KARNS CITY — Thursday was the first day this school year with no internet connectivity problems at Karns City Junior-Senior High school.

It was the day after Michael Stimac, principal for grades seven to nine, spoke with students during their lunch periods and told them to stop using their cellphones for casual purposes during the day, and a day after the district emailed an alert to parents saying that cellphones are interfering with WiFi connectivity and their use is being restricted.

“Today (Thursday) was the first day and we haven't had any connectivity issues,” Stimac said last week. “We took the opportunity to tell kids that they are allowed to have phones on them, but use them only for instructional purposes.”

He said he also told students to socialize in person rather than over the phone.

Before this school year, a rule in the student handbook allowed students to have phones as long as they kept them turned off and out of sight during the school day, Stimac said.

The district altered the rule this year to allow students to carry their phones but only use them for classwork with permission from their teachers, he said.

Students often took advantage of the change. Their texting and Snapchatting caused sporadic losses of connectivity with district computers, such as Chromebooks, he said.

“The rule has always been you can have phones on you, but they were using them a little too much,” Stimac said.

He said school provides students with opportunities for interpersonal and social growth, but cellphones can have a place in education.

“We totally support their transformational use in the classroom. If teachers are able to find ways to allow students to use them to learn material that traditional methods cannot provide, we support that type of use wholeheartedly,” Stimac said.

Some students aren't happy about the rule change, but they were receptive and respectful and even acknowledged that taking a break from cellphones can be healthy, he said.

High school and middle school students in the Slippery Rock Area School District aren't allowed to use cellphones during the day, and the district doesn't have connectivity issues.

“We haven't had any such issues,” said Superintendent Alfonso Angelucci.

The student handbook prohibits the use of cellphones during the school day with only a few exceptions.

“They're OK in some free periods and if prescribed by the teacher,” Angelucci said. “It's just so they're more focused on the lesson at hand.”