Phone lines, internet restored across Rainbow District Schools

Rainbow District School Board, the largest school board in northern Ontario, says the issue with its phone lines and internet Thursday has been resolved.

The English public school board covering Sudbury, Espanola and Manitoulin posted about the outage on its social media shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday saying it was working with its service provider.

An update that service was restored came out about 2:40 p.m.

Some schools with the board asked parents to email them if their child will be away for the day.

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It’s unclear how parents might contact their children in an emergency, as the provincial government implemented a new policy this September regarding distractions in the classroom.

Students in kindergarten through Grade 6 must keep their cellphones on silent and out of sight for the entire school day, while students in Grades 7 to 12 are not permitted to have cellphones during class time.

Corinne Wheesk has two children who attend school at Queen Elizabeth Public School. She needed to speak to one of her children’s teachers about a personal matter.

“I tried calling the school around 9 o’clock regarding about my child and I’ve been trying to get a hold of them, so I decided to go in person to talk to the principal.”

That’s when Wheesk said she found out about the service disruption.

“She mentioned they’re down the whole day -- the outage, yes.”

In an email to CTV News, a spokesperson for Rainbow Board said its rare for the entire board to experience a widespread service disruption.

“During an emergency when power is out at individual schools, we ask parents/guardians to call the Centre for Education ... Parents and guardians can also come to the school to speak with or pick up their child via the main office.”

The provincial ban on cellphones implemented at the start of the school year as a way to reduce distractions in the classroom further complicated the situation for parents in Sudbury, who had no way of reaching their children.

In a statement sent later Thursday, a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Education told CTV News that measures are in place for communication with parents and guardians in the case of an emergency or wider network issue as in this circumstance.

"Students are also able to use personal mobile devices as directed by an educator," the ministry said.

Near the end of the school day, Rainbow District School Board reported its phone and internet service had been restored. It thanked the service providers for working diligently to get things back to normal. 

Have concerns about the outage? If you or your child has been impacted by this outage, we would love to hear from you! Email us at [e-mail].