This principal says banning cell phones from the classroom is a no-brainer

Critics say that banning cell phones from Ontario’s schools won’t work. At Central Middle School in Victoria, a cell phone ban not only worked—it was embraced by students and parents alike.

The Government of Ontario announced on March 12 that it will be banning cell phones in classrooms come September. Critics have expressed concerns that the ban will be ineffective and hard to enforce.

But that hasn’t been the case at Central Middle School in Victoria, B.C. The school banned cell phones in 2017, and the change was embraced by students and parents alike.

Why cell phones had to go

Cell phones came with too much baggage

Central Middle School was a much different place with cell phones. When principal Topher Macintosh arrived every morning, he’d see kids lined up on the bench outside with their phones out, using school Wi-Fi to watch Netflix.

“It was just kind of disturbing,” says Macintosh.

The school was also dealing with regular instances of cyber bullying and “trash talk” online. Every day kids were in the office sorting out issues related to their cell phones.

“Between the distraction and antisocial element, cell phones brought a lot of complication to the school.”

Finally, the staff began to question the benefits of allowing cell phones at all.

“When we talked about it,” says Macintosh, “We saw no benefit to the school.”

The downsides, on the other hand, were numerous. “So we said ‘Why are we doing this? Let’s just stop.’”

Cell phones weren’t contributing to students’ education

“We found that the phones weren’t really contributing to their education at all,” says Macintosh.

He says there’s already a lot of tech in the building that’s more suited to education.

“We have lots of iPads in use for various things. But the cell phone wasn’t sufficient to do the same job.”

Although cell phones have useful functions like calculators, he says the slight convenience didn’t warrant all of the downsides.

“Kids don’t have to have a cell phone to have a calculator.”

Why a cell phone ban worked here

Banning cell phones was a staff initiative

The ban didn’t happen overnight — staff talked about it regularly for about three years before implementing the policy.

“It was completely a staff decision when we went forward with it,” says Macintosh.

In the six months leading up to implementation, a couple of teachers were hesitant to move forward with the policy.

“But by the time we sent a letter to parents,” says Macintosh, “Every staff member was adamant that we needed to make the change.”

Teachers practice what they teach

At the outset, Macintosh recalls, a staff member said, “Hey, if we are doing this for the kids, essentially we need to do it with ourselves.”

So, although teachers do have their cell phones at school, you don’t see them in the hallways or in class. Unless there’s an emergency, phones are put away until the end of the day.

“So it was a pretty complete thing,” says Macintosh, “And when I was able to say that to parents, they appreciated that.”

The vast majority of parents were supportive

“When I made the change here, I knew it was going to be a fit for our school,” says Macintosh. He had talked to many parents about banning cell phones, and the vast majority were for it.

Prior to implementing the ban, Macintosh surveyed parents. He says the only real concern they listed was “being able to contact my child when they’re on their way to school, or on their way home.”

Even then, there are “maybe fifteen or twenty parents” — out of a school with 600 students — who insisted that their kids have phones to and from school.

So, for those who show up with a cell phone, the school has a locked storage bin. Kids turn in their phones when they arrive, and they pick them up at the end of the day.

If parents need to contact their children during the day, they do what parents have always done—they call the office.

The policy is easy to enforce

For the odd student who sneaks in a cell phone, the procedure is simple.

“What we do is, if we see a phone out, we just take it away (and the kids since we’ve made this change have been very good about that), and then we call the parents and say ‘You’re child was found with this phone. Can you come and grab it please?’”

He says, “We’ve probably taken away maybe ten phones this year— and there was a time when we were doing five a day.”

What’s it like now?

Removing cell phones dialled down the distractions

Macintosh says the ban has “hugely reduced the amount of online stuff that we were having to deal with.”

He knows that some of it still happens at night and on the weekends — and sometimes the overflow comes into the building — but the school has only had about four incidents this year.

“We used to be dealing with three or four a week.”

Students are more present now

Macintosh says kids are more social without their phones on hand. Before the ban, it would be typical for ten kids to be in the washrooms during breaks and lunch, glued to their phones. That just doesn’t happen now.

“I’d say they’re more present — which was sort of what we were after. We were trying to get kids to get their heads into being at school.”

Students spend more time in class instead of the office

Although the school hasn’t analyzed the impacts on grades, Macintosh says that removing cell phones allows students to focus on their learning.

“Some kids are a bit more able to focus on their academics and they’re out of the classroom less, because they’re not down in the office trying to sort out problems.”

Kids adjusted really well

“The kids adjusted very quickly,” says Macintosh. It took students all of three days to get used to it.

“You never hear kids griping about cell phones anymore,” he says.

In fact, he thinks the students are actually grateful. “I’d say that generally kids are quite pleased at not having to think about cell phones during the day.”

Macintosh has asked students how they feel about the ban, and all but one has said, “I’m glad — just don’t tell my friends.”

Asked why they are glad, Macintosh says, “It’s brought a calm to the building.”

The takeaway for Ontario: Banning cell phones is not a big deal

Macintosh says he can see how a lot of Ontario principals might wonder how they’re going to pull off the cell phone ban, but he thinks that “… many, many middle schools will report it’s not that big a deal.”

“It truly has been a lot easier than we might have expected. The vast majority of families are fully in line, and they’re grateful that we’ve done it.”

He says the bulk of criticism comes from adults — not kids — who have fallen into a trap of thinking life is incomplete if you’re not connected to the web.

“It’s not the case,” he says. “We’ve just sort of stepped off that train here during the school day, and everything’s fine. It happened very, very easily.”

Now when Macintosh shows up in the morning, he sees a handful of kids reading books, and the rest will be chatting with one another or playing out front.

“Ask any of my staff, and we just sort of laugh and say it’s a no brainer.”