Ontario tightens rules on cellphone use, bans vaping in schools

The Ontario government is introducing new measures to crack down on cellphone use and vaping in schools as the province sees an "alarming rise" of vaping and cellphone distractions in classrooms.

In an announcement Sun‐ day, Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the province is removing distrac‐ tions as part of its back-tobasics plan, and addressing the "negative impact" of mo‐ bile devices, social media and vaping in classrooms.

"Every parent and teacher we speak to has shared the growing problem of cellphone distractions in class … in addition to the dis‐ turbing rise of vaping in schools [among] our youth," Lecce said at a news confer‐ ence in North York Sunday.

"We will be denying cellphone use during instruc‐ tional time. We need to be bold, we need to be compre‐ hensive and we need to act with urgency today."

Starting in September, students in kindergarten to Grade 6 will be required to keep phones on silent and "out of sight" for the entire school day, unless they are granted permission to use it, the province said.

Similarly, students in Grades 7 to 12, will not be permitted to use their cell‐ phones during class time without permission.

"If they do not comply, they will be asked to surren‐ der their phones or they could be sent to the office," Lecce said.

"There are progressive discipline policies listed in this. It can include up to sus‐ pension if there [are] repeat violations."

The Progressive Conserva‐ tive government initially ban‐ ned cellphone use in 2019, saying students can only use personal mobile devices dur‐ ing instructional time if it is for educational purposes, for health purposes or for speci‐ al needs. It left it up to boards and schools to imple‐ ment.

Boards such as the Toron‐ to District School Board have previously said such bans are hard to enforce. The board had a procedure on cellphone usage - before their recent vote to modify it - that said kids should only be on cellphones for educa‐ tional purposes. The board's chair said it can be applied differently in each school and isn't widely known.

Lecce said Sunday that the difference between the 2019 ban and the latest one is that there will be consis‐ tency in applying and enforc‐ ing the new measures across all school boards in the province, calling the results of the last ban "mixed."

WATCH | Experts weigh in on cellphone use in classrooms:

Schools to decide when tech use is appropriate

It will fall to school staff to decide when the use of tech‐ nology is appropriate, and Lecce said he will "have the backs" of the teachers, princi‐ pals and superintendents who will be the ones enforc‐ ing the new government policy.

Quebec and British Co‐ lumbia have already made similar moves to ban the use of cellphones in class, but Lecce said Ontario will be the first to block access to all so‐ cial media platforms on school networks and devices.

As part of these changes, teachers will undergo mandatory training, ac‐ cording to the province. Re‐ port cards will now also in‐ clude comments on students' distraction levels in class.

Lecce touted the mea‐ sures as necessary steps to help students focus in class and improve safety in schools.

"Our policy includes en‐ forcement to ensure compli‐ ance and consistency provincewide," he said.

Teacher unions skeptical on changes

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation remains skeptical about whether a blanket ban will improve matters, the group's president said Sunday.

"I'm not really sure how this is going to change any‐ thing going forward," said Karen Littlewood.

Teachers are hesitant to take away students' phones because they would be re‐ sponsible if the devices are lost, damaged or stolen, she said.

"It leads to so many issues and so many problems," she said.

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The changes reflect some

of the demands made by the Elementary Teachers' Federa‐ tion of Ontario in its most re‐ cent round of bargaining with the province.

The group suggested the changes as a way to address increasing violence and dis‐ ruption in schools, the feder‐ ation said in a statement is‐ sued Sunday.

But the union says it will reserve judgement on the new policies until it has seen the full range of changes in detail.

Vaping ban protects stu‐ dents from 'preventable threats'

In addition to the new restric‐ tions on cellphones and soci‐ al media use, Lecce said vap‐ ing will be banned in all school alongside tobacco, nicotine and cannabis pro‐ ducts.

Students caught carrying such products will have them confiscated, and schools will be required to notify parents if that happens, he said.

The government said it has earmarked $30 million from its 2024 budget to in‐ stall vape detectors and oth‐ er security upgrades in schools.

Dr. Kieran Moore, the province's chief medical of‐ ficer of health, said the vap‐ ing ban in schools will help protect students from "pre‐ ventable threats.

"Ontario is seeing a grow‐ ing number of youth in Grades 7 through 12 report using vaping products that contain and emit many toxic substances," Moore said.

"These products can af‐ fect the respiratory, immune and cardiovascular systems, and nicotine in these produc‐ ts is particularly harmful to youth brain development."

The announcement comes after four major On‐ tario school boards sued some of the largest social media companies to over their products, alleging the way they're designed has negatively rewired the way children think, behave and learn and disrupted the way schools operate.

The public district school boards of Toronto, Peel and Ottawa-Carleton, along with Toronto's Catholic counter‐ part, are looking for about $4.5 billion in total damages from Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc. and ByteDance Ltd., which operate the plat‐ forms Facebook and Insta‐ gram, Snapchat and TikTok respectively, according to separate but similar state‐ ments of claim filed in March.