Poughkeepsie High School was featured in national news on Wednesday, Jan. 22, as an example of success banning cellphones, ahead of the state’s proposed restrictions on their use in all schools.

A crew from CBS, including correspondent Meg Oliver, visited Poughkeepsie Tuesday to discuss with students and staff the use of Yondr pouches and the positive impact the initiative has had.

The package aired on “CBS Mornings” across the country.

Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing a broad cellphone ban as part of the state budget. She would allocate $13.5 million to support the initiative, which would “transform our classrooms, return them to a place of learning,” Hochul said Tuesday.

That’s what Poughkeepsie has already experienced. Last spring, the high school began requiring students keep their cellphones locked in a Yondr pouch through the course of the day. On Tuesday, students Timothy Evans and Catlina Lopez Maldonado, teacher and English Department Chairperson Raylene Ackerbauer, and Principal Dr. Phee Simpson detailed to Oliver the change in culture that has occurred.

Both Evans and Lopez Maldonado said not only have the pouches helped them increase focus in school and raise their grades, but they find themselves using the phones even less at home having broken the addiction during the school day.

Being in school without a phone, Lopez Maldonado said, “Let’s me be more focused and engaged when actually participating in school.”

The senior spoke while sitting next to Ackerbauer, one of her teachers, who, like most faculty members around the building, extolled the value of doing away with phones. Since instituting the Yondr system, an initiative driven by Simpson, teachers report students’ engagement and socialization have greatly increased and conflicts around the building have sharply decreased.

It was the second time in two weeks television crews put a spotlight on the high school. Last week, PIX11 News, which broadcasts in the Tri-State Area, featured the cheerleading team qualifying for nationals in a pair of segments.

The CBS crew collected footage of students entering the school and locking their pouches, and students enjoying the games the school purchased for the cafeteria at the same time it instituted the pouches. The piece showed students depositing pouches to be held by school staff, which is only the procedure for testing days; ordinarily, students keep their pouches through the day. The crew conducted interviews in the library and hallways; Oliver spoke to Evans as they walked down the first-floor hallway outside the main office.

Evans said he “really improved himself,” being free of the phone.

“I get way more work done,” the senior said.

Watch the segment here on the CBS website.