Halifax students discuss classroom cell phone ban on first day of school

Alex Thompson was up at 6 a.m. Thursday morning. For the grade 12 student, it will be the last time he feels the excitement of the first day of school.

“It’s a little bit emotional,” Thompson said. “I’m pretty excited to see all my friends again.”

It’s a sentiment shared by students throughout the Maritimes, who will be learning to follow some new rules this year.

Cell phones will be banned in classrooms this fall except when they are being used for instructional purposes.

Alexandra Murphy is a concerned parent who thinks the ban is a good idea.

“They need to have all their focus on their studies and with the cell phone there it kind of is a distraction,” Murphy said.

Chris Thompson is one of the students who thinks the ban could improve his performance.

“I don’t mind,” Chris said. “I’m on my phone too much at school so it’ll probably help me.”

Getting back into an early morning routine is a change that many students, and their parents are less excited for.

“The last week of vacation we were training to wake up earlier,” said student Louka Sanchez.

Students will be returning to larger classes as enrolment continues to rise.

Lindsey Bunn is a communications officer for the Halifax Regional Centre for Education. She said the student population has grown by more than 9,000 in the last five years.

“We have 169 modular classrooms and more than 60 portable classrooms across HRCE,” Bunn said. “We are very close to hitting the 60,000 mark.”

Both the RCMP had Halifax Regional Police had extra patrols operating in school zones Thursday.

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