Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB)
Picture a Grade 9 student lying in bed at midnight, phone in hand. She's obsessing over her social media feed, counting likes on a photo she posted three hours ago. She knows she should sleep. The screen wins anyway.
Her classmates’ posts look effortless and perfect. Her life doesn't feel that way.
She's not alone. Like youth around the world, Grand Erie students are navigating a digital world that never turns off — full of connection and possibility, but also pressure, risk, and real harm.
"There is constant pressure on kids — the comparison, the need to respond, the feeling of always being 'on,'" said Margot Denommé, digital safety advocate, author, and former Crown attorney who founded Raising Awareness About Digital Dangers (RAADD). "It affects their confidence, their sleep, and their overall well-being."
Introduction: Meeting a Modern Challenge Head-On
The digital world is creating challenges that previous generations of parents and educators didn’t have. Cyberbullying, online predators, permanent digital footprints, and the mental health toll of "comparison culture.” These are the realities young people are navigating every day, often without a roadmap.
The Grand Erie District School Board (GEDSB) is taking that seriously. By partnering with experts and building a deliberate, phased program across students, families, school leaders, and educators, Grand Erie is working to build a community of young people who are prepared for the digital world — not just connected to it.
Solution: Treating Smart Phones like a Car
We teach teenagers the rules of the road before we hand them car keys. A smartphone — one of the most powerful tools ever created — deserves the same approach. That's the core idea behind Denommé’s digital awareness program. The resource guide looks and feels like a driver's ed handbook: students can study it, sign a pledge, and understand the real consequences of their digital behaviour — from how the Criminal Code treats online threats and cyberbullying, to how an innocent chat can escalate into extortion.
In March 2026, the Grand Erie Parent Involvement Committee (GEPIC) and the Special Education Advisory Committee (SEAC) teamed up to host a community evening at Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School. Around 60 to 70 local parents and caregivers, students, and staff came together around one question: how do we prepare young people to be safe and resilient online?
The session covered three areas: how to think critically about what students see on social media; the real legal consequences of online actions; and practical tools for families — like setting boundaries around phone use and rebuilding screen-free habits.
"Preparing learners for the future means equipping them with the knowledge and skills to safely navigate an ever-changing digital landscape," said JoAnna Roberto, CEO at GEDSB. "It’s not just about access to technology, it's about education that fosters both digital skills and critical thinking about the role technology has in our lives."
Critically, the Parent Involvement Committee community night was part of a larger plan, not a standalone event. Before the parent evening, Denommé had already worked with Grand Erie's senior leadership team and then held a dedicated session for all principals and vice-principals, helping them understand the legal dimensions of digital issues their schools face. Teacher professional learning is scheduled for the fall.
Results: A Shared Language for a New Challenge
Parents and staff members left the evening with something they hadn't arrived with together: a shared language for a challenge that had felt isolating.
But the real momentum came when the initiative reached Grand Erie’s Student Senate, representing student leaders across 14 regional secondary schools and the United Indigenous Student Senate.
During the session, Grade 11 and 12 student leaders connected deeply with the material. They broke into spontaneous, vulnerable conversations, talking openly about digital pressure, burnout, and situations from their own lives. After the formal session wrapped up, students approached Denommé one by one to share their own stories. Empowered by what they'd heard and learned, these student leaders openly advocated for stricter, phone-free policies in their schools.
Parents who had felt overwhelmed by their children's digital lives found strategies they could actually use at home. Every attendee went home with a copy of the RAADD program’s guide. Every school library in the district also received a copy, purchased through parent councils to put the resource directly in students' hands year-round.
The Broad Vision: A Lasting Cultural Shift
Grand Erie’s digital literacy initiative is part of their broader commitment to whole-student development. The Board treats digital literacy as a core life skill, woven into the same fabric as social-emotional learning and mental health support.
The goal is organic, lasting culture change, as Roberto describes it. Not posters. Not policies that fade. Students who carry the message forward themselves — mentoring younger peers, talking to their classmates, and making digital safety part of how their school communities operate every day. Student Senate representatives are already doing exactly that: taking what they learned back to their home schools, reporting on their impact at the next senate meeting, and connecting the work to Grand Erie's multi-year strategic plan priorities of learning, well-being, and belonging.
As Roberto put it: “We don't just bring somebody in for a one-time speaker and away you go. We want them invested in our district — so there's a real change in behaviour. And it's organic, from the baseline of students to the educators.”