By Ava Grippo – Editor-In-Chief 

Cell phone lockers, also known as “Victor Boxes,” are now being used in many schools across the country. 

Each Victor cell phone locker retails for $127.99, holds up to 32 phones, and is made of aluminum alloy. These boxes were created by Victor Technology LLC, which is located in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and was founded in 1918 by Carl Buehler.

Victor is a wide distributor of office products such as paper clips, clipboards, and calculators. And then more recently, the phone lockers. Victor Technology LLC products are sold all around the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. 

VP of Marketing at Victor Technology Greg Palese said that schools have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the cell phone lockers.

“As more states and districts adopt phone-free learning policies, schools are looking for practical tools that help teachers enforce those policies without adding more disruption to the school day,” Palese said. “The lockers give educators a secure, scalable, and policy‑aligned tool that reduces distractions and helps them reclaim instructional time.”

According to research from a National Center for Education Statistics survey of approximately 4,800 public elementary and secondary schools, 76% have prohibited cellphone usage outside of academic use during school hours, and younger students in elementary and middle schools are more subject to bans compared to high schoolers.

Over the past few years, many districts introduced their cell phone bans by using magnetic-locking pouches, or Yondr pouches, to house students’ phones during the day. 

These seemed promising, but students found ways to maneuver around them by placing “burner phones” in the pouches instead of their actual devices, or by purchasing Yondr pouch magnets online to unlock the pouches. These pouch systems were also quite expensive and created extensive traffic at the end of the day when students went to pick them up before leaving the building. 

Enter the Victor boxes – a cheaper, more efficient way to lock away kids’ cell phones. In practice, for each class, a student enters and starts by placing their phone in the box. 

Teachers can either assign the numbered spots in the locker or let students pick their own locker spot. Once all phones are collected students would not be allowed their devices back until the end of class. 

“Our goal is to provide a secure and reliable way for educators to safely store students’ cellphones while they’re in a classroom,” Victor Technology CEO Doug Nash said. “We understand how important distraction-free learning is to teachers and students’ alike, and by providing a safe, convenient, and lightweight Classroom Storage Locker, we hope to be part of the solution.”