WIN ELEMENTS LLC | Phone-free schools

Promote Equity, Safety, and Phone-Free Schoolwide Proactively

Multi-Tiered Safe Pouch® is a single, flexible, and innovative tool designed to proactively reduce and prevent cyberbullying, school fights, bullying, learning distractions, cheating, restroom abuse, tardiness, chronic absences, and mass cheating. It also serves as "positive consequences" to improve PBIS.

Districts With School(s) Using Multi-tiered Safe Pouch

Disclaimers: Not all schools in the district use Safe Pouch. The organizations listed as clients do not imply any form of endorsement or support for our services or products.

ABC Unified
Azusa Unified School District
Bixby School District
Detroit Public Schools Community District

Los Angeles Unified School District
Moreno Valley Unified School District
Selma Unified School District
Many More Districts and Schools.

Unregulated phone use in schools disproportionately affects high-risk students, leading to a significant increase in cyberbullying, fights, sleep deprivation, classroom disruptions, disciplinary issues, depression, anxiety, isolation, substance abuse, self-harm, and many other issues.

It's More Than A Distractions

"Don't let our children fall through the cracks or get hurt because we are too busy pleasing a few instead of educating all students and supporting those few early."

John Nguyen

--John Nguyen (14+ Yrs. HS Science Teacher | Co- Dept. Chair | Inventor of Multi-Tiered Safe Pouch®)

Limited Time Promotion

ONE-TIME PURCHASE | FREE 60 DAYS REPAIR

As Low As $12 When Implementing 1:1 With Orange Safe Pouch®.

Optional Unlimited Repair Plan: $1.5 per Pouch per Year

Disclaimer: This book is for reference only. The author neither supports nor endorses Safe Pouch in any way.

Smartphone is Not Just A Distraction

Evident in The Anxious Generation, the pervasive use of phones can lead to lifelong and generational impacts on students' mental and physical health while also contributing to unsafe, inequitable, and ineffective school environments.

Regulating phone use in schools requires more than just having a phone-free policy or law; it needs the right tools and strategies to proactively create a phone-free environment for all students.

"The Effective Cell Phone Policy Solution That Is Proactive, Consistent, and Enforceable Schoolwide."

High School and Middle School Effective Implementation

Organization and Distribution

Number and store Tier 1 Blue Safe Pouches in 27-gallon bins.
Number and assign all classrooms a Blue Pouch magnet and an Orange Safe Pouch.
Give all Campus Supervisors, Administrators, and other Supporting Staff an Orange Pouch.

Maintenance and Repair

WASHABLE: Lock the pouch and machine wash it in COLD wash and DETERGENT. AIR DRY OUTSIDE ONLY.
Reduce Cost: Encourage parents to purchase their children a pouch, personalize it, and use it for many years.

Should schools check out Blue Pouches for all students to take home and bring to school daily? If your students' demographic allows it. It’s easier to ask a few campus supervisors to collect the pouches from a few collection bins after school than to ask hundreds to thousands of students to bring their pouches daily. If your school wants to do it, we have added a solution to prevent students from forgetting or damaging their pouches. (If students forget, lose, or damage their pouches, they can borrow the Orange Safe Pouch by exchanging it with their student ID. They can return it after school to get their ID back at the Main Office)

Daily Arrival Process

ARRIVAL: Upon entering the school, students TURN OFF their phones, show them to a staff member, and pouch them up along with their smartwatches.

ALTERNATIVE ARRIVAL TASK: Students pick up a pouch, turn off their phones, and lock it up themselves. (When there is a long line/bad weather)

Proactive Teacher Tier 1 Interventions: First-period teachers double-check their students' pouches through the hole as they greet them at the door or the beginning of class.

Proactive Schoolwide Tier 2 Interventions with Orange Safe Pouch

If a staff member catches any student with their devices out, they lock up the devices in a Tier 2 Orange Safe Pouch. The staff member retains the students’ IDs and hands them to the Office. These students must wait in line at the Main Office and “answer a reflection question” to request a staff member to unlock the pouch so they can retrieve their IDs.

DISMISSAL: After school, teachers unlock the pouches, collect the school pouches, and return them to the bins at the Main Office or nearby designated pick-up areas. They collect any damaged pouches, including students’ personal pouches, and report students who have lost or damaged their pouches, charging parents for repairs ($5) and replacements ($15). Students will get their personal pouches back after they have paid for repair and their pouches are repaired. Meanwhile, they borrow the school pouches daily or buy a new pouch.

“I don’t have a phone": Students either have a parent’s written note or go through a non-contact check of their backpacks and pockets. They lock up earbuds, smartwatches, or other distracting items.
“I refuse to pouch up my phones or go through a non-contact security check.” It’s now a different type of discipline problem
Students bring magnet school: Make it part of your school policy that any magnet brought to school will be confiscated and not returned.
“I forgot or damaged my pouch” (only when you check out all the pouches for students to take home and bring daily): Students turn in their student ID as collateral to borrow an Orange Safe Pouch. They return the pouch after school to get their IDs back.

Teachers abuse the magnets and unlock pouches for students for noneducational or emergency uses: The administrator reviews the school and district’s phone policies with teachers.

Challenges and Solutions

DISMISSAL: After school, teachers unlock the pouches, collect the school pouches, and return them to the bins at the Main Office or nearby designated pick-up areas. They collect any damaged pouches, including students’ personal pouches, and report students who have lost or damaged their pouches, charging parents for repairs ($5) and replacements ($15). Students will get their personal pouches back after they have paid for repair and their pouches are repaired. Meanwhile, they borrow the school pouches daily or buy a new pouch.

Turn Safe Pouch Into Daily Priceless Rewards (Proactively Improve ADA and PBIS)

When students arrive at school on time, follow Safe Pouch procedures, and are assumed to follow all school expectations, they earn a Pouch Point stamp. Students used the stamps to exchange tickets to watch sports games, get permission to go on field trips and snacks, and enter a raffle to win prizes and other low-cost prizes. The points expired at the end of the school year. To reduce cost, increase the cost of Pouch Points for the prizes over time. Be Creative. When students are not following school expectations, any staff can deduct students' points. The stamps are like your school currency.

Elementary School Effective Implementation

Why? Districts that start early in elementary schools help establish expectations and skills early on to mitigate problems in middle school and high school. Most importantly, the Tier 2 Orange Safe Pouch redefines PBIS to be proactive, immediate, and effective.

Organization and Maintenance: It’s much easier in elementary schools because the students have the same teachers for the entire day. Number and give your teachers a class set of Blue Safe Pouches, 1 Magnet, and 1 Orange Safe Pouch.

ARRIVAL: The teacher locks students’ phones in their assigned pouches, which they keep in their backpacks.

DISMISSAL: After school, teachers unlock the pouches and collect them for tomorrow's use.

Many Benefits of Orange Safe Pouch

By having a Tier 2 Orange Safe Pouch in all classrooms and on every campus supervisor and administrator, all staff members can enforce immediate “positive consequences” to proactively prevent and reduce tardiness, cyberbullying, fights, bullying, defiance, and chronic absences.

Schools can redefine traditional discipline by adding Orange Pouch to counseling, detention, and suspension. They can also provide an alternative “positive consequence” for minor infractions before conflicts escalate among students.

Transform School Discipline and PBIS

Limited Budget Schoolwide Implementation

Label and assign 6 -10 Tier 1 Blue Safe Pouches, 1 Magnet, and 1 Tier 2 Orange Pouch in all classrooms.
Create a Schoolwide No-Phone Policy that requires students to turn off their phones and put them inside their backs with their earbuds and smartwatches during school hours.
In-classroom enforcement: Teachers immediately lock up students’ phones, earbuds, and smartwatches in Blue Safe Pouch if their students have them out in or near their classes. Repeated offender may lock up their devices in Orange Tier 2 Pouches or refer students to Administrators for confiscation.
Administrators and Campus Supervisors: Walking around with Tier 2 pouches to enforce policies by locking students’ devices in Tier 2 pouches, collecting students’ IDs, and documenting pouches numbers. Students get their IDs back when they return the pouch with the correct pouch number.

Unfortunately, almost 100% of students have a phone; this partial implementation is inconsistent and not proactive. Teachers are constantly policing it daily. Also, students make excuses to go to the restroom. However, it is better than having no pouches or tools at all. Schools can always switch to a 1:1 implementation when more funding becomes available.

Feedback for Educators

“My principal was very supportive of the no phone policy in my classroom and he purchased a class set for my classroom. Since I have implemented the pouches, I have seen a difference in my students’ grades. They are more focused and they are actually paying attention in class. My students know that once they get 80% or better or their assignment, then I will unlock their phones. It gives them a reason to work hard for their phones. Their grades have improved tremendously. I wish that I would have had these phone pouches a long time ago.”

Promote Equity, Safety, and Phone-Free Schoolwide Proactively

Districts With School(s) Using Multi-tiered Safe Pouch

It's More Than A Distractions