‘They are a distraction’: TDSB passes motion to consider student cellphone ban

Students should be focusing on textbooks, not texts, according to the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee whose motion calling for an updated policy on cellphone use in schools was approved on Wednesday night.

The motion to develop a new cell phone/mobile device policy passed by a vote of 7-1. Trustees will now consider anything from limiting cellphone use, to an outright ban of the devices in Toronto classrooms.

TDSB Trustee for Don Valley West, Rachel Chernos Lin, told CityNews the motion she filed seeks clarity on the contentious topic of cellphone use.

Chernos Lin said there is currently no clear policy in place, although there is code of conduct language that refers to cellphone usage, saying students may only use them for educational purposes and that they shouldn’t be a distraction for others.”

“They are a distraction,” Chernos Lin said.

“What I’ve asked is that trustees create a policy around cellphone and personal mobile use in schools. We don’t actually have that. We don’t have anything in policy for teachers to fall back on.”

Chernos Lin says that ambiguity over cellphone rules has led to problematic usage by students at the detriment of their educations and mental health.

“We have to think about — are we creating an environment where kids can thrive and really focus on learning?”

“One of the most common questions or comments I’ve had over the last five years of being a trustee from parents and from teachers surrounds concerns about cellphone use in class time. That it’s distracting and that there’s inappropriate use of phones,” she said.

“There’s a number of studies that have come out that are really concerning for educators and for the well-being of students. I think it’s a really great time to take a look at where we are at and look at how we can do better, because what we have right now isn’t working.”

Jay Olson, from the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto, thinks the board would be prudent to address the issue as soon as possible.

“Generally what we find is that smartphone addiction or what we call problematic smartphone use is rising across the world and so taking some measures to reduce this could definitely make sense,” he said.

“Generally younger people have more challenges with things like depression, anxiety and loneliness and we know there is a link between problematic smartphone use and these kinds of problems.”

The TDSB actually banned cellphones in 2007, but reversed the decision in 2011 over concerns about equity, because some students couldn’t afford laptops and needed their phones to access the internet.

But Chernos Lin says a lot has changed since then and it’s up to educators to reign in the wild west of cellphone use in classrooms.

“The landscape has really changed over the last five years, pre pandemic to now,” she said.

“The use of social media has changed dramatically we know an awful lot more about the impact of social media and cellphones in general in terms of mental health and well-being.

“I think we need to have a very clear policy to set the foundations and expectations,” she stressed.

“There could be restrictions, there could be a full ban.”