Cellphones will not be allowed in any R.F. Staples classroom during class time when the new school year gets underway in September.
This, following a public survey in May that found most of the parents who responded were in favour of a ban for high school students similar to the one instituted by the school for junior high students in 2018.
Along with the survey, principal Wayne Rufiange said he also consulted with the superintendent and the parents council before sending out e-mails to all students and parents at the end of the school year in June, to inform them of his decision on the matter.
“I’ve decided, like we’ve done in the junior high this last year, there will be no cellphones in classrooms,” said Rufiange. “They should be in their lockers and put away. That will continue for the high school as well.”
The thoughtexchange.com survey, which wrapped up May 8, allowed students, parents, educators and even the public to have their say as to whether or not the devices should be allowed in the classroom during learning time and while Rufiange said he recognizes and took into account that the technology can be useful in the class at times, it tends to be more of a distraction.
The vast majority of the 154 students who responded to the survey were against the ban, while an overwhelming number of the 116 parents, 25 school staffers and 16 members of the public who participated, were all for the move.
Rufiange said school is meant to prepare students for the real world and in the real world, there are a lot of workplaces that don’t allow employees to have their phones with them at all times. He said he has heard concerns from parents about potentially not being able to contact their child during a family emergency, for instance, but he urged that those calls should go through the office anyway, so they can be handled discreetly.
“We can manage those messaging concerns. By all means, message your kids throughout the day, but their phone is away, so know they will only be able to respond during breaks in the day, which kind of makes sense,” said Rufiange. “It’s just like on the job, if you have a coffee break, maybe you’ll check your messages on your phone, or during your lunch break, or after work.
“One of my roles as a principal is to clear the path for our teachers to make sure they’re able to do the best job they can with our students in the classrooms and I think cellphones are one of those distractors that are in competition to get the attention of the students.”
Rufiange pointed out that the school is equipped with mobile Chromebook labs, should the use of technology be required in the classroom.
“At one point I was thinking of going in a different direction, but at the same time, the more I thought about it and laid out what the purpose of school and education was, and asked how do we accomplish that, I think this is the right thing to do and in the best interest of students as well.”
While the details have not yet been sorted out, Rufiange said he expects the consequences of bringing a phone to class in high school will match those followed in the junior high last year, with the phone being taken away for the class on the first offence and guardians having to come to the school to pick up the device for the second offence. If it escalates from there students could be suspended.
“Students are expected to follow the rules of the school and one of the rules we’ll be enforcing is that the cellphone is away. I don’t envision us having a stringent search policy at the beginning of every class, but if we can see it, we’re taking it,” said Rufiange.
Trustee technology
Cellphone use was also a topic of discussion among Pembina Hills Public Schools trustees at their June 26 meeting in Barrhead, where they briefly discussed a proposed amendment to the board’s code of conduct that would prohibit them from “personal use of technology when representing the board.”
Trustee Wendy Scinski, who sits on the board’s policy committee, said that Policy 4 — the Trustee Code of Conduct — will likely have to be revisited when the Education Act comes out this fall.
However, the committee had looked at the code of conduct and decided to amend it to prohibit the personal use of mobile phones and the like at events. Previously, the policy only prohibited the use of cell phones at board meetings.
Scinski said they thought it might be seen as rude if a trustee was at, say, a graduation ceremony and was “texting throughout the event.”
She noted a number of other school districts, as well as the Rural Caucus of Alberta School Boards, had added some consideration into their codes of conduct regarding the use of personal technology.
Trustee Jackie Comeau was somewhat opposed to the change, noting that she liked to have her phone beside her.
Comeau noted that at a recent Alberta School Boards Association meeting in Red Deer, she went to the back of the room and saw that half of the trustees were on their phones or laptops.
“I’m not sure (if I support this), because sometimes I think this is old fuddy-itis,” Comeau said. “The phone is used for a lot of stuff now. It’s not just texting with friends.”
She acknowledged that it might be rude for a trustee to be texting through graduation, but what if she was expecting a text regarding a car appointment when attending a board meeting, for instance, and missed it because she couldn’t use her phone until lunch time?
Scinski suggested the intent of the amendment is not to have trustees avoid important messages. However, she pointed out that she had 13 text messages on her phone that she had not responded to during the meeting.
“I think it would be very rude to be sitting here when we’re supposed to be engaged in the board meeting, checking on what my kids have done over the course of the day,” Scinski said.
• With files from Kevin Berger.
