A 15-year-old Quebec boy is challenging his school's policy of confiscating a smartphone for 24 hours if it is used during class.
A school board in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region confirms it received a letter from Vincent Duguay last week.
The letter notes that confiscating a cellphone for a whole day is unconstitutional and causes problems for teens, including being unavailable if employers try to reach them.
Duguay has never had his own phone confiscated and his father tells Radio-Canada the reason for his intervening has nothing to do with wanting to use the phones in the classroom.
Rather, the teen's father says it's to ensure teens don't find themselves without a smartphone device for an extended period of time as some of his son's friends have.
Duguay is a student at Charles-Gravel High School—one of four in the region.
Claudie Fortin, a spokeswoman for the Rives-du-Saguenay school board, says each school establishes its own rules in different areas, including cellphone use.
Fortin says the letter is in the hands of the board's lawyers and a reply is coming soon.