SocialMediaAccess

Over 68,000 Albertans - mostly parents - told the Alberta Government we expect schools to not be overrun with the distraction of cellphones, and the potential for bullying they bring.

Apparently, this is the most feedback that has ever been provided on a Government of Alberta survey!

And, yesterday, the Minister of Education, Demetrios Nicolaides, announced the results.

Spoiler: We won!

Obviously, the Minister must have heard the same thing we did from our survey on the same topic, because he announced decisive policies to restrict harmful cellphone use in schools.

Here are the highlights:

All school authorities will be required to have a policy prohibiting cellphones in classrooms with the exceptions of emergencies, medical use, and special learning needs.

School authorities can decide how they will enforce these policies.

School authorities must inform parents if the rule against cellphone use in class is violated.

That one is huge for us, obviously, since parents need to be included as partners in this policy, and so often we are not told early enough when problem behaviours manifest.

Exceptions for in-class learning must be approved by the principal or equivalent.

That's a good policy because it puts all the adults in the building on the same page, whereas "at the discretion of the teacher" puts the teacher on an island, without the support of the other adults.

That lack of support is exactly why policies restricting cellphones have failed in other provinces.

Oddly, a policy that puts the entire burden of enforcement on individual teachers - rather than on the school authority - was the official position of the Alberta Teachers' Association, despite the fact that a policy without such a weakness passed at their recent convention.

As an attempt to deal with the bullying issues that arise with student cellphone use outside the classroom, the government also announced a policy of social media blocking on school grounds.

While it's important to address this issue for the overall policy to be successful, we suspect this is an element the government will be forced to revisit for practicality's sake.

All of these policies are minimum requirements for school authorities to implement.

But, they retain the authority to do more than is outlined here.

Responses so far from the usual detractors have fallen into one of three buckets: this isn't a real problem, schools already have these policies, or changing the subject completely.

To say it isn't a real problem or to change the subject is monumentally disrespectful to the over 68,000 people, mostly parents, who thought it was enough of a problem to give the government a piece of their mind!

It is quite evident that many, many schools do not have any enforced cellphone policies, if for no other reason than Alberta students report significant amounts of classroom distraction.

As parents and grandparents, we have heard from the students in our lives and know the scourge that the distraction and bullying of cellphones has presented.

To insist this is not an important move, on its own merits, is woefully out of touch with the parents, grandparents, educators, and taxpayers these detractors claim to represent.

So, all in all, we expect from your feedback that you will consider this a solid first step.

As always, we rely on you to let us know how the provincial government should build off of this policy, or if we should bring pressure on school boards to implement this policy in a better way.

As a reminder, school boards already had the power to take these actions before the Province forced their hands.

Parents were already clamouring for these policies long before the Province started their survey.

Many school boards waited until the Province's survey was complete to announce unnecessary and costly consultations that are, fortunately, now preempted by this decisive action from the Province.

But the laughable mishandling of this policy by school boards reminds us that we must stay vigilant at that level as well.

At the Alberta Parents' Union, after hearing from you about what you wanted, we were, as we always do, zealously advocating for your position with elected officials.

We also, of course, offered the insights you gave us in our survey and our expertise on the state of the research on this topic to members of the media.

If you want to see this work continue, and keep the wins coming, then please join us today!