Lecce discusses plan to limit cellphone use, social media and vaping in schools

Keeping kids from constantly staring down at their mini screens in class, the provinces limiting cell phone use in schools, plus banning vaping on school grounds. Joining us now to discuss all of these changes is Ontario Education Minister Stephen Latche. Minister, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Good morning. So it’s my understanding that kids already couldn’t be on their cell phones throughout class under the previous limits that were announced by your government in 2019. So I’m curious, how is this latest been any different from the one that you’ve just announced? So in 2019, school boards were required to develop a policy. Some of them developed strong policies and most of them did not, which has LED us to the point where cell phones are being used all the time in classes and they are distracted. In addition to the vaping, I mean, it is illegal to vape in Ontario and yet in washrooms in many of our high schools particularly, they become safe places. So notwithstanding good intention, we don’t have a provincial standard that is strong. And so we brought forth a new policy that yes, we will restrict cell phones during instructional time, through that in class time, we’re going to obviously ban vaping and cannabis products from all schools with strong repercussions if they’re caught vaping in addition to addiction services for those things, the kids that may have that need. And finally, yes, we’re going to also remove social media from Wi-Fi and from devices, which is the first province in Canada to do that. So there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of new components here we didn’t have in the past. And I think we’ve got to set a higher standard, be more ambitious and comprehensive, and tackle this issue head on. It will be up to teachers and school boards to decide how these new rules are enforced, but it’s already up to them to to decide how to enforce them. So without the change of the enforcement rules, like what exactly here is different? How is this not more of the same? Well, that’s exactly the point. We do respect the professional judgment of teachers. But every teacher I I’ve spoken to over the past years have said I don’t have the tools to enforce the policy. I don’t have a school board and superintendents that are going to back me when I do it. And so this actually gives teeth standardization and clear consistency to parents that there are progressive discipline tools that can be used if someone violates the policy. Now we don’t. We hopefully we don’t have to get there. The objective here is through hearts and minds and through public education, we can persuade young people to understand responsible use of technology. But for the first time, I’m saying to school boards, to teachers, to principals, the government will support you in enforcing this. We have your backs and we will urge them to this indiscriminately. Apply this across Ontario. What does enforcement look like? How do you expect them to actually do that in the classroom? Well, the first thing is for vaping. The enforcement first tool is going to be a call to the parent. We don’t do that in Ontario. There’s no provincial standard with respect to engaging parents. I think they have a right to. Their kid is in possession of a product that is illegal, like tobacco or cannabis or vaping for someone under 18. The second thing is to remove the device and not return it to the child. The third is to ensure that local public health units are engaged ’cause they could be involved as well in education. And the 4th is to connect them for the first time to a $50 million expansion of community based mental health and addiction services cause some kids who have dependents will need that. I wanna pick up on the point about removing the devices because right, I’ve heard from teachers who say they’re not comfortable taking a student’s phone away. Like, phones are expensive. What if that phone, you know, something happens to it? What if it’s destroyed? What if it’s lost? Teachers do not want to be responsible for that. I understand. So how do you expect them to enforce this? So the policy will require a student to bring their phone to the front of class, turn it off, put on the front of the desk so the onus is on the student. It will require the student to come forth, put the cell phone literally, or the tablet, whatever it may be, literally on the desk and turn it off. They could return that product, that technology at the end of class. This policy for high school kids, particularly in middle school, applies for in person learning the instructional time. We’re allowing kids to have still technology or or cell phones on their person, in their backpacks, in their purse, during spares and lunches, etcetera. But when in front of a classroom teacher, if the teacher does not permit the technology, it is to be out of sight, out of mind. That is the message we’re sending today. We’re sending a letter home to parents that’s going to help codify these messages and say to them, look, we need to work together here because this is a big paradigm shift in how kids operate, how they think. But we’ve got to restore some humanity back in our schools where kids can dialogue, they can have a civil exchange, they can share and and build emotional and social emotional skills. And I think we’re losing that in our schools. So I understand, yes, on the implementation they’re probably inevitably are going to be challenges. We all know this, every jurisdiction has faced this, but we have to try. We have to bring forth some comprehensive intent to ultimately change the culture of schools for the better. And I want to believe, through a Team Ontario approach, working with teachers, working with our principals, working with parents and students and medical experts, that it’s it’s clear the status quo is not working, that the school board policy of 2019 is just not having the effect we hoped. And thus we’ve stepped up with a bigger plan. More supports for mental health, for for behavior issues, for addictions, more curriculum knowledge we’re mandating in the curriculum, Further knowledge on responsible use of technology, digital citizenship and the perils of vaping and cannabis. So there’s a lot of new elements here, new supports and a recognition it will be challenging. But I think if we work together, we have a generational opportunity to change the way young people operate and improve the mental health of kids. I think we shouldn’t dismiss how savvy kids are, though these days. They can create VPN, they can go to the bathroom to vape if they want. You know, how are you going to ensure that this new policy is actually going to work the way it’s intended? So on the vaping side, we’ve announced $30 million for vaping detectors. There’s a school board Northern Ontario among other jurisdictions who have amazing data that they’ve been put these vape detectors in washrooms for example, and they’ve reduced suspensions, they’ve reduced graffiti and they’ve more importantly reduced vaping significance. Tobacco cessation has been achieved through those. So we’ve invested 30 million. We’re going to put those into schools across Ontario. And then finally with respect to the implementation, we’ve announced that we’re setting up a technical working group with all the partners in education, parents, public health and obviously students to sort of get this right. You know, there’s a reason why we are taking the actions on removing social media from our Wi-Fi and from our devices. Now we recognize there may be creative ways to work around it. That’s why that technical working group is being established to work with kids to say, look, we need your ideas on how to ensure we implement the spirit of the policy, the vaping policy on calling the parent, removing the device, engaging public health, that type of concept that actually came from students when I consult them two years ago in Windsor. So there’s amazing ideas out there. We’ve got to work together on this. It is a big change. It is going to be challenging, but it’s worth the effort. We have to do this. We have to refocus schools. We’ve got to reestablish a sense of focus and discipline, academic rigor and common sense back in our schools. And this will help with bullying, It’ll help with mental health and the conference of kids, and frankly, it’ll help achieve academic success. And when I see half of kids in this province not meeting the provincial math standard, I’m sorry, I’m persuaded we’ve got to do something better when it comes to creating more focus on getting back to basics. Well, Minister, as you know, we have been promoting this chat all morning. We’ve been hearing from viewers who feel that this announcement is a deflection and just a rehashing of the 2019 announcement and not exactly addressing real concerns in the classroom like smaller class sizes with something like smaller class sizes not help teachers to enforce something like this. Well, I’ve heard that from unions. I actually haven’t heard that from any parents. I mean 85% they’ve been tweeting us. No, I know I’ve seen them. But the truth is I mean 85% of Ontarians were were surveyed on this. So I mean your your sample is of the minority not of the overwhelming majority of people who think this is a common sense provision. We increase the staffing in schools. We’ve just announced 15,000,000 more dollars to hire more staff and people in community to help support kids solve. The issue is funding. On Friday I was out, you know, announcing a $750 million increase. There’s 7500 additional 7500 more education workers since we started 3000, more teachers. So we’re going to keep putting the people in schools. But at the heart of this, this is about education. This is about teaching young people the responsible use of technology and to be very 0 tolerance when it comes to cannabis, tobacco and vaping. And I think if we can look at this through the prism of education and prevention, with some deterrence, we can actually change the culture in our schools for the better. So I will work with everyone, every parent. Hopefully we can bring them along and try to speak to them that, look, there’s got to be a better way to learn in Ontario. And I think that Team Ontario approach is going to ultimately make the difference in Ontario. Ontario Minister of Education Stephen Leche, thank you so much for joining us.