In an effort to address the negative effects of cell phone use during school hours, Watertown High School will debut first-of-its-kind technology that limits the use of cell phones in classrooms.

Watertown High School is the first public high school in the country to pilot use of the Doorman app, which uses VPN technology to temporarily “brick” a smartphone by redirecting the phone’s web traffic through a restricted, encrypted server. This app will prevent students from texting,  accessing distracting apps, or engaging with other web-related content while in class.

When students enter class, they will tap their phones on a “DoorTag.” These devices simultaneously log student attendance and restrict use of applications and other smartphone features, while still allowing phone calls in and out. Doorman also allows for the use of approved apps, such as Google Classroom, or any other phone functionality as chosen by the specific classroom teacher.

The Doorman app is synchronized with Watertown High School’s class schedule and automatically restores full functions to the phone once a class period is over. Students must “tap in” to each class in order to activate the restrictions on their phone. The app never automatically engages. Teachers and administrators will have a dashboard where they can track a student’s tap-ins and attendance, and this dashboard also monitors any attempts at circumventing the Doorman app or the school’s cell phone policy.

“It’s hard to compete with phones for attention,” said Principal Joel Giacobozzi. “Doorman allows us to pause a student’s phone use without the battle of physically taking or locking away their phone. It checks a lot of the boxes of what we need in terms of balancing responsible phone use and trusting our students. We hope this will be the solution we’ve been looking for.”

The Doorman policy will go into effect during the second week of the school year and will be piloted through December 2025.