It's back to school time — for kids, not cellphones

Plus, Barry and Honey Sherman's toxic mails and Jordan Peterson's new school [The Star] First Up [By Kevin Jiang] By Kevin Jiang Good morning. Here’s the latest on Ontario’s school cellphone ban, a toxic email exchange weeks before the Sherman murders and what we learned in Jordan Peterson’s online school. DON’T MISS R.J.Johnston/The Star back to school [Ontario’s new school cellphone ban is here — expect a ‘hard transition’]( As kids head back to school this week, they’ll be doing so without the devices to which we’ve become so addicted. But for many teachers, questions are still swirling over how Ontario’s new cell phone ban will be enforced, Isabel Teotonio reports. “I don’t know how you walk something back when it’s this prolific,” one teacher said. [Here’s everything you need to know about the sweeping new policy](. - New rules: Kids in kindergarten to Grade 6 can’t use their phones during the day, including lunch and recess. Those in grades 7 to 12 can’t use them in class; devices must be off and out of view. - Meanwhile: Ontario also directed school boards to ban social media sites like Instagram and TikTok from their networks and devices — but students can still access them using their own data plans. - Word from Jill Dunlop: “Students aren’t learning when they are on their cellphones,” Ontario’s new education minister said in an exclusive interview with the Star. [Here’s what else she had to say](. McKenna Deighton/The Star star exclusive [Did the Shermans’ toxic emails lead police to suspect a murder-suicide?]( Days after the discovery of Honey and Barry Sherman’s bodies, Toronto police vigorously pursued a murder-suicide theory — despite forensic evidence to the contrary, Kevin Donovan reports. Now, an email exchange recently obtained by the Star sheds light on why detectives were so gung ho on the theory. “You have been abusive to me for over 40 years,” Barry wrote to Honey five weeks before their murder. [Check out what he said next](. - The Sherman murders: The strangled bodies of the billionaire pharmaceutical magnate and his wife were found on the deck of their basement pool in late 2017. No arrests have been made; [police say the homicide investigation continues](. - Listen: The relationship between Honey and her children was so toxic that she often referred to her kids as “the Nazis,” [Donovan previously reported in The Star’s Billionaire Murders podcast](. - Wait, what? In their interviews with police, all four Sherman children said their parents were getting along very well in the months leading up to their murders. Ramon Ferreira/The Star peterson academy [Here’s what we learned in Jordan Peterson’s online school]( Peterson Academy, the new online school from Toronto psychologist-turned-conservative culture warrior Jordan Peterson, is officially open for business — and it promises to dispense with the “woke nonsense” and “idiot intellectual propaganda” of a typical university. With a sell like that, the Star’s Alex Boyd signed up as soon as early enrolment became available. [Here’s what she learned in class](. - Syllabus: In addition to Peterson’s flagship course on Friedrich Nietzsche, the first 18 courses available ranged from nutrition (ideally, eat meat), the “Boy Crisis” (girls and boys hit each other “about equally”) and the “Greatest Leaders in History” (seven military men plus Margaret Thatcher). - In the class: Each lecture was followed by an optional, AI-generated multiple-choice test. While the site says final exams are coming soon, it’s unclear what they’ll look like. WHAT ELSE The issue of kids being strip-searched is under the spotlight. [There’s one major question Ontario can’t answer](. [Experts predict Toronto’s housing market will ramp up in the fall]( as prices and rates continue to drop. Booze is coming to corner stores this week. [Who’s in charge of policing the new rules?]( Starting today, TTC riders will have a new way to avoid commuting headaches. [Here’s how](. Take a look inside Pierre Poilievre’s [grand seduction of Quebec](. An opioid crisis in Canada’s prisons is [committing inmates to life sentences of despair](. [Why does Air Canada want to help build a high-speed rail link to Montreal]( when it already flies there? I’ve been using a supervised consumption site for a year — [here’s what they’re really like inside](. A third of Canadians are already using AI to manage their investments. [Here’s why](. Here’s how to increase your property’s value [with little to no money at all](. She tore tickets as an usher to pay for theatre school. [Now, she’s next door performing in this award-winning show](. A new expedition to the Titanic yielded a lost [bronze statue, high-resolution photos and other discoveries](. POV Nick Lachance/The Star [Here’s why teachers like me are dreading the return to school.]( CLOSE-UP Canadian Press/Angela Burger/Canadian Paralympic Committee PARIS: Nicholas Bennett raises an arm in triumph after winning gold in men’s 100-metre breaststroke — Canada’s first at the Paris Paralympic Games. [“Everybody from Canada is here with me, in my heart,” the swimmer said](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_1476). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. 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