As schools become more and more lenient with allowing students to use their cellphones in schools, more problems have arisen besides allowing for distractions.

Many schools are being forced to limit students’ interactions with the school Wi-Fi after overuse on things like Snapchat and YouTube have caused teachers unable to use the network.

This is particularly the case in New York City schools, where a city-wide cell phone ban was lifted just last year.

In the Bronx High School of Science in New York, students are being banned from using the Wi-Fi on their cell phones at all, and those who do not obey are being actively kicked off.

The school’s principal, Jean Donahue, "noted that the school’s network had been struggling for several years under an increasingly technology-heavy curriculum, and that the Education Department was working with the school to increase its broadband capacity,” according to The New York Times.

Bronx Science students are allowed to use their phones during free periods and lunch only until more broadband capacity can be acquired.

"Several Bronx Science students on their way home from school last week said they most frequently used the wireless network to send pictures to their friends on Snapchat, an app they said the school did not block; Facebook, by contrast, was not accessible. This being Bronx Science, some students said they found the wireless most useful for statistics classes, or to use Google Slides to put together school projects,” The Times said.

“... Ms. Donahue said she was working with the department to improve the school’s broadband capacity. She added that the department had been quite responsive, helping with short-term upgrades while it works toward a more systemic upgrade.”

For now, The Times said, the school will be identifying personal cell phones and blocking them one by one.

Read the full story.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

1/14/2016