Back To School: 1)Anxious child or teen going back to school? Here’s what mental health experts say; 2) New rules on cellphones as Ontario schools reopen, critics say clarity lacking

1)Anxious child or teen going back to school? Here’s what mental health experts say

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Ireland, August 31, 2024

It’s normal for kids and teens to get butterflies in their stomachs as the first day of school approaches, but those who struggle with chronic anxiety may need extra support, mental health experts say.

Dr. Daniel Chorney, a child and adolescent psychologist in Halifax, recalls a patient who had many of the typical warning signs of an anxiety disorder that came to a head at back-to-school time. 

The 11-year-old girl “was anxious about most things in her life — something we call ‘behaviourally inhibited’ — meaning she was cautious or hesitant to try most new things, enter new situations, or meet new people,” said Chorney, who did not reveal the girl’s name to protect her privacy. 

She cried every day the week before school, had daily stomach aches and no amount of reassurance from her parents was enough. 

The morning of her first day, she rejected the outfit laid out for her but froze while trying to pick another, “worried that others would make fun of her choice,” Chorney said. 

She cried for most of the ride to school and refused to get out of the car once they arrived, relenting only when teachers came out to greet students. Though she continued to go to school, she remained anxious and was still calling and texting her parents in October.

Her case shows common signs of both generalized anxiety and social anxiety, said Chorney, who is on the scientific advisory committee of Anxiety Canada. 

Kids with these types of disorders — as well as their parents — often need mental health support, he said.  

Alisa Simon, executive vice-president and chief youth officer at Kids Help Phone, said back-to-school worries are normal and that the season is one of the busiest times of the year at the national helpline.  

Still, it’s important to watch out for “that difference between worries and anxiety, depression … (or) thoughts of not wanting to be here or suicide or self-harm,” she said.

A key thing parents can do to manage both normal and chronic anxiety is making time to really listen to their kids, said Gillian Gray, a social worker who develops resources for parents and caregivers at School Mental Health Ontario. 

“As a parent, things like actively listening and having conversations with your child about their hopes for the upcoming year and also their worries … can be really important, Gray said. 

Simon said those conversations should start with “questions that don’t have an assumption in them.”

“For example, rather than saying, ‘Are you excited to start school?’ you could say, ‘How are you feeling about school starting?’ so that you allow young people to have the wide range of feelings they might have,” she said. 

If they’re afraid a friend won’t talk to them, discuss what they could do if that actually happened, she said. 

“Allow the young person to come up with some ideas (such as), ‘Well, I guess I could talk to some other people. I could go ask them (or) I could write a note (asking), ‘Why aren’t you talking to me?'” she said.

“Then they start to feel like, ‘OK, I have some things I could do in this situation.’ And feeling empowered with some tools does help you move beyond just the fear or the place of anxiety.” 

In therapy, Chorney often talks anxious kids and teens through “probabilities and likelihoods.” 

“One of my favourite questions to ask is: ‘What else could happen?’ Anxiety tends to really focus on … negative prediction about the future, and it’s often extreme.” 

He encourages them to come up with three scenarios: a “future-bad” that’s anxiety-driven, a “future-good” that’s optimistic and a “future-OK” that’s realistic. 

He said that shifts thinking from the pessimistic extreme of fearing no one will talk to them, to the optimistic possibility of making lots of friends, and ultimately to a more realistic scenario that they may meet one or two nice classmates.

It’s critical that parents avoid giving blanket reassurances like “everything’s going to be fine” to kids with anxiety, Chorney said. 

“The unfortunate truth is sometimes it’s not all fine.” he said. “The messaging should be: ‘Even when it’s not all fine, you can get through it,’” he said.  

The worst thing parents can do, mental health experts agree, is allow a child to stay home from school because they’re anxious. 

”We know how anxiety works when you avoid something you’re afraid of. The power of that thing grows,” Chorney said. 

“And so avoiding (it) is actually the fuel that drives anxiety over time.”

If a child’s anxiety is debilitating, Dr. Zoe Kichler of North York General Hospital in Toronto said an important first step is to get the child into the school building and have a support person, such as a guidance counsellor or social worker, meet them.

“The mainstay of treatment for anxiety is kind of tolerating the stress and doing exposures to the anxiety-provoking situation,'” said Kichler, a child and youth psychiatrist.

Her colleague, Dr. Kevin Gabel, said going to school also challenges the negative thoughts an anxious child is having. 

“You realize…the really bad thing you were worried about doesn’t happen, or even if something not-so-good happens, you sort of learn that you can cope with it and you get support around that,” he said. 

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Kids Help Phone provides free support and resources 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Phone 1-800-668-6868. Children and youth can text 686868 and adults can text 741741.

Anxiety Canada provides resources at www.anxietycanada.com

School Mental Health Ontario provides resources for parents at https://smho-smso.ca/parents-and-caregivers/

2) New rules on cellphones as Ontario schools reopen, critics say clarity lacking

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Rianna Lim, Sept. 2, 2024.

New rules that ban the use of cellphones in class are taking effect at schools across Ontario this week, but critics say they’re unsure how the regulations will be enforced or how effective they will be. 

In April, the Ontario government announced a plan to standardize measures on cellphone use in classrooms, saying it wanted to remove distractions from learning time. 

While the province had already put in certain restrictions on cellphones in 2019, the new rules set more specific guidelines that are broken down by grade. 

Starting next week, students in kindergarten to Grade 6 must keep cellphones on silent and out of sight for the entire school day. For students in Grade 7 to Grade 12, cellphones cannot be used during class time. The province has said cellphones may only be used if permitted by an educator, or if students have special education or medical needs. 

While the overall aim of reducing distractions is welcome, teachers unions say they need clarity on how the rules should be enforced and support for educators that have to implement them.

“Principals don’t know what it means. School boards are kind of all over the place,” said Rene Jansen in de Wal, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association. “I have teachers calling me who are just beside themselves.” 

Teachers are unclear on what happens if they confiscate a phone and it gets damaged or stolen in the process, or what staff should do if a student reacts violently to their phone being taken away, he said. 

The government has said that students who don’t abide by the rules will be asked to put their phones in a safe space in the classroom. If they don’t comply, they’ll be asked to go to the principal’s office.

David Mastin, first vice-president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said there are questions about how effective the rules will be. 

“The principal will deal with them, and then what happens five minutes later is that child returns to class … these are the things that are on the ground that we don’t yet have answers on,” he said. 

Karen Littlewood, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, said she’s concerned about the burden on teachers. 

“A lot is expected of teachers right now,” she said. 

Education Minister Jill Dunlop, who stepped into the role just weeks ago, said the government has set minimum standards with the new rules and “will support educators and principals in the actions that they take.”

“This is a culture change that’s happening in our classrooms,” Dunlop said during a news conference last week. 

“I was an educator as well, in the college area, but I saw firsthand the distraction that cellphones can cause in the classroom.” 

Several provinces are cracking down on cellphone use in class this fall. 

Last week, British Columbia announced a “bell-to-bell” restriction on phones. Earlier this month, Saskatchewan announced that students won’t be allowed to use cellphones in class in the new school year. 

Manitoba, Alberta, Quebec and Nova Scotia have also moved to restrict cellphones in schools. 

Littlewood, with the secondary teachers’ union, argued that the Ontario-wide rules for cellphones in schools are “not the biggest issue in education right now.”  

“What we need to be doing is addressing the broader issues in education, like class sizes that are too big, unqualified teachers in the classroom, unable to fill positions within education, lack of resources and support,” she said.  

Many school boards had already developed their own cellphone policies before the province’s new rules were announced, Littlewood said, adding she’s spoken to teachers who feel the new ban won’t change much.

Mastin, with the elementary teachers’ union, also said the new policies do “very little” to address deeper problems. He pointed to cyberbullying, violence and harassment in schools as major concerns for educators.

“Those are the issues we needed to be addressed, and they weren’t,” Mastin said.  

At the Toronto District School Board, the board’s code of conduct already says mobile devices are only to be used for education purposes. 

The board said it has briefed staff on the new provincewide rules. 

“TDSB administrators and staff have been provided with detailed information regarding the minimum requirements for cellphone/mobile device use in schools to be implemented for September,” spokesperson Emma Moynihan wrote in an emailed statement.  

The Peel District School Board said principals would be working with staff, students, parents and guardians to “facilitate understanding of the new requirements.”

“This will take place through assemblies, conversations and collaboration in schools,” it wrote in an update to parents. 

In northern Ontario, the Rainbow District School Board said it would be working to “foster positive school climates” for students. 

“Eliminating distractions will protect instructional time and enable educators and students to focus on teaching and learning,” director of education Bruce Bourget wrote in a statement. 

Along with its new cellphone rules, the province is also banning vaping on school property starting this academic year.