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With cellphones set to be restricted in BC classrooms by September, the Superintendent for the Kamloops-Thompson School District says how it will look, likely won’t be clear until spring break.
Rhonda Nixon says the announcement on restrictions last week was not a complete surprise, as it’s beginning to happen in other provinces across the country, however, she says the timing did catch them off guard.
However, she says it likely won’t have a huge impact on SD73, as there are already restrictions around cellphone use in place.
“We have procedures in place to address cell phone use, principals who include it in their student codes of conduct, and we have administrative procedures that are in place,” said Nixon.
“So I think it’s a matter of revisiting those and that the biggest difference is that we need to be consistent provincially.
Nixon says from talking with other superintendents across the province, it seems there is a common ground on wanting to create a safe environment and using cell phones responsibly.
Pointing to a school in SD73, which Nixon says has done a lot of community engagement over the past year on its cell phone policy.
“They have a green, yellow, and red expectation structure. The green zone means it is just fine to use cell phones, the yellow zone means students can use them to do their schoolwork or listen to music, and a red zone means no cell phone use,” said Nixon.
“What I like about that structure is that the parents, the students, and the staff, all came up with it through consultation and they talked about the need for healthy breaks from cell phone use and to not over-rely on them for social communication.”
While Nixon says that the school is not saying they have the “perfect procedure” she says the red, yellow, and green light policy is one that everyone supports and agrees on.
It comes as superintendents across the province are set to work together with the province to come up with a blanket set of rules on restricting cell phones in the classroom.
Nixon says there is a meeting with Superintendents across the province this week, adding that SD73’s first point of contact will be to share their plan – which is to establish a group committee to review current practices and policies and ensure teachers and principals have a say in the conversation.