It's still a pretty young technology, and it took a few years to understand the impacts of it. We've had them long enough now to be able to see how detrimental they have been to the first generation using them.

I teach high school, and it’s so hard to get students to pay attention, even with fun engaging projects. The reality is that these social apps are designed to be addictive, and it’s not a fair contest.

According to the article, quoted.

Access zones are in place at K-12 schools, and police can arrest or issue tickets to anyone found impeding access, disrupting or interfering with educational activities, or attempting to intimidate an individual within 20 metres (66 feet) of school property,” the province said in a release. Unquoted now...

What part of that is bad? Nothing says people can't protest but no one should interfere with kid's education. Doesn't say people can't protest, but they can't disrupt people who go in there is all which seems fair.

Edit: forgot to say I can be a bit dense and not realize things so if I'm missing a glaring fact or angle of this please do inform me.

Read the article, this is about preventing adults from protesting on school grounds, not outright banning protesting.

You think transphobic protests should be allowed to stand on school grounds making kids and teachers uncomfortable?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-ban-protests-outside-schools-1.7170029

from the article:

Eby says the province has counted 18 major disruptions at schools across the province since the start of the school year, and several more before September, including demonstrators banging on classroom windows at a school in Burns Lake.

"[It's] concerning, frightening, alarming and it makes school feel like a not safe place," he said.

Eby said all of the incidents the province has counted involved demonstrators against SOGI 123 — the province's optional educational resource for teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity — but said the law is content-neutral and will be applied equally regardless of the cause.

You can get a cheap mp3 player for literally $5. Digital textbooks can be viewed just fine on a laptop, and schools have hundreds of those.

Smart phones are addiction machines. I'm very glad to see schools banning them. Hopefully, parents take note and realize how harmful they are for child development and start buying them dumb phones instead until they're older (16+).