Mayor shuts school WiFi off, plans cellphone ban next

Haifa mayor Yona Yahav has recently decided to ban the use of WiFi networking at all schools in Israel’s northern port city — and he’s not done yet, as reported this week by NEXTER (disclosure: my day job).

“It’s not an impulsive decision”, he said on Channel 2’s morning show. “we have been discussing with experts, parents, teachers and headmasters for months, and eventually I decided to adopt the attitude I recently adopt pretty often; When in doubt — no doubt”.

When asked what lead to the dramatic decision, he said scientific research proves radiation from WiFi hotspots is a health risk. He is well aware of opposite research conclusions as well, but doesn’t take any chances with his city’s youth. He also made clear that his decision didn’t leave the kids with no internet access, as all schools have wired connections and “new wires with no electromagnetic radiation” are being tested — which probably refers to the optic fiber infrastructure being built in the country these days.

Dror Globerman, Editor in Chief at Nexter (disclosure: my boss), tried to explain why the decision is bad: “The radiation we’re talking about, WiFi, which practically everyone has at home — it’s so weak that there is no way to even imagine it having any effect. On the other hand, students go to school with cellphones, and once you turn WiFi off — they keep using the cellular network, and that one has some serious radiation. That means kids are now absorbing more radiation, not less”.

At this point, Yahav revealed that banning WiFi is only one step in his plan: “I’ve been tinkering for many months now with the idea to build in every schools entrance a locker, in which pupils will have to put their cellphones for the day”. The hosts were shocked by the idea and said as parents they would never allow their kids to be unreachable during the day. Yahav’s response was a half-hearted confession that he has no allies for this idea: “The parents don’t always agree, they want to be connected to their kids 24 hours a day, the kids don’t agree — it’s not something you can do…”. Apparently, that last bit doesn’t stop Yahav trying.

It’s not that banning cellphones in schools is a bad idea in and out of itself — actually, several schools in Israel have such bans in place, like the Bnei Akiva girls highschool in northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. Research published last year by the London School of Economics showed that in the UK, banning phones in schools resulted in an average 6.4% improvement in student test scores.

The main difference between these cases and Yahav’s plan is the reasoning — while others see cellphone ban as a purely educational decision, which is a legitimate reason, Yahav is taking the right solution for the wrong problem.