Backpack? Check. Water bottle? Check. Cellphone? It’s complicated.
The start of school will look a little different for some students as several Canadian provinces have introduced cellphone bans for the 2024-2025 school year. The bans vary by jurisdiction but they all have a similar aim: to restrict cellphone use in classrooms to cut down on distractions and encourage safe social media use.
But as September nears, there’s some confusion about the bans themselves, let alone how they will actually be enforced — and by whom.
“A lot of teachers welcome that there will be fewer distractions in the classroom, but many teachers are worried about the policing of it falling on them,” Joel Westheimer, a professor of democracy and education at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News.
He cautions that many teachers are worried about the realities of enforcing rules on cellphone use which, he notes, is both pervasive and addictive. Studies have also shown that kids who spend hours a day on their phones scrolling through social media show more aggression, depression and anxiety.
Meanwhile, education experts and teachers have noted there are inconsistencies in how cellphone bans are enforced, and some teachers have said they’re even concerned for their personal safety when they take a phone away.
Others say cellphones are low on their list of worries about the public education system, and that banning them won’t necessarily address the root causes of distraction and loneliness in students.
“There are much larger issues facing public education than cellphone use. Teachers need adequate resources to ensure no child goes without the support they need,” the B.C. Teachers’ Federation said in a Jan. 9 statement, right before the province announced its ban.
With most children and teenagers spending hours a day on a smartphone, CBC’s Christine Birak breaks down what research shows about how using social media is changing kids’ behaviour, if it’s rewiring their brains and what can be done about it.
What are the policies?
The cellphone bans vary by province, and within some provinces, by district.
In some provinces, like Nova Scotia and Saskatchewan, cellphones aren’t permitted during class time for all K-12 students. Some provinces, like Ontario and Manitoba, have a tiered system for different grades. In Ontario for instance, K-6 students are required to keep phones on silent and out of sight all day, including non-class times like lunch and recess, and students in grades 7-12 are banned from using phones during class time unless teachers give them permission.
New Brunswick teachers are expected to “have students place their cellphones in a designated area of the classroom on silent mode.” Students may also be subject to disciplinary action if they use cellphones to disrupt the learning environment (for example using them for bullying, cheating or plagiarism).
In Alberta, school divisions have until Jan. 1 to make their own policies and procedures, even though provincial standards will be in place as of September.
Jason Schilling, the head of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, recently told the Canadian Press the policies’ rollout this fall has some teachers confused about how they’ll be expected to follow them.
“They are [going to be] confiscating phones that are very expensive, and they’ve got some hesitations about doing that without any kind of proper policies or rules and procedures put in place before they start doing this,” Schilling said.
It’s similar in B.C., where school districts will develop their own policies to comply with provincial orders.
In some districts, like Vancouver, the bans only apply to elementary school-aged children. Meanwhile, in Mission, B.C., secondary school students can only use cellphones during non-instructional times, like at lunch and during breaks.
To help come up with its policy, the Mission Public School District asked for public feedback. And according to the Mission City Record, one of the major concerns that emerged from that feedback was putting the onus on teachers. The outlet quoted a teacher who said that without consistent boundaries, students will continue to play teachers off each other.
“This is already causing tension and daily battles at our school now…. I have colleagues who allow free reign with phones and I had been so hopeful that this would be resolved with [the new] policy,” the teacher said.
‘I’ve been threatened with death’
To be effective, any ban needs clear and consistent expectations, since inconsistencies and uncertainties are confusing for students, said Sachin Maharaj, an assistant professor in educational leadership, policy and program evaluation at the University of Ottawa.
And all stakeholders need to be on board, including teachers, students, and especially parents, who are often the main source of pushback, he said.
Past attempts at banning cellphones in schools haven’t been effective because there’s been a lack of buy-in, Maharaj, who is studying the implementation of cellphone bans in schools, told CBC News.
“It really can’t be left up to individual teachers to enforce these restrictions if most of the students don’t abide by them, and the parents don’t support them, and they’re not getting any support from the school administrators, because then their job becomes all about policing cellphone use,” Maharaj said.
Because so much of our personal lives are on our phones now, students may feel that having their phones confiscated is an invasion of privacy, Maharaj said, which can lead to hostile interactions.
All in a Day13:38Ontario government to tighten rules around cell phone use in classrooms
Rachel Inch, a Grade 8 teacher at Broadview Public School in Ottawa, recently told CBC Radio’s All in a Day that cellphones are so pervasive that it’s not effective or fair to simply put the onus on teachers. Students get crafty, she added, and try to cheat by handing over fake phones and keeping their real ones in a backpack or hidden in a calculator case.
They may also get angry when teachers try to enforce the rules, Inch said.
“I’ve had my nose broken because I’ve taken a phone. I’ve been threatened with death because I took a phone. I’ve had a parent come back at night banging on the window demanding his property back because his son forgot to pick up his phone,” Inch told All in a Day in April right after Ontario announced its new ban to replace one already in place since 2019.
“When you get in the way of the phone, things happen. It’s an addiction for a lot of people.”
No matter the approach, what matters most is that it’s implemented effectively, Maharaj said.
“That’s actually the harder part. It’s really easy to announce a big policy change. The harder part is actually implementing it, getting everyone on board, and making sure you follow up to see what kind of impacts it’s having.”
Big changes around student cell phone use are coming to Ontario classrooms. It’s all part of the Ford government’s plan to crackdown on distractions in school. Ali Chiasson has more on what’s changing, and when it will all go into effect.