Cellphone ban called a positive move
phones found at the school have been confiscated and held for collection by parents at the end of the day.
Nine phones were confiscated in the first week and 11 in the second. Two were forfeited for a week when students refused to surrender them until senior staff were called in.
Painting-Davis said most phones had been picked up by parents, but one mum had opted to not collect her child’s until the end of the term.
The ban had been welcomed by the community, and largely accepted by students.
Issues arising from cellphone use included students becoming upset and classes disrupted by “nasty, slanderous” messages, students using phones to organise, record and upload fights, usually to Instagram, and staff time being consumed by dealing with the fallout from social media posts. She now had far fewer incidents to deal with, and most of those were ”low level”.
Students previously glued to their phones at lunchtime were now playing cards or board games with their peers. Some had complained there wasn’t enough to do, so, with teachers already busy, Painting-Davis was applying for funding to start extra lunchtime activities.
Other changes included a comeback of watches because students could no longer rely on phones to check the time.
Student Otulea Latu, 15, said he was socialising more and filling break times by playing cards and games.
“There’s a lot less fighting going on. I get more done now, there’s less distraction,” he said.
A cellphone ban was first mooted by the board of trustees in 2019, but the school opted instead to bar phone use during class, but allow them during breaks. That hadn’t worked, Painting-Davis said.
One of the concerns raised by parents was that they relied on cellphones to contact their children, but students could still take phones to and from school, if they handed them in during the day.
Parents who needed to contact their children during the day could call the school office, as they did before mobile phones were invented.
Teachers were required to lead by example by not having phones in class.
Northland College, in Kaikohe, has since followed Bay of Islands College by banning phones from May 12.
College says there are now fewer disruptions, fighting