Cellphones will be banned in Quebec schools

The government will ban cell phones in Quebec elementary and secondary schools starting next year.

The information, first reported by Radio-Canada, was confirmed by La Presse Canadienne on Thursday morning.

Cellphones have already been banned in classrooms since January 2024. The government’s new measure will extend this ban from the beginning to the end of classes. This includes during breaks and on school grounds.

Education Minister Bernard Drainville made the official announcement later Thursday at a press conference at Rochebelle High School in Quebec City.

“I want students to be more concentrated,” he said. “I want students to talk to one another. I want students to succeed more. I want students to discover that they have a potential friend, you know, there.”

This measure was the first recommendation of the “Special Commission on the Impacts of Screens and Social Networks on the Health and Development of Young People,” which submitted an interim report on April 22.

The minister said at the time that he welcomed the report with “great interest and openness.”

The three opposition parties in the National Assembly applauded the measure on Thursday.

The Parti Québécois, which had taken up this issue as early as 2023 and made it a key issue, initially welcomed the government’s “complete turnaround” on the issue.

“The fact that young people can be together, and really get together instead of chatting on their phones, is very beneficial. We are very happy with this decision,” declared PQ MNA Catherine Gentilcore at a press briefing.

The interim leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay, who has two daughters aged 19 and 21, observed that the digital identity of young people has become, in many cases, “more important” than their own social identity.

“Put down your phones and socialize,” he declared at a press briefing.

Québec solidaire MNA Alexandre Leduc also welcomed the government’s decision, but said he was concerned about school leaders, who will have very little time to organize themselves before the start of the next school year, he said.

Concerns from teachers

That’s also concerning for Steven Le Sueur, the president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers (QPAT), who is wondering what this will mean exactly for teachers.

“I think the teachers will welcome the ban, but when it falls on their shoulders to police it, it’s just going to be too much,” Steven Le Sueur said. “We need cooperation from the parents, we need support from the principals and the school boards, and we’ll see what happens.

Le Sueur thinks it would be best if students simply left their cellphones at home.

“But that’s probably not going to happen,” he added. “My worry is that teachers, those phones get stolen and they’re going to be blamed or say, ‘you’re responsible for them.’ And that’s my biggest worry.”

Drainville is expected to let individual school boards — or the schools themselves — determine exactly how they choose to implement the ban.

That’s something Joe Ortona, chairman of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) — where he says there has been a cellphone ban in place for more than decade — is on board with.

“I don’t know what measures the government is going to impose and where they’ll leave us the liberty to make those decisions,” said Ortona, who’s also the president of the Quebec English School Board Association (QEBSA). “I certainly believe that something as simple as the banning of a cellphone is something that really should be decided at the local level and perhaps not even at the school board, but perhaps leave it up to each individual school and leave it up to the governing boards to do and to decide the modalities of what would be and wouldn’t be permitted.

“For me, what’s important is that we get these measures from the government and that they’re clear so that there’s no ambiguity.”

While supporting the ban beyond the classroom, Ortona says he wants to be sure “no students are being hurt or put at a disadvantage because of it.”

Certain exceptions could indeed apply, notably when the use of a mobile device is justified by a student’s health condition or for the special needs of a student with a disability or a learning disability. Use would also be permitted for educational purposes.

Cellphone addiction not addressed

The president of the English Parents’ Committee Association of Quebec (EPCA) tells CityNews the ban “misses the mark” because it’s not addressing the root of the problem.

“Just taking away phones doesn’t really change anything, it becomes a punitive measure that doesn’t address the issue and the problem,” Katherine Korakakis said “And the truth of the matter is, most schools have measures that take away phones. During classrooms, it already exists now, you’re taking them away completely. I did read on one of the articles that it’s going to be left on each school to decide, each community decide how they are going to implement that; I think that’s a good idea.

“But again, missing the mark in terms of really addressing the issue that is the addiction with phones.”

Korakakis says another major issue with kids and cellphone use is online bullying. But she wonders how a ban “during a specific period of time, actually teach children or address that issue.”

“The second they leave school property, they go home, wherever, they have their phone and use it, the behaviors there,” she said. “And now you’ve created an even bigger problem for families, because now parents have to manage that behavior at home right, and you’re not really teaching children about the responsibility of having a device like this, the power of it, fake news, social media, the negative effects of the phone.”

The EPCA president also believes there’s a safety issue that’s being created.

“It’s not allowed on property, so where would you house it, right, like what are you doing?” Korakakis wondered. “Especially for the Anglophone community that has to travel super long distances to get to school, how are parents communicating with their children. Some children travel over an hour to get to school a day. This is the reality of being in an Anglophone school. So for children taking the city transportation, if you have a child that you need to reach, that they have special needs or other needs or whatever your family situation is, this becomes a safety issue.”

Montreal students react

“I understand why, but I think that the positives for having a phone outweigh the negatives of having a phone in school,” said Matteo Beneventi, grade seven student at Royal West Academy.

“I think that phones should be allowed in schools,” he added. “I use my phone to, like, contact my parents. So if, like, something goes wrong, I need my phone.”

“We already have that policy at our school,” added classmate, Andy O’Brien. “But if we were to impose, we have to put our phone at the office. I think that would be a bit extreme.”

“A positive I see is how there would be more concentration, more work to be done,” added fellow grade seven student, Jackson Seidman.

“I think it wouldn’t change anything,” explained grade 10 student, Giuseppe Sacco. “People who are addicted are going to find ways to sneak it out anyways.”

“And it’s truly, it’s like, you’re really addicted to it,” he added. “It’s an issue of addiction, and, like, that’s what causes lack of concentration, but it wouldn’t change much, they’d sneak it out anyways, second phones, bringing like a dupe phone to class or into the office.”

–With files from La Presse Canadienne