At the end of the last school year, Brownsville Area School District put a ban on all wearable technology, and despite some initial pushback from some students and parents, the district says it's changed everything when it comes to overall focus and teacher-student interaction. 

Alec Hamilton, the director of security at the Brownsville Area School District, says when kids at the high school and middle school come in, they put their phone and other electronics like earbuds into a pouch that locks. 

The policy went into effect for the last nine weeks of the 2024-25 school year, and district officials admit it took some getting used to. 

"These children, this is an appendage, like, it's like an arm. They're losing their right arm to take this phone from them. That's all they have known," said Brownsville Area Superintendent Kristin Frey-Martin. 

Frey-Martin says as students adjusted to the policy, some still tried to find ways to sneak their phones in.

"The reason the company made this such a distinct color is that you can see one, if it's open, two, you can see, like, small little cuts on it, pen marks where they've tried to shove a pen into it," Hamilton said. 

Meanwhile, parents feared they wouldn't be able to get in touch with their child in the case of an emergency. The superintendent says safety is their top priority, which is why students are allowed to have the pouches with them throughout the day.

"The pouches, they are able to be cut open. So in the event that we had to relocate, or we were housed in a classroom, we would simply cut those pouches open so students would have access," Frey-Martin said. 

As students arrive each day, the pouch is locked, and any items they have go through an X-ray scanner.

"If they go through, if they try to sneak a phone through that they didn't put in a pouch, then it shows up. It's pretty hard to miss them," Hamilton said. 

Since the ban has been in effect, the district says its students and staff are connected more than ever before.

"It's been a significant step in creating more of a focused atmosphere for our students. Classroom engagement has gone up. Student interaction, teacher-student interaction," Frey-Martin said. 

Frey-Martin says the goal behind the ban was academic achievement, but says they've gained so much more. She says assignments are being submitted on time and student behavior improved while cyberbullying decreased. 

"There was a large concern with students texting each other during the school day, reaching out in Snapchat or other social media avenues. They're meeting in the restrooms. It's causing discord and chaos, and it's a distraction from the academic realm that we are in," Frey-Martin said. 

The district purchased 800 pouches for students grades 6 through 12 with the possibility to also include elementary students. 

And for anyone who tries to break open their pouch to retrieve their phone, Frey-Martin said, "We do have a policy in place if these pouches are destroyed, tampered with, then there is a fine that the child would incur in the family."

The district says once the bell rings, students are able to use a magnet at the security entrance to unlock the pouch before going home. 

"So to get it to unlock, they either see somebody who has one of these, or we have magnets we put up on the wall that they'll, just as they leave, they just click it," Hamilton said. 

District officials say overall, students and families have adjusted and look forward to the positive change to come this school year after ending the last on a positive note.  

"We even had students that came up to us and said, you know, 'we thought this was going to be miserable, and it's not that bad.' So the students are realizing themselves that this is better for them," Hamilton said. 

The superintendent says they plan to track student grades and achievement this year to be able to monitor just how effective the ban is when it comes to academics.

KDKA-TV also reached out to several other local districts that have a similar phone ban in place. Sto-Rox was the only to respond, saying faculty reports an increase in student engagement, both academically and socially while students report feeling less distracted and more focused during class without access to their phones.