Canadian province latest to ban cellphones in schools

There will be reading, ‘riting — but no ringing.

A Canadian province has become the latest to ban cellphones in schools when they return to classes next month.

Manitoba students from kindergarten to middle school will now be forbidden from taking phones in at all, while high schoolers can take them to use at lunch or in breaks, but not in classes, CBC News said.

Manitoba was the last western Canadian province to introduce such a ban — and it is getting a ringing endorsement from some students..

“Kids don’t really, like, pay attention,” Jurilynn Eileen Bonifacio Weekes, a Grade 6 student, told the outlet.

“They’re always texting and being disrespectful to their teachers.”

High schooler Annabelle Dacey said the ban could help cut down harmful cyberbullying.

“Schools are supposed to be like an accepting place and somewhere students should be able to go and feel comfortable learning,” Dacey told the outlet.

The schools will make some exceptions, such as when phones are needed for educational reasons or by children with medical and learning needs, school officials told the outlet.

Rules for school employees have yet to be determined.

The ban follows a rise in concern of how distracting phones are in schools, with calls for such a clamp down in the Big Apple yet to be enforced..

In NYC Public Schools, “students are allowed to bring their cell phones, computing devices, portable music, and entertainment systems to school,” as per NYC 311.

“Every school has established its own cell phone policy. Students who bring a cell phone to school must use it only in accordance with their school’s cell phone rules.”

However, NYC principals told Chalkbeat last month that the city is thinking about banning cellphones in its schools beginning in February — although Department of Education spokesperson Nathaniel Styer told the outlet, “No decisions have been made yet.”