NDSS principal Liana Appelt is gravely concerned about habitual smart phone usage of her students both in and out of the classroom. (Submitted Photo)

By Ian Holmes

phone frenzy

‘It’s a big problem:’ Nanaimo principal sounds off on smart phone addiction

Feb 7, 2022 | 5:59 AM

NANAIMO — Seeing bleary-eyed, exhausted students in the days following a prolonged winter break only amplified concerns of the principal of Nanaimo District Secondary School (NDSS).

Liana Appelt was worried hearing from students admitting to not getting enough sleep due to late-night phone-scrolling.

Appelt initiated a voluntary challenge to her students: try leaving your phone out of the bedroom during overnights for six weeks.

“The impacts of smart phones on sleep is one of the things that I thought would be a nice starting point in tandem with more conversation with staff around ‘how is it going in the class with you having to police this?'”

She wrote a pair of recent school newsletters, including references to research pointing to negative impacts excessive social media consumption is having on the mental health of teenagers.

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Emphasizing the importance of making the challenge positive and not punitive, Appelt said the goal is to simply increase dialogue “and hopefully more sleep for our students,” she said.

Appelt was “blown away” by the many positive responses to her recent January newsletter titled: Social Media & Sleep Deprivation.

Students, parents, school board trustees, senior administrators, even members of the general public stated their resounding support.

“Which tells me this is on the minds of people who care about our youth…I think we all know that this much time on social media is not yielding observable good outcomes for the next generation,” Appelt candidly told NanaimoNewsNOW.

She said often anxiety-inducing social media platforms stack the odds against youth constantly lured by instant gratification.

Adults need to advocate for our youth, Appelt declared.

“They’re being used. What they’re looking at is not neutral. It is there to get them to click, somebody is making money and somebody is suffering and they are the ones suffering.”

NDSS student speaks out
NanaimoNewsNOW interviewed a concerned twelfth grade NDSS student, who wished to remain anonymous in order to speak more freely on the subject.

The student said the level of addiction many NDSS students have with their phones is frightening. She said far too many bright minds are suffering academically, directly due to being glued to their phones at all hours of the day.

“Social skills are declining as well because these students are buried in their phones. They won’t make eye contact with teachers or peer tutors…they use it (phones) as a buffer to disconnect from real life problems.”

The student said phone-addicted students are set up for failure as they enter high school since advancing beyond grades eleven and twelve is noticeably more difficult than grades eight through ten.

“This is their only chance to get a free education and they’re wasting it,” she said.

In-classroom phone rules vary wildly at NDSS and are up to the discretion of individual teachers, she said,

One NDSS teacher forces violators of his strict in-class phone usage rules to have the devices surrendered into the jar for the rest of the semester.

However, classroom phone restrictions “are often ignored” and teachers are put in a no-win situation, the student said.

“There’s 30 kids in their classrooms. Their job isn’t supposed to be policing, it’s supposed to be teaching and so they can’t control it too, it’s really disheartening.”

The student clearly stated there can and should be a place for cell phones to enhance in-class learning if the devices are used properly.

She admitted to originally struggling with balancing how to use her smart phone in a healthy way, but improved in part due to strong boundaries from her parents.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes