The Chair of Quesnel’s Board of Education says limits on the use of cell phones in classrooms are nothing new.
Lisa Boudreau says the recent announcement by the province was not a ban on cell phones in class, and she says the District already has a policy limiting their use.
“Cell phones can be used in a classroom if it’s for a learning resource and if everybody in the class has one, so it needs to be equitable for everybody. We don’t send kids to school to play on their cellphones in classrooms, that’s not what we want, and we know we need to make sure we have a clear understanding around that. Our policy that we have in the District right now, which is also available on the school district website, is policy 704, an electronic device policy. It’s just based around having safe use at schools, I mean our focus is completely around kids and ensuring that they are healthy and safe and ready to learn.”
Boudreau says the policy will be coming up for renewal anyways, so it’s good timing.
As for how things might change, she says they’re not sure yet.
“We’re still waiting for guidelines from the government and more will come out, so that there will be consistency throughout the province. Most districts in the province have policy, I’m not sure if they all do. They vary on different levels though, so this is about being consistent and just having more focus and more guidelines around it.”
Boudreau says they are still waiting for guidelines from the government on what it wants specifically and she feels it’s more about making sure there is consistency throughout the province.
She says there was some confusion initially following the announcement by the province.
“It was a misunderstanding that the announcement was going to be a complete ban on cell phones and that’s just not the case. You know social media gets going and facts are not there at the beginning, so I think things got really blown out of proportion to begin with. It’s not as shocking as it first seemed to be in the beginning.”
Boudreau says all districts in BC need to have their new policies in place by next fall in September.
