School Articles: 1) More Security Cameras, Vape Detectors May Come To Ontario Schools With $30M Funding; 2)”That’s Our Intention”, Says SCDSB, About Whether It Will Sue Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat And Tiktok
1) More Security Cameras, Vape Detectors May Come To Ontario Schools With $30M Funding
Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Mar 28th, 2024
By Allison Jones
More security cameras and vape detectors could soon be installed in Ontario schools, with the announcement of $30 million in funding for school safety in the provincial budget this week.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says he is “deeply concerned” about students vaping in school and hopes that installing vape detectors – which are similar to smoke detectors but detect vapour – in spaces such as washrooms can help keep them healthy and safe.
“We’re putting the investments in place to keep them safe, keep them safe from cannabis, from illicit drugs and from unacceptably high rates of vaping taking place in schools,” he said in an interview.
“We cannot normalize this within our society. It should be a disturbing image to any one of us. I know parents are concerned about it. I hear from educators, too. That’s why the government is acting today with the commitment to go even further in the days ahead.”
Some of the most recent data available suggests that in 2021-22 about one in five students in Grades 10 to 12 had vaped, which was down from a few years earlier, but there was a small increase among younger students.
In 2021-22, some of the most recent data available, about 21 per cent of Ontario students in Grades 10 to 12 reported vaping, though that is down from 26 per cent in 2018-19. However, there has been a small increase among younger students, going from 7.6 per cent to 8.5 per cent, according to a Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey.
The Near North District School Board operated a pilot project with vape detectors in bathrooms and locker rooms at one school and said it was successful in addressing e-cigarette use at school.
The board saw a “steep” rise in vaping on school property since the COVID-19 pandemic, it wrote in a report. In order to tackle the issue, the board said vape detectors were installed, staff received training on vaping behaviour and culture, parents were provided with information, and students were educated on the harm of vaping, with people “consistently caught vaping at school” given addiction counselling and cessation programs.
“Data collected during the 2022-2023 school year demonstrated great success in addressing the problem of e-cigarette use on campus, as well as combating the associated problems including washroom congregation and vandalism,” the board wrote in its report.
“We believe that this approach can be duplicated at other secondary schools and will therefore be expanding the program in 2023-2024.”
The $30 million in funding over three years will be available to school boards for other school safety equipment as well, such as security cameras, lighting and other security upgrades.
The equipment will help enhance safety in schools and on school property, in order to address both in-school violence and incidents within the community that affect schools, Lecce said.
Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the root causes of violence in schools need to be better addressed with more funding and help for students.
“You can have a security camera – how does that stop something from happening?” she said.
“Incidents are happening across the province from JK to Grade 12 and we don’t have the supports in place. We don’t have the mental health supports the social workers, psychologists and that’s where we need to be looking at addressing the issues, not putting another camera in place.”
2)”That’s Our Intention”, Says SCDSB, About Whether It Will Sue Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat And Tiktok
FOUR ONTARIO SCHOOL BOARDS HAVE FILED A LAWSUIT ALLEGING THE PLATFORMS DISRUPT STUDENT LEARNING
Courtesy of Barrie360.com and Canadian PressPublished: Mar 28th, 2024
By Paola Loriggio
with files from Barrie 360
The chair of the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) confirmed on Friday afternoon that it is the board’s intention to join legal action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
Jodi Lloyd says the board is just in a different time and place in the process and as of today (Friday) has not “issued an action.”
Four of Ontario’s largest school boards are suing the parent companies of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging the social media platforms are disrupting student learning, contributing to a mental health crisis and leaving educators to manage the fallout.
The Toronto District School Board, the Peel District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board filed four separate but similar cases in Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday.
The lawsuits claim the social media platforms are negligently designed for compulsive use and have rewired the way children think, behave and learn, leaving teachers and schools to deal with the consequences.
Students are experiencing an attention, learning, and mental health crisis, the suits claim, because of prolific and compulsive use of social media products.
“The fallout of compulsive use of social media amongst students is causing massive strains on the four school boards’ finite resources, including additional needs for in-school mental health programming and personnel, increased IT costs, and additional administrative resources,” the school boards wrote in a news release Thursday.
“The goal of the litigation is to provide school boards with the resources needed to support student programming and services, and to respond to the school-based problems social media giants have caused.”
The boards are seeking damages in excess of $4 billion for disruption to student learning and the education system.
The allegations in the lawsuits filed in Ontario Superior Court have not been proven.
“There’s very strong evidence coming forward that these platforms have been very harmful to our youth,” Lloyd told Barrie 360. “It affects their brain development, their mental health and well-being.”
Lloyd said it’s not just related to what goes on in school.
“These platforms are being used by the students for hours every single day.”
Asked to cite examples of what frontline workers in Simcoe County public schools are seeing in students as a result of using these platforms, Lloyd says there are record levels of anxiety and mental health issues, and an escalation in behaviours among youth and students in school.
“We now have 24 social workers in our school system in Simcoe County, and we could use more. Prior to the development of social media, we didn’t have social workers in school.”
Meta Platforms Inc. owns Facebook and Instagram, while Snap Inc. owns Snapchat, and ByteDance Ltd. owns TikTok.
When asked for comment on the lawsuits, a spokeswoman for Snap Inc. said Snapchat helps its users stay connected with their friends.
“Snapchat opens directly to a camera — rather than a feed of content — and has no traditional public likes or comments,” Tonya Johnson said. “While we will always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as they face the many challenges of adolescence.”
The other social media companies did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
Hundreds of school boards in the United States, along with some states, have launched similar lawsuits against social media companies.
The four Ontario boards, in their statements of claim, allege the online platforms have deliberately sought to draw in students and prolong their use of social media, knowing school boards would have to deal with the effects on youth and their mental health.
They allege the social media companies have acted in a “high-handed, reckless, malicious, and reprehensible manner without due regard for the well-being of the student population and the education system,” which they say warrants punitive damages.
The boards allege the platforms facilitate child sexual abuse and harassment, “intentionally amplify and push harmful content to maximize engagement” and refuse to remove harmful content such as threats unless compelled by law enforcement.
The boards list a series of measures they say they have had to take in response to growing social media use among students, including pouring increased resources into investigating cyberbullying and online sexual exploitation of students, developing policies and programs to educate students on social media harms, and investigating and responding to threats made against schools, staff or students on social media.
Threats of bombs, shootings and death are growing more common, “facilitated by anonymous usernames,” the boards allege, causing school closures and putting an increased burden on administrators, teachers and IT experts. The boards say they have had to shift resources to “proactively monitoring social media” for such threats and have had to urgently respond to threats after hours.
Students are also increasingly struggling to vet information and spot misinformation on social media, pushing teachers to spend “disproportionate” amounts or time and resources to help students counter misinformation and prevent them from adopting the “harmful, prejudicial, or discriminatory ideologies that they are constantly exposed to on social media,” the boards allege.
In order to educate students and parents about the potential dangers of social media, boards have hired speakers, organized presentations, and curated other resources, they say.
The boards say they are also using up resources responding to spikes in vandalism and other risky behaviour encouraged by viral social media challenges.
“Students may slap the teacher’s butt or trash the school bathroom and then post this misconduct to social media. Students may engage in reckless behaviour for views, likes, and comments, such as scaling school buildings,” the documents allege.
The boards say they are “dealing with a marked and unanticipated spike in this type of student misconduct fuelled by social media.”
There is also a rise in conflicts as teachers try to limit the use of phones and social media, which results in “decreased instructional time,” the boards allege.
Lloyd said cellphones in the school are used as learning tools when there is a need to access the internet or resources, but she stressed that social media is not used within the classroom.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested school boards should “put all their resources into the kids” rather than legal fees for “this other nonsense that they’re looking to fight in court.”
The four school boards said, however, that they will not incur any costs for the lawsuits unless they are successful.
Lloyd backed up what the other boards stated.
“We are moving forward on this litigation on a contingency basis and there is no cost to the board, so we are not wasting taxpayers money. We are not taking education dollars out of the classroom.”
She added the comments by the premier on Friday were not accurate.
If the litigation is successful, Lloyd said they would want the funds to support students and provide additional resources that the board currently needs.
An email sent by the TDSB to staff, which was seen by The Canadian Press, said any money awarded through the lawsuit would be “allocated to meet the needs of our students (e.g. additional staff, technological safeguards, programming and training, etc.).”
Barrie 360 did reach out to the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board but a spokesperson said the individual who could comment was not available.
Patricia is the Business Mentor and owner of Grow Vantage and a Past President of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce. She applies over 30 years of business experience (from start-up to corporate) to mentor entrepreneurs. Since 2011, she has held over 6,500 coaching and training sessions in-person and online. Through Ask For Directions Training, her entrepreneurial training program (and parent company Grow Vantage), and as a business coach, she works with start-ups who are new (or who have lost traction) to design, launch and grow their businesses. Along with 20 other expert instructors she teaches strategies in marketing, sales, communications, and finance, as well as practical techniques to increase productivity, and manage their businesses. In other words, everything entrepreneurs need to learn to grow and run their businesses successfully, and avoid the costly mistakes they can't even see coming - that lead to delays in growth and getting stuck.
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