{"id":34534,"date":"2024-05-06T15:54:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T19:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=34534"},"modified":"2024-05-16T16:36:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T20:36:06","slug":"province-to-crack-down-on-cell-phone-use-vaping-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/province-to-crack-down-on-cell-phone-use-vaping-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Province to \u201ccrack down\u201d on cell phone use, vaping in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 2024-2025 school year will see stringent new rules across the Province when it comes to cell phone use and vaping within the educational environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sunday, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced sweeping changes which will come into effect in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students in Kindergarten through Grade 6 will be required to keep phones on silent and out of sight for the entire school day, unless \u201cexplicitly permitted\u201d by an educator. For older students up through Grade 12, there will be a slight relaxation of the policy, with the ban in force only within class time, unless otherwise permitted by a teacher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have heard loud and clear from parents and teachers alike that cellphones in classrooms are distracting kids from learning,\u201d said Minister Lecce in a statement. \u201cOur government is introducing the toughest policy in Canada to tackle this issue by cracking down on cellphone usage during class time, as well as banning vaping in all schools. When it comes to cellphones, our policy is \u2018out of sight and out of mind,\u2019 as we get students back to the basics by restoring focus, safety and common sense back in Ontario schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister also announced on Sunday that the Ministry would be \u201cstrengthening\u201d rules around students caught using \u2013 and also carrying \u2013 vapes or cigarettes. In these instances, students will be \u201crequired to surrender these products, along with parents being notified immediately of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

$30 million, the Government added, has been allocated within the 2024 Budget to install vape detectors and other security measures in schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo support these initiatives, the Government is investing in $17.5 million in new wrap-around supports for student mental health and parent engagement,\u201d said the Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These measures and supports will include $15 million to provide supports for students at risk of addictive behaviours; $1 million to partner with School Mental Health Ontario to develop webinars and resources \u201ctargeted to parents and students\u201d across Ontario to \u201clearn how to talk about the adverse effects of vaping and excessive cellphone usage; and$1.5 million to Parent Involvement Committees and students to run local prevention campaigns to \u201cdeter\u201d vaping and cellphone distractions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur government is taking action to protect children and youth from the harmful risks of vaping and build healthier communities across the province,\u201d said Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, who also serves as Ontario Deputy Premier and MPP for Dufferin-Caledon, in a statement. \u201cWe are building on the changes we have already made to restrict the sale of flavoured vapour products by taking this next step to make students surrender vape, tobacco and nicotine products in student possession to ensure our children receive their education in a safe and healthy learning environment.”
Added Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario\u2019s Chief Medical Officer of Health: “Ontario is seeing a growing number of youth in Grades 7 through 12 report using vaping products that contain and emit many toxic substances. These products can affect the respiratory, immune and cardiovascular systems, and nicotine in these products is particularly harmful to youth brain development. Removing vaping products from Ontario schools will help protect our students from these preventable threats.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the April 28 announcement, groups representing educators have expressed concerns about how they will be equipped to enforce the new rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Elementary Teachers\u2019 Federation of Ontario (EFTO), for instance, said during recent bargaining, they fought for improvements that would address what they describe as \u201cincreasing violence and disruption in schools\u201d and noted that some of the concerns they outlined to the Ministry were reflected in last week\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, they added, measures to address violence are yet to be reflected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDespite our attempts to make improvements to school environments in a collaborative way with this government, ETFO was not given the opportunity to review the revisions before the Ford government released them,\u201d said the group in a statement. \u201cThis is extremely disappointing, but true to form for a government that has, for years, consistently disregarded input from its education partners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their recommendations included clear definitions when it comes to \u201cunacceptable\u201d student behaviour and the enforcement of consequences for non-compliance, defining such behaviours as including \u201cbullying, cyberbullying, intimidation, harassment, racism, discriminatory behaviour, physical violence, sexual assault, shoving and pushing, profanity, disrespectful behaviour that shows disregard for a teacher\u2019s or other supervising adult\u2019s position, failing to follow directions, significant disruptions to the learning environment, misuse of technology and social media, and repeated use of tobacco or e-cigarettes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEducation is a shared responsibility, and decisions affecting our schools should be made through transparent and inclusive processes that prioritize the well-being of students and the professionalism of educators,\u201d they said. \u201cIt is only through respectful dialogue and true collaboration that we can develop policies that reflect the diverse needs of our school communities and uphold the highest standards of education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2024-2025 school year will see stringent new rules across the Province when it comes to cell phone use and vaping within the educational environment. On Sunday, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced sweeping changes which will come into effect in September. Students in Kindergarten through Grade 6 will be required to keep phones on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8Z0","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 12:54:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}