Stricter cellphone policy coming to N.B. schools

Teachers in New Brunswick will soon have more authority to limit the use of cellphones in schools — a change that some officials in the province have been calling for. 

The Department of Education's technology policy, Policy 311, has been updated to add a new section that deals with cellphones. That section did not exist before and the change will take effect in September. 

Cellphone use during class will be limited, at the discretion of the teacher, to educational reasons. If someone uses a cellphone for medical condition monitoring, that is also allowed.

Other than that, the policy's new section states that teachers will have students put their cellphones in a designated area of the classroom on silent mode. 

It also says that students may be subject to disciplinary action if they use cellphones to disrupt the learning environment. Examples of this include bullying, cheating and plagiarism. 

Some schools have already come up with their own policies regarding phones in the classroom.

In February, Kelly Lamrock, New Brunswick's child and youth advocate, told reporters that it would be good if schools were a place where the phones go away and students could focus on human interaction.

He also said that if his office were asked to help the department or a school district create a policy banning cellphones, he would be open to that.

And just last month, Dominic Cardy, the former education minister for the province, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that not banning cellphones in schools before leaving his position is his "one big regret" as minister. 

Some other provinces also have cellphone restrictions in schools, including Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario.