Graffiti 2009-10

SABRINA REN

We’re suspended for sexual harassment, drug possession, and now… for using cellphones? It’s 2010, and the “When I was your age, I didn’t have a computer or a flushable toilet” arguments really don’t apply anymore. Schools need to accept that cellphones have become a crucial part of our lives, for better or for worse, and suspension is the exact opposite of a solution.

Mrs. Laszlow was seen leaving the French department NT Je T’aime film festival with an armful of at least a dozen phones. That was a reasonable punishment, since students should have been paying attention to each other’s films, and there had been a reminder at the beginning of the assembly. Texting friends about lunch plans during class would definitely be reason enough for a warning or confiscation, and is a habit that should be broken. But what about at lunchtime and afterschool? With the wealth of extracurriculars that NT offers, what’s wrong with calling to ask a teammate where the game is or if the rehearsal has been cancelled?

Mr. Hobson speculates that the ban has to be harsh in order to draw the line far enough to cover all the gray areas. However, whether or not the ban includes phone use after class, I continue to use my phone between classes. Tracy He points out, “At lunch, I always check the time on my cell to make sure I can get to class on time. There aren’t that many working clocks in the school.” I don’t text during class because I should focus on the teacher, but there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to use my phone afterschool. A student was volunteering at the school a few months back, and took out her phone (likely to tell her parents how happy she was to be giving her time to a good cause). A teacher spotted it, swooped down and confiscated the phone. Martin Laws points out that, in the real world, there’s no such thing as a phone ban throughout a company, but, of course, no one texts during a meeting. Students should grow up and stop texting during class, but schools need a better way of dealing with the situation (and not with an illegal cellphone signal jammer, as a principal in British Columbia used).

Phones are even banned on school trips, which is almost laughable. On a recent trip to Montreal, students each received a list of rules, including no cellphones. We piled on the bus, and the first thing we did was fill out a list of every student’s cell number. On an Anthro trip last year to different neighbourhoods of Toronto, students exchanged cell numbers with our teacher so that we could call her once we completed our tasks.

After a talk with our trustee Josh Matlow (on my cell phone, on school property), I learned that while the TDSB policy is to turn cellphones off in school, it is not “a cellphone ban”—and that most importantly, the principal has the power to change this policy as they see fit. “There needs to be flexibilities to this,” says Matlow, who actually initiated the policy. If it’s the night of fashion show and a designer needs to be located asap, is there any logic behind sending a fashion show executive to the office? The reasons for the phone policy—privacy and classroom focus—don’t apply in this case. As an unnamed teacher said, other students aren’t allowed to use their phones and special privileges wouldn’t be fair.

“Our entire society is not sure on how to control this technology,” Matlow says, “and there’s no reason there can’t be a fair discussion to find a respectful way to compromise on afterschool activities.” Students don’t have the right to make their own rules, but the current cellphone regulations aren’t working, and there needs to be a better solution.

Suspension is going in the opposite direction of a solution: students would be punished for no purpose. “I think that the reason for the cellphone ban in the TDSB is to prevent cheating and disruptions in the classroom, but suspending kids for having a cellphone in school is far more disruptive to somebody’s education than five seconds of ringing or a text message,” Martin argues.

Students realize that people were fine back when cellphones didn’t exist, but people can be better now that they do. During class time, the consequences outweigh any benefits, but outside of that time, cellphones are far more useful than disruptive. To put it simply: “It’s just a really stupid reason for suspension,” said Tracy He.

Good morning Mrs. Thompson, your son has been suspended because he was talking to you on his cellphone.