Anthony Furey: Yes, We Need to Ban Cellphones From Schools—and Enforce It

Here’s what a high school student from Miami named Arabella told The New York Times on the subject of cellphone bans: “In my school, many students amble around campus, staring down at their phones, completely oblivious to the world around them. I have witnessed some of my peers bump into walls or into other students as they are entranced in their small electronic devices.”

It’s an amusing response, but others are more dire. Bumping into walls is the least of our worries when it comes to the disruption and chaos caused by phones in the classroom.

Mylea was another American high school student who offered her thoughts to the Times: “I think that schools should ban cellphones because most problems in school typically circle back to cellphones. … Kids are also always on their phones during class. Their grades start to go down and then they fail.” Mylea added that phones encourage bullying conduct, like taking inappropriate pictures and then harassing people online about them.

The number of school jurisdictions around the world that are banning cellphones in the classroom is increasing. The rules differ from school to school, ranging from an honour system where students are just expected to resist the urge to use their phones to schools where the phones are physically locked away at the beginning of the day.

One guidance counsellor in British Columbia said that her school’s ban brought noticeable benefits. “We are seeing improved mental health, we’re seeing decreased bullying, we’re seeing more engagement in class, we’re seeing more social interaction,” said Tulani Pierce, from Chatelech Secondary School, in an interview with CBC published last year.

The latest development is an announcement from the Ontario government that promises to bring about the toughest province-wide classroom cellphone restrictions in the country.

“Students in kindergarten to Grade 6 will be required to keep phones on silent and out of sight for the entire school day, unless explicitly permitted by an educator,” explains a recent news release. “For students in Grades 7 to 12, cellphones will not be permitted during class time unless explicitly directed by the educator.”

These are good rules. Basically, you can have the physical phone with you if you insist but there’s no using it at all during class time.

One big problem, though, is enforcement. Teachers and administrators have previously complained that they have limited ability to make sure students comply with bans. That’s why teachers need to be supported when they decide to crack down.

If a student uses their phone, it should be confiscated. The teacher can put it away for the whole day, either in their desk or in the main office.

A challenge with the school system today is that students suffer from a lack of consequences covering a variety of bad behaviour, cellphone usage being the least of our problems. Kids are increasingly violent, not just to each other but to teachers. Education unions in Ontario have issued reports and formal complaints about the violence their members experience.

If we’re to bring back consequences, let’s at least start with the small stuff. Look at your phone? Lose it. It’s that simple.

Think of it as the broken windows theory of school antics: If we let kids get away with the small things, they’ll be more likely to move on to worse bad behaviour.

Ontario is also moving to crack down on social media. The province’s release states that “social media websites will be removed from all school networks and devices, and report cards will include comment on students’ distraction levels in class.”

That last part is key. We need to make a record of these things. Parents need to be told. I know that as a parent I would want to know if my kids were staring at their phones all day. (My children are still young and when they asked for phones we told them no.)

This issue is more serious than it at first seems. The use of phones in the classroom is both eroding social standards and making it more difficult for kids to learn.

We need these bans, and we need strong enforcement of them.