PRINCIPAL’S BID TO STOP SMARTPHONE USE OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL
Call for ban due to parents’ fears of internet bullying
A PRIMARY school has plans to ban pupils from having smartphones both in school and outside.
Amid parents’ alarm over social media bullying, St Catherine’s in Dublin 8 already prevents children using phones in school. Now, principal Karen Jordan is consulting families on proposals for an outright ban.
She also called on the Government and Department of Education to formulate stricter rules because it’s up to the ‘lawmakers of the land’ to protect our children.
Worried mother-of-two Erica Britnell told the Mail that, as a parent of an 11-year-old, she can’t fight this
battle alone. She first broached the idea with the school’s parents association.
An Irish Daily Mail/Ireland Thinks poll revealed, as long ago as January, that two-thirds of Irish people want an age restriction on smartphones. Now parents at St Catherine’s National School are being invited to a meeting in two weeks’ time so the hoped-for ban can be implemented before children return to class in September.
The move comes after the success of Blennerville National School in Co. Kerry, which has agreed to a home and school ban.
Following the Mail/Ireland thinks survey a poll for TheJournal.ie, found 75.7% of people were in favour of age restrictions on smartphones, adding to mounting pressure on the Government to legislate on smartphone ownership.
Meanwhile, Apple investors have urged the tech giant to do more to protect children, urging the firm in an open letter, to take action against child smartphone addiction. And in February, 92 principals from across the country told this newspaper that they backed the idea of an age restriction.
Ms Jordan said there is ‘no need’ for any primary school child to own a smartphone and she would welcome a firm directive from Education Minister Richard Bruton on the matter. Meanwhile, she said: ‘My hope is that we can do something similar to what Blennerville has done. I do think that there is no need for a primary school child to have a smartphone.
‘If there is a need for a child to have a phone for parents to get in touch, then a normal non-smart device should be the only option,’ she said. ‘We need a little bit of old school here. Parents teach their kids how to cross the road and what to do if they feel unsafe and we as teachers also do this but it can’t always fall on us.
‘I think Minister Bruton has just batted out of left field on this and left it up to each individual school. I don’t think this is good enough.
‘We need one set of rules for each school to follow and this isn’t just down to the Department of Education but to the law makers of the land. We need a rule to say that you don’t get a smartphone until you’re a certain age and I fully support this.
‘It’s important as educators and parents that we don’t look back in 20 years and regret not acting.’
‘A lot of parents say, “Oh, I don’t understand apps such as Snapchat”, but my point is then why are you allowing your children to use them if they themselves as parents can’t manage the apps. It’s deeply concerning,’ said Ms Jordan.
As it is, pupils at St Catherine’s must hand up their smartphones to teachers who keep them until the end of the school day.
But ‘growing concerns’ from parents prompted the school to review those restrictions, said Ms Jordan. She believes there should be a minimum age restriction which would ban children under a certain age from owning a smartphone.
There are children in her school as young as six who have their own smartphones.
Ms Jordan said: ‘They may just be Mum and Dad’s old devices, but they are still able to access things they shouldn’t be seeing. We have children in third class who are on snapchat.
‘We have a small amount of bullying relating to these sites, but last year would have been significantly worse than this year.
‘Our policy this year was that if any Wi-Fi-enabled device is brought to school, then the child hands the device up at the start of the school day and they are locked away. The children themselves can’t turn the phones back on until they have left school premises.
‘The vast majority of our 21 sixth class students have smartphones.
‘Currently there are four who don’t have smartphones.’ Ms Jordan’s own son, who is in sixth class, is one of those four students without a smartphone.
She said: ‘Our decision as parents [myself and my husband] not to give him one is much to his disgust at the moment and he’s suffering from exclusion as many of his classmates have these chats outside of school and he feels left out.
‘When he even goes to a sleepover he doesn’t have one of these devices. Myself and his dad are working very hard to let him know that he doesn’t need one.’
‘I think Terry O’Sullivan [the principal] in Blennerville has paved the way for other schools to follow and hopefully if we can get a consensus on the matter then St Catherine’s will be the second school to get rid of smartphones from children’s lives,’ she said.
‘Teachers are the ones who are dealing with the fallout from this on a daily basis and it impacts on the teaching. How can any child get a proper education when all they are thinking about is “how many messages will I have on my phone later”.’
She said E-Safety, an organisation that gave an internet safety talk to pupils at the school, discovered children in third and fourth class were using social media sites like Snapchat and WhatsApp.
Since Blennerville National School introduced their own smartphone ban, parents there have reported improvements to their children’s moods. Principal Terry O’Sullivan, gained nationwide acclaim after persuading parents to agree not to let their children have the devices.
Youngsters have shown a renewed interest in family time, outside activities, sport or communal games, he said. The success is a strong vindication of the Mail’s campaign for a minimum age for smartphone ownership.
St Catherine’s National School staff and parents will come together in the coming weeks to debate and discuss the matter in the hope of having a smartphone free school in September. ÷If you are a concerned parents who is having similar issues in your school please contact sean.dunne@dailymail.ie with your story.
‘They access things they shouldn’t’