Students at Portland (Ore.) Public Schools’ (PPS) Alliance High School play Pictionary in the library during a free period. Library usage at PPS has increased since the district implemented a cellphone ban in 2025. Photo: Amy Taramasso/Alliance High School

Since fall 2024, each school day at Grant High School in Portland, Oregon, has started the same way: Roughly 2,100 students line up to place their phones in gray and green Yondr pouches—the kind live performers use to prevent audience members from recording—as they enter the building. From the morning bell to dismissal, phones are sealed and can be unlocked only with special magnets near the school’s exits as students leave for the day.

The high school’s effort to limit phone use on campus has received support from its educators, who say classroom engagement is on the rise, and mixed reviews from students, who dislike being cut off from

their devices.…