The Toronto District School Board will vote later this month on a proposal to allow cellphones to be used in the classroom.
The proposition comes after two student trustees pitched a change to the rules at a committee meeting, asking trustees to consider allowing cellphone use in school hallways and classrooms, should teachers agree.
If the decision were to go forward during the scheduled vote on May 18, it would be quite a shift in policy for the TDSB, which currently has an outright ban on cellphones in schools.
One student told CTV Toronto's Natalie Johnson that he was fined 50 cents after his school principle caught him texting in the hallways.
Zane Schwartz, a student trustees, said he believed the current policy fails to acknowledge that youth are living in an increasingly interconnected society.
Speaking in front of the committee, Jenny Williams, another student trustee, said phones should be allowed, if it enforces educational purposes.
Some in the committee backed the proposal.
"We have to begin to see technology just like rulers, calculators and computers," said trustee Shelley Laskin. "It's an aspect of student learning and it helps them engage."
The student trustees also appear to have the backing of the board's director of education, who said that if educators want to reach today's youth they have to "walk through their door."
"If they're using cellphones and there's a way in which we can use that to leverage learning it's something we should explore," said Chris Spence.
