even know how they could afford that," the student segued, "because last year, we ran out of food. Like, literally, for a week straight, we had baked potatoes at the end of the school year with cheese, and that was it. That was our lunch."
"And now this year," she continued, "the only thing that they've been giving us is mozzarella sticks, and that's it. Like, you can't get anything else. Like, we're running out of food."
Genovese then asks about snack availability, and the student claims it's just apples.
What is Yondr?
According to its site, "Yondr’s mission is simple: alleviate the intrusion of personal technology to create vital, distraction-free experiences that enrich people’s lives."
The company, started in 2014, creates pouches that allow people to keep phones on their person but unable to access them while in the locked pouches. To open the pouches, as another page on the site explains, "To use your phone at any time, step outside the phone-free zone and tap your pouch on an unlocking base."
While the duo did not identify which school they were talking about, only referencing the Connecticut school system in a hashtag, a September 2024 story from CT Mirror boasted of the success a New Haven school had in using Yondr.
At Barnard School, "Students cannot access their phones again until they leave school after 3 p.m., or if they go to the school’s front office and, with teachers’ and staff permission, unlock the pouches so they can temporarily use their phones to, for example, call their parents."
Principal Stephanie Skiba's decision predated Connecticut's education department-issued guidance banning cell phone use at elementary and middle schools.
"We saw a drastic change in student engagement and behavior,” Skiba said, noting that students' grades went up, they interacted more, and that there was "no more TikToking while walking through the halls.”
Skiba summed up, "It just changed the climate."
The article noted that the Yondr pouches cost about $20 each, meaning that if TikToker's claim is taken at face value, the student has to go to a school with 4,000 students to make that math work.
@jennagenovese who decides what schools spend their money on? 😅 #ctschoolsystem ♬ original sound - Jenna Genovese
Commenters react
Still, some viewing the video sounded an alarm.
"Y'all need to call the news station EXPEDITIOUSLY," one observed.
"I have the [Yondr] pouches too and it solves nothing," another shared. "I mean, the phones are trapped but the kids are still out of control."
"Sounds like the cafeteria manager isn’t doing their job," someone else offered. "They should have a separate budget for the food. We do at our school at least. Our cafe manager makes menus and orders food."
Another claimed that there's a workaround. "Schools are a joke," that person said, "My kid puts their broken phone in it and uses their good phone throughout the day."
The Daily Dot has reached out to the creator via TikTok direct message and to Yondr via email.
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The post ‘This is unacceptable’: Student claims school spends $80K on Yondr pouches to lock up phones. Then they run out of lunch food appeared first on The Daily Dot.