Local school divisions welcome cellphone ban

By ANNA SMITH Local Journalism Initiative on June 20, 2024.

School districts in Medicine Hat and area are largely optimistic regarding a recent ministerial order restricting the use of personal electronics such as cellphones during class periods.

The announcement was made Monday and will require phones and similar electronics to be powered off and out of sight during instructional periods for students in all schools, barring medical or accommodation requirements, or when directed by teachers as approved by the principal.

Following the announcement, Medicine Hat Public School Division said it will be working over the summer to align procedures with the minister’s direction, and will be coming forward with policies for schools in the fall.

“The impact on students will vary with grade levels, and K-6 will experience little change. However, many students in Grades 7 to 9 will note greater restrictions to access throughout the school day,” said superintendent Mark Davidson. “The minister of education has issued direction on personal mobile devices, and Medicine Hat Public School Division will mandate.”

The mandate was discussed during Tuesday’s Prairie Rose Public Schools board meeting, where it was largely well received and trustee Cathy Hogg expressed she was pleased to have this come right from the minister’s office.

“I’m actually pleased that this is something that’s coming from the minister’s office and not something that was left to boards to decide on a board-to-board basis. This is coming straight from the minister’s office so I’m grateful for them,” said Hogg.

They are already discussing the task laid out for the executive team, to ensure the policy will be ready for the new school year, as the board noted the difficulty of implementing a new policy once students have already started their year.

Prairie Rose trustees also noted the roughly 68,000 responses to the survey, which they said was good to see as a driving force behind the order.

For students of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, very little will change, said superintendent of schools Dwayne Zarichny.

“From our perspective, we were really pleased with the minister’s announcement for our jurisdiction, this really just affirms the practice that we already have in place in our schools,” said Zarichny.

“While we recognize the upcoming ministerial order, in the same breath, this really doesn’t represent a significant departure, a change from our current practice,” said Zarichny. “I would think that in most of our schools, we will have already exceeded what the ministerial order will say.

Anecdotal feedback from students in MHCBE thus far suggets they do not expect this will effect their school experience, said Zarichny.

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