If France and Quebec have one thing in common, it’s that on both sides of the Atlantic, the vast majority of teachers want cellphones to be banned in schools. In Quebec, nine out of ten teachers agree, according to a Federation of Teachers’ Unions (FSE) survey of 7,000 members. But while Quebec Minister of Education Bernard Drainville says he’s “thinking about it,” France opted in 2018 to pass legislation banning cellphones in all elementary and secondary schools.

At the massive request of teachers, former education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer passed this law, which bans the use of mobile phones both in the classroom and in playgrounds, explains Didier Georges of the National Union of National Education Management Staff (SNPDEN). “It is very rare that there are no controversies in France. But for once everyone agreed! »

A law recognized by parents

At the time, Didier Georges was rector of the La Grange aux Belles college in a working-class district of Paris. “The decision provided a legal framework for regulations that varied from facility to facility. We all greeted her with relief. Even parents, who often found it difficult to convince their children to leave their phones at home. No more endless arguments with some parents. I remember receiving dozens of congratulatory messages. »

In October 2018, a video published on the Internet outraged the entire political class and confirmed the importance of such a law. It showed a teenager being filmed by one of his classmates from the Édouard Branly high school in Créteil pointing a dummy gun at his teacher.

According to Pierre Priouret, mathematics professor and general secretary of the Main Union of Toulouse University and Secondary School Teachers (SNES-FSU), nobody would think of reconsidering this ban, which is now a general consensus in the world of teachers. A measure also applied to most secondary schools, although at this level the decision rests with each institution.

“It was a measure widely requested by teachers but also by parents,” he said, who wanted the state to establish a framework for the proliferation of laptops in our facilities. The law served as a linchpin, although schools had already taken various measures, such as a ban in the classroom, but not always in playgrounds. It was important, if only symbolically. »

The law doesn’t regulate everything

If this law was necessary, recognizes Florence Zink, who teaches Spanish at the Jean Drouant hotel management school in west Paris, “it doesn’t mean that all problems have been solved. At its facility, management took the hard line. Once a phone is found, it is confiscated and locked in the principal’s office. In practice, many students continue to secretly consult their laptops in class, she says. “Some teachers don’t do it to avoid conflict and not to interrupt their course. Others ask students to put it in a box at the entrance to the class. »

The law appears to be popular enough that there is talk of extending it to high school. This is also the opinion of the wife of the President of the Republic, Brigitte Macron, who has long been a high school literature teacher. “I’d be in favor of extending what’s in college to high school. The laptop has no place in school,” she told the daily Le Parisien. “The problem in high school [où l’on entre habituellement à 15 ans], says Didier Georges, is that some students are adults. »

It is estimated that students in France spend an average of more than three hours a day in front of a screen, with the most accessible time apparently remaining on the phone. According to the Ministry of National Education, there is no doubt that mobile phones “can seriously impair the quality of listening and concentration required for classroom activities.” On its website we can read that it is “the cause of a significant proportion of rudeness and disturbances in institutions”, that it affects “the quality of collective life” and that it is sometimes “carrier of cyberbullying” and “denies access to Violence” facilitates images, especially pornographic images”. Several studies, particularly in the Netherlands, have shown that students who frequently check their mobile phone are more likely to get bad grades.

According to the digital barometer published annually in France, 92% of 12-17 year olds own a mobile phone. Most teenagers prefer connecting to the internet to the computer. That’s the whole problem, explains Pierre Prioret. Even if he doesn’t use the phone in math class because he thinks it’s “not a suitable tool”, he points out a contradiction.

A schizophrenic politics?

“We ban cell phones in schools even though the national ministry of education thinks digital technology is great,” says Pierre Priouret. However, students often do not have laptops. They use their phone to check their schedule or look up the translation of a word. Telephoning is prohibited, but there is an injunction for digital use. We have students who are completely dependent on screens, but millions are being spent to equip schools with them. There’s something schizophrenic about this way of doing things. We are in emergency management. We just try to get the students to live together. »

The same applies to Florence Zink, who prefers not to use her cell phone in class so as not to distract the students. She also misses the days when manuals were printed and not digital like today. “With a paper textbook, the student could even leaf through it in a dream. Nowadays, in the digital age, students don’t consult them unless I specifically ask them to. Unlike France, Sweden recently opted for a return to traditional textbooks, believing that screens were partly to blame for the drop in levels.

According to Florence Zink, the laptop has become a stress factor for students who constantly refer to it for fear of missing something. She noted that a lot of people hold it in their hands all the time, “a bit like a kid dragging their bed covers.” In its establishment, many had the reflex to open it to look at the time. Since then, the school administration has placed clocks in every class. During exams and controls, phones must be kept in pockets at the back of the class.

Recently, during an exam, Pierre Priouret and his colleagues surprised a student who had hidden a phone in his underpants. He unexpectedly fell to the ground! “We know very well that some students cheat,” he says, but we only catch 2% of the cheats. Some even require military-grade jammers in exam rooms! »

After France, Quebec isn’t the only place to question the ban on cellphones in schools. The Netherlands is considering a ban, while Belgium says it has chosen to respect the “educational freedom of each school”. Further measures to combat mobile phone addiction are also planned in France. Last month, the French Senate passed a law introducing a “digital majority” that would ban children under 15 from registering on social networks without their parents’ consent. The text will soon be submitted to the National Assembly.

To see in the video

Donald Trump on June 13 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, after pleading not guilty to all 37 counts in the Mar-A-Lago papers case. Associated Press/LaPresse (APN)

According to Jack Smith, the special prosecutor handling the case, holding the trial of former President Donald Trump over the classified Mar-A-Lago papers after August 14 is not a realistic goal. Smith has asked Judge Aileen Cannon, in charge of the case, to postpone the trial until December. In his opinion, the necessary steps before the opening of the oral hearing will take several months.

The prosecutor submitted his request to the judge along with other requests. He is calling for the trial to be set for December 11 next year, largely because some of the evidence is confidential documents and special permission is required to access them. This accreditation process takes time, which the prosecutor estimates at 45 to 60 days. Only then would the time limit set by the judge be practically exhausted and there would be no time to address other earlier issues.

The date of August 14 was already just a hint. Judge Cannon, a Trump-appointed judge, used to aggressively set a date and then reschedule it as needed. If the trial is postponed, it will take place closer to the primary elections that the Republican Party is using to choose its nominee for the 2024 presidential election. Trump is entering his party as a favorite and is concentrating on the first quarter of next year.

The prosecutor accuses Trump of 37 charges, 31 of them for illegally storing sensitive national defense documents, others for obstruction of justice, conspiracy and falsehood.

Along with the motion to adjourn the trial, Prosecutor Smith is asking the judge to set the rules for the classified evidence, i.e. Some of the documents deal with third-country military capabilities, including nuclear weapons, others with US operations, some with the US’s own nuclear arsenal, the brief description in the indictment says. However, the exact content is unknown. The prosecutor is also demanding that the list of witnesses with whom he is requesting that Donald Trump be banned from speaking except through lawyers be kept secret.

On the other hand, if the trial over the Mar-A-Lago papers is delayed, there is no longer a risk that the date will overlap with a new possible indictment against Trump in Atlanta for election interference in the 2020 state of Georgia. In what appeared to be advance notice of a possible indictment, Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis sent a letter to the chief judge of the county superior court last month, stating that she plans to have many of her employees work remotely most of the time would time. Days in the first three weeks of August and urges judges not to schedule in-person hearings for part of that time.

Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without restrictions.

subscribe to

other investigation

In parallel, Special Counsel Smith continues to investigate Trump’s attempts to hold on to power and avoid certifying Joe Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 presidential election, in which he led the former president by a seven-million vote and was won by 306 delegates to 232 or electoral votes .

Smith examines Trump’s attempts to form groups of delegates to support him and to represent states where he lost elections by a smaller margin, such as Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada, and to oust those legitimately elected. The local press has revealed that prosecutors are in contact with Michael Roman, one of those responsible for the Trump 2020 campaign, to persuade him to volunteer to testify in the case, possibly in exchange for at least partial immunity.

The prosecutor has already presented evidence and testimony to the grand jury about the plan to create lists of fake voters to replace legitimate voters. The aim was to undermine the election result in order to prevent Congress from confirming Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021 and thus blocking the transfer of power. Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat is the trigger for the attack on the Capitol that day.

The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol recommended trying Trump on four counts: inciting a riot, conspiring to falsely testify and defrauding the United States, and obstructing an official process of Congress, voting for confirmation of Biden’s victory.

The FBI has been investigating the fake voter roll system for more than a year. As part of the court investigation, people close to Trump were questioned before the grand jury, including his Vice President Mike Pence; his Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows; and the rightful White House Chief, Pat Cipollone. Pence avoided testifying about his actions the day the Capitol was stormed. When subpoenaed, he claimed that he exercised his role as Senate President on Jan. 6 and that forcing his testimony violated the so-called “opinion or debate clause,” which protects congressmen from hearing about their parliamentary actions to be accountable.

The grand jury acts as an auxiliary and controlling body in the investigations of the public prosecutor’s office. Approves quotes, requests and allegations. You don’t have to decide guilt or innocence, just determine if there is sufficient evidence of a crime. Opinions and consultations take place behind closed doors. Unlike trial juries, which hear the prosecution and defense, grand juries only hear the evidence and testimony of the prosecutor, giving him a distinct advantage.

Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.