Hanover school board in favour of banning cell phones for K-8 schools

When the new school year gets underway in September, Hanover students from kindergarten through to Grade 8 will not be allowed to use cell phones during the school day. 

The Hanover School Board is expected to approve amendments to its Responsible Use of Technology policy. 

“One of our middle schools decided to try being cell phone free, and so that's a 5 to 8 school, and did lots of communication of course with the parents and with the PAC (Parent Advisory Council) ahead of time. And they were all in favor of trying it,” reports Superintendent Shelley Amos. 

Now that the school year is nearly over, the pilot project at Stonybrook Middle School is getting rave reviews. 

“It's been a real success,” Amos says. “They were able to share those successes with our other middle schools in particular and so we are looking at changing that policy.” 

At the Hanover School Board meeting on June 4th, trustees voted unanimously in favour of the first reading of the amended policy. The board will give second and third readings prior to the new school year. 

“So, for September, kindergarten to grade eight would be cell phone free schools,” says Amos. “I think some of the advantages they've seen are less behavior challenges, less checking your social media all day long. The FOMO, I think still is the word, right? Fear Of Missing Out on something. Kids actually report themselves that there's less pressure because ‘no one else has it either, so, I don't need it.’ And so that frees them to focus on the academics or the gym or the music or the recess or whatever it is they need to do.” 

Assistant Superintendent Leanne Peters offered an additional comment on the behavioral change noticed at the school. 

“Our suspensions in that school are cut in half from over the same time period last year,” she told trustees. “Maybe not a direct correlation but I would make a statement saying that’s a factor.” 

Amos sees the “cell phone free” school day as a way to help boost mental health and well-being of students. 

“By not having them in the space in the day, we can help with the social media craze that’s been happening right now,” she says. 

Nothing will change for high school students. They will adhere to the expectations set by each school. 

“We let our schools and our teachers in the classrooms manage it. Grade 9 to12 is very different, it's an age range between 9 to 12 but we have children driving, we have people (students) going to work, they're in and out throughout the day and an open campus fashion so we let that be managed at the schools as it needs to be, because every group of students in different classes can actually handle it in a different way at that age. And they need to learn some independence at that age.”