Northern Ont. school board prepares for cellphone rule changes

Students in Ontario will be ringing in the new school year with their phones on silent or put away in lockers or assigned personal spaces next week as the Ministry of Education rolls out new cellphone rules across the province.

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“For Grades, from kindergarten to Grade 6, students are asked to keep their phone, in their personal space. If they have a locker or a personal space, that's where their phone has to be,” said Bruce Bourget, Rainbow District School Board’s director of education

“For Grades 7 to 12, It's the same. you know, the difference is before and after school, during lunchtime, there is permission to use it, but in a respectful way. The difference for us. That might be, noted from others is that we are not asking students to bring their phone to class and store them. We feel that that is not an effective use of time or funds.”

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Bourget told CTV News cellphone use will be permitted for educational purposes as directed by an educator and in specific situations for health and medical purposes.

He said teachers will be the ones enforcing the rules with the focus first on education.

“The education piece is to say, you know, for the brief period of time during the day that you're in class, honor the moment, be present. Now, engage with your peers and your teachers and dig into the learning and not be distracted,” said Bourget.

“We're not looking to start with a punitive approach. If someone is persistent, there is progressive discipline.”

Sarah Macdougall is an elementary school teacher in the board and a parent of teens, she told CTV News that she feels it’s a good thing.

“From an educators perspective, we don't have to worry about managing the protocols it's already been outlined for us, so we don't have to worry about that,” she said.

“Then I also feel like as a parent of teenagers who are in high school I also see that they don't have to manage, what's cool or what's not. They just have to put their cellphones away. So walking back into that 2025 school year, we feel like, okay, teachers can teach, students can learn without that distraction.”

However – not everyone feels it will be an easy transition.

Several students told CTV News that that some of their peers may have a hard time with the change.

Our cameras caught up with some students preparing for back to school and this is what some of them had to say:

“I see a lot of people that can't really like apart from their phone – well, I guess I am one of those people,” said one student.

“It makes sense because it has kind of gotten a problem, especially in the learning environment,” said another.

“But some like states or some areas are taking it too far.”

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The Rainbow District School Board put out a survey about the cellphone changes last spring which saw more than 2,000 people respond.

The survey showed 85 per cent of parents felt phones are a distraction and 87 per cent said prolonged social media use is not good for mental health.

For more details on the board’s new cellphone policy and administrative procedures, visit their website.