Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
TheStar.com | News | `The leader does the right thing'
TheStar.com | News | `The leader does the right thing'
Jan 17, 2008 04:30 AM
Jim Coyle
You have to admire Gerry Connelly. The Toronto District School Board's director of education makes it clear where the buck stops. At her desk, thanks.
Connelly took responsibility this week for any failure to inform senior staff about making submissions to lawyer Julian Falconer's investigation of high-school safety.
Falconer had expressed astonishment that only four of 24 superintendents met with his panel. The superintendents, for their part, said they were never directly invited. Connelly said she "took accountability for any breakdown in communication" that occurred.
It's noble, of course, for her to take one for the team, fall on her sword and all that. But, frankly, it hardly seems fair.
It's not just that, in high schools across the city, corridors are filled with posters urging students to speak up about bullying, about racism, about homophobia – placing the onus on witnesses not to remain silent.
It's that Connelly, at various times over the last two years, had provided superintendents with as much as an engraved invitation to share their experience and wisdom, to take risks, to act as leaders rather than mere managers.
It's impossible to think that the killing in May 2007 of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys High School or the establishment weeks later of the Falconer panel wasn't invitation enough for board superintendents to get involved.
But if so, it was surely reasonable to expect that the release of Falconer's interim report in August 2007 might have raised doubts about whether the sidelines was really the place for them to be.
While the interim report focused on life at the high school where Manners was killed, it alerted the board to other serious issues, Connelly said in a statement issued with its release. "We need to address these issues quickly."
She knew it wasn't easy. But, luckily, courage, forthrightness, participation were virtues the director held in high esteem.
In August 2006, at a two-day conference with board superintendents preparing for the school year in which Jordan Manners would die, Connelly had apparently given a remarkable speech on Leading, Managing and Motivating.
Not every such oration musters quotes from sources as disparate as M.I.T. and Henry V. But Connelly's did. And it's difficult to believe that any superintendent hearing it ever felt they needed a formal invitation to participate in matters critical to school safety in this city.
She wanted to talk about leadership first, Connelly said. "What does it take to be a leader?
"As a leader at the TDSB, we set the tone for the success of this board and all of those who work and learn within it."
There was a difference, she said, between leaders and mere managers. (She even provided some dictionary definitions to make her message clear.) "The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager maintains; the leader develops. The manager focuses on systems and structures; the leader inspires trust.
"The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
"We count on you, as senior staff, to excel at both," she said. "And to remember, beyond the skill set, that leadership is about values. It's about the inspiration, vision and human passion that drives success and relationships. More than ever, we need your collective wisdom to achieve our goals."
When it comes to communicating – clearly, at times almost poetically – what was expected of senior staff, it seems Gerry Connelly has nothing for which to apologize.
Jan 17, 2008 04:30 AM
Jim Coyle
You have to admire Gerry Connelly. The Toronto District School Board's director of education makes it clear where the buck stops. At her desk, thanks.
Connelly took responsibility this week for any failure to inform senior staff about making submissions to lawyer Julian Falconer's investigation of high-school safety.
Falconer had expressed astonishment that only four of 24 superintendents met with his panel. The superintendents, for their part, said they were never directly invited. Connelly said she "took accountability for any breakdown in communication" that occurred.
It's noble, of course, for her to take one for the team, fall on her sword and all that. But, frankly, it hardly seems fair.
It's not just that, in high schools across the city, corridors are filled with posters urging students to speak up about bullying, about racism, about homophobia – placing the onus on witnesses not to remain silent.
It's that Connelly, at various times over the last two years, had provided superintendents with as much as an engraved invitation to share their experience and wisdom, to take risks, to act as leaders rather than mere managers.
It's impossible to think that the killing in May 2007 of 15-year-old Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys High School or the establishment weeks later of the Falconer panel wasn't invitation enough for board superintendents to get involved.
But if so, it was surely reasonable to expect that the release of Falconer's interim report in August 2007 might have raised doubts about whether the sidelines was really the place for them to be.
While the interim report focused on life at the high school where Manners was killed, it alerted the board to other serious issues, Connelly said in a statement issued with its release. "We need to address these issues quickly."
She knew it wasn't easy. But, luckily, courage, forthrightness, participation were virtues the director held in high esteem.
In August 2006, at a two-day conference with board superintendents preparing for the school year in which Jordan Manners would die, Connelly had apparently given a remarkable speech on Leading, Managing and Motivating.
Not every such oration musters quotes from sources as disparate as M.I.T. and Henry V. But Connelly's did. And it's difficult to believe that any superintendent hearing it ever felt they needed a formal invitation to participate in matters critical to school safety in this city.
She wanted to talk about leadership first, Connelly said. "What does it take to be a leader?
"As a leader at the TDSB, we set the tone for the success of this board and all of those who work and learn within it."
There was a difference, she said, between leaders and mere managers. (She even provided some dictionary definitions to make her message clear.) "The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager maintains; the leader develops. The manager focuses on systems and structures; the leader inspires trust.
"The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
"We count on you, as senior staff, to excel at both," she said. "And to remember, beyond the skill set, that leadership is about values. It's about the inspiration, vision and human passion that drives success and relationships. More than ever, we need your collective wisdom to achieve our goals."
When it comes to communicating – clearly, at times almost poetically – what was expected of senior staff, it seems Gerry Connelly has nothing for which to apologize.
TheStar.com | GTA | School board opens confidential tip line
TheStar.com | GTA | School board opens confidential tip line
Jan 16, 2008 06:47 PM
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
Toronto students who have seen or been the victim of violence or sexual harassment can report to a confidential telephone hotline any time night or day starting Monday.
In its first move to enact some of the recommendations of the recent Falconer report on school safety, the Toronto District School Board has announced students will be able to leave a message 24 hours a day on the confidential tip line, to be handled by principals, social workers and psychiatrists.
"Callers will be asked to leave a detailed message, and they can feel secure that no one beyond the Student Safety Line Response Team will know about or reveal their call," said board officials in a statement released yesterday.
"That team will include experienced school administrators, psychologists and social workers who will respond to calls in a way that respects students’ privacy and anonymity while ensuring that their concerns are not ignored."
A confidential phone line was one of 126 recommendations Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer made to boost school safety in the report he was commissioned to conduct after the shooting death last May of student Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate.
Falconer said he found a "culture of fear" about reporting violent incidents, sexual harassment and assault that spans the school board from student to senior board officials.
The new hotline, to be launched Monday at 2 p.m., will be run as a pilot project this year to be reviewed at the end of this school year.
In a statement released yesterday, the board noted that the new Student Safety Line is not meant to replace the valuable role played by Toronto Crime Stoppers or Kids Help Phone, but is meant to provide another way to keep learning environments safe.
Jan 16, 2008 06:47 PM
LOUISE BROWN
EDUCATION REPORTER
Toronto students who have seen or been the victim of violence or sexual harassment can report to a confidential telephone hotline any time night or day starting Monday.
In its first move to enact some of the recommendations of the recent Falconer report on school safety, the Toronto District School Board has announced students will be able to leave a message 24 hours a day on the confidential tip line, to be handled by principals, social workers and psychiatrists.
"Callers will be asked to leave a detailed message, and they can feel secure that no one beyond the Student Safety Line Response Team will know about or reveal their call," said board officials in a statement released yesterday.
"That team will include experienced school administrators, psychologists and social workers who will respond to calls in a way that respects students’ privacy and anonymity while ensuring that their concerns are not ignored."
A confidential phone line was one of 126 recommendations Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer made to boost school safety in the report he was commissioned to conduct after the shooting death last May of student Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate.
Falconer said he found a "culture of fear" about reporting violent incidents, sexual harassment and assault that spans the school board from student to senior board officials.
The new hotline, to be launched Monday at 2 p.m., will be run as a pilot project this year to be reviewed at the end of this school year.
In a statement released yesterday, the board noted that the new Student Safety Line is not meant to replace the valuable role played by Toronto Crime Stoppers or Kids Help Phone, but is meant to provide another way to keep learning environments safe.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
TheStar.com | News | Just how much will school safety cost?
TheStar.com | News | Just how much will school safety cost?
Just how much will school safety cost?
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The reality: Millions of dollars, and delicate labour negotiations
Jan 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Louise Brown
Daniel Girard
Education Reporters
How much would school safety cost?
How much money, how much haggling with unions, how much buy-in from parents, how much change to Ontario law would it take to make Julian Falconer's vision a reality?
The Toronto lawyer left the price- tag off the 126 recommendations he made this week in his sweeping 1,000-page report on safety in Toronto's schools, prompted by the death of student Jordan Manners last May.
But many of his suggestions, from hiring more social workers to lowering class size, cost money that would have to come from Queen's Park, which already gave Ontario schools an extra $43 million last year to boost safety, from training and prevention programs to more of the very experts Falconer is calling for.
Other proposals, like more teacher supervision, would mean changing union contracts that could fracture the delicate labour peace that has settled on schools.
Still other suggestions – sniffer spaniels, mandatory uniforms, programs to promote respect between the sexes in the hormone-charged hallways of high school – would involve a range of steps and partnerships.
Here is an early reality check for some key points in Falconer's plan of action:
1. Recommendation More teachers supervising in halls.
Reality: This won't happen without push-back from Toronto's high school teachers' union, which fought hard in 2001 to win the fewest required hours of supervision of any school board in the province.
Under that contract, Toronto's 6,000 high school teachers may be assigned by their principals to supervise halls or fill in for an absent colleague no more than 27 times a year, or about 40 minutes a week on average – and only on a "time-to-time basis," not on a regular schedule. Up to five more periods can be assigned on "exceptional" grounds.
Yet the average teacher is not being asked to do more than about 15 half-periods a year on average, notes Doug Jolliffe, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation in Toronto.
"Teachers are busy with what they're trained for; they've got to prepare lessons, mark, get professional development on new programs," said Jolliffe.
"And they would need more training and backup for more supervision; more workshops in how to deal with angry, angry students and more back-up from the office for when they tell some kid not to smoke on school property and the kid just tells you to f--- off."
2. Recommendation More adults in the schools, from hall monitors and social workers to attendance counsellors and youth workers, and more teachers in high-needs areas to allow for smaller classes.
Reality: These all take cash.
For 20 new social workers, at roughly $60,000 apiece, the board would need about $1.2 million. Twenty more child and youth counsellors for needy high schools, at about $40,000 apiece, would cost about $800,000 and 20 attendance counsellors, at about $50,000 each, means another $1 million.
In a way, this would be a move back to the future. Back in 2002, the board scrapped 13 youth counsellors, 24 attendance counsellors and cut social workers to save $1.5 million under orders from supervisor Paul Christie, sent in by the Conservative government to balance the budget.
Yet the board still struggles to balance the books with a looming shortfall of $51 million, so new staff would need new dollars from the province.
As for more hall monitors, the board already has 157 of these plain-clothes patrols – part bouncer, part mentor – who earn a scant $30,000 a year, which the board has to scrounge from various corners of its $2.3 billion budget because Queen's Park does not fund this type of worker.
These non-teaching staff who watch for intruders, break up fights and shut down drug deals are not at all 104 high schools; it depends on whether the principal feels a need and they are often clustered in high-needs neighbourhoods.
3. Recommendation
All students should wear uniforms unless a school council opts out.
Reality: While each school has a dress code barring clothing that has gang affiliations, profanity, violence and other slogans deemed indecent, only a small percentage have students wearing uniforms.
The report notes there's little conclusive research on the effectiveness of uniforms on student discipline, school climate or perceptions of safety. But uniforms and visible school ID badges worn around the neck would allow school staff to "quickly identify intruders," the report concludes.
Mandatory uniforms will no doubt draw opposition from many students and parents who say it violates freedom of choice and adds an unfair cost – arguments that have arisen in the past. Falconer's panel suggests that a school council, typically parents and the principal, could vote to say thanks, but no thanks.
The panel agreed that uniforms should be affordable, as well as complying with the Ontario Human Rights Code, and calls for the board to subsidize students if necessary.
Proponents of uniforms say they help identify people who don't belong in the school and also reduce the competition kids have over clothing, especially for those who cannot afford it.
4. Recommendation Board-owned firearms sniffer dogs should be used for regular random searches for guns in lockers.
Reality: Insisting guns "pose a significant threat in Toronto schools," the panel's call for random sniffer dog searches is one of its most controversial recommendations.
It comes with legal complications, particularly around the issue of the Charter of Rights and Freedom's protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
In the past, schools have called on the Toronto police canine unit after receiving credible information that weapons are on site. This unit uses small dogs, such as spaniels, that are trained to identify gunpowder. Two or three dogs can search a typical school in two or three hours.
But, the report notes, it's "fairly clear that police do not have the power to use canines to randomly sweep schools for weapons or other contraband."
School officials have a broader power than police to search students and school property because of their responsibility and authority to maintain order, discipline and safety, notes the report – it's just not clear whether this would include random searches by sniffer dogs.
There is a case before the Supreme Court of Canada about a controversial random school search by drug-sniffing dogs in a Sarnia school in 2002; that search turned up drugs in a backpack in a school gym.
An Ontario Court of Appeal ruled nearly two years ago that the search by the Ontario Provincial Police violated the youth's rights, and that decision is being appealed.
Until that case is resolved, it's unlikely the Toronto board would push ahead with searches Falconer's report acknowledges would be "on the frontier of what's permitted" by the Charter, but in line with schools' duty to protect students.
The panel said changes to the Education Act could help clear this up.
Just how much will school safety cost?
Email story
Choose text size
Report typo or correction
License this article
The reality: Millions of dollars, and delicate labour negotiations
Jan 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Louise Brown
Daniel Girard
Education Reporters
How much would school safety cost?
How much money, how much haggling with unions, how much buy-in from parents, how much change to Ontario law would it take to make Julian Falconer's vision a reality?
The Toronto lawyer left the price- tag off the 126 recommendations he made this week in his sweeping 1,000-page report on safety in Toronto's schools, prompted by the death of student Jordan Manners last May.
But many of his suggestions, from hiring more social workers to lowering class size, cost money that would have to come from Queen's Park, which already gave Ontario schools an extra $43 million last year to boost safety, from training and prevention programs to more of the very experts Falconer is calling for.
Other proposals, like more teacher supervision, would mean changing union contracts that could fracture the delicate labour peace that has settled on schools.
Still other suggestions – sniffer spaniels, mandatory uniforms, programs to promote respect between the sexes in the hormone-charged hallways of high school – would involve a range of steps and partnerships.
Here is an early reality check for some key points in Falconer's plan of action:
1. Recommendation More teachers supervising in halls.
Reality: This won't happen without push-back from Toronto's high school teachers' union, which fought hard in 2001 to win the fewest required hours of supervision of any school board in the province.
Under that contract, Toronto's 6,000 high school teachers may be assigned by their principals to supervise halls or fill in for an absent colleague no more than 27 times a year, or about 40 minutes a week on average – and only on a "time-to-time basis," not on a regular schedule. Up to five more periods can be assigned on "exceptional" grounds.
Yet the average teacher is not being asked to do more than about 15 half-periods a year on average, notes Doug Jolliffe, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation in Toronto.
"Teachers are busy with what they're trained for; they've got to prepare lessons, mark, get professional development on new programs," said Jolliffe.
"And they would need more training and backup for more supervision; more workshops in how to deal with angry, angry students and more back-up from the office for when they tell some kid not to smoke on school property and the kid just tells you to f--- off."
2. Recommendation More adults in the schools, from hall monitors and social workers to attendance counsellors and youth workers, and more teachers in high-needs areas to allow for smaller classes.
Reality: These all take cash.
For 20 new social workers, at roughly $60,000 apiece, the board would need about $1.2 million. Twenty more child and youth counsellors for needy high schools, at about $40,000 apiece, would cost about $800,000 and 20 attendance counsellors, at about $50,000 each, means another $1 million.
In a way, this would be a move back to the future. Back in 2002, the board scrapped 13 youth counsellors, 24 attendance counsellors and cut social workers to save $1.5 million under orders from supervisor Paul Christie, sent in by the Conservative government to balance the budget.
Yet the board still struggles to balance the books with a looming shortfall of $51 million, so new staff would need new dollars from the province.
As for more hall monitors, the board already has 157 of these plain-clothes patrols – part bouncer, part mentor – who earn a scant $30,000 a year, which the board has to scrounge from various corners of its $2.3 billion budget because Queen's Park does not fund this type of worker.
These non-teaching staff who watch for intruders, break up fights and shut down drug deals are not at all 104 high schools; it depends on whether the principal feels a need and they are often clustered in high-needs neighbourhoods.
3. Recommendation
All students should wear uniforms unless a school council opts out.
Reality: While each school has a dress code barring clothing that has gang affiliations, profanity, violence and other slogans deemed indecent, only a small percentage have students wearing uniforms.
The report notes there's little conclusive research on the effectiveness of uniforms on student discipline, school climate or perceptions of safety. But uniforms and visible school ID badges worn around the neck would allow school staff to "quickly identify intruders," the report concludes.
Mandatory uniforms will no doubt draw opposition from many students and parents who say it violates freedom of choice and adds an unfair cost – arguments that have arisen in the past. Falconer's panel suggests that a school council, typically parents and the principal, could vote to say thanks, but no thanks.
The panel agreed that uniforms should be affordable, as well as complying with the Ontario Human Rights Code, and calls for the board to subsidize students if necessary.
Proponents of uniforms say they help identify people who don't belong in the school and also reduce the competition kids have over clothing, especially for those who cannot afford it.
4. Recommendation Board-owned firearms sniffer dogs should be used for regular random searches for guns in lockers.
Reality: Insisting guns "pose a significant threat in Toronto schools," the panel's call for random sniffer dog searches is one of its most controversial recommendations.
It comes with legal complications, particularly around the issue of the Charter of Rights and Freedom's protection from unreasonable search and seizure.
In the past, schools have called on the Toronto police canine unit after receiving credible information that weapons are on site. This unit uses small dogs, such as spaniels, that are trained to identify gunpowder. Two or three dogs can search a typical school in two or three hours.
But, the report notes, it's "fairly clear that police do not have the power to use canines to randomly sweep schools for weapons or other contraband."
School officials have a broader power than police to search students and school property because of their responsibility and authority to maintain order, discipline and safety, notes the report – it's just not clear whether this would include random searches by sniffer dogs.
There is a case before the Supreme Court of Canada about a controversial random school search by drug-sniffing dogs in a Sarnia school in 2002; that search turned up drugs in a backpack in a school gym.
An Ontario Court of Appeal ruled nearly two years ago that the search by the Ontario Provincial Police violated the youth's rights, and that decision is being appealed.
Until that case is resolved, it's unlikely the Toronto board would push ahead with searches Falconer's report acknowledges would be "on the frontier of what's permitted" by the Charter, but in line with schools' duty to protect students.
The panel said changes to the Education Act could help clear this up.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Government of Ontario, Canada - News
Government of Ontario, Canada - News
Ministry of Education
Statement by Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne re: school safety
TORONTO, Jan. 10 /CNW/ - I would like to thank Julian Falconer, his panel
and the Toronto District School Board for their report and recommendations.
I appreciate the Toronto District School Board's commitment to reviewing
school safety. This report raises some serious issues that the board needs to
study and carefully consider. And the Ministry of Education will continue to
work with the Toronto school board, educators and parents to make sure our
schools are the best places for students to learn.
We know that in order for students to be at their best, they need to be
safe and feel safe. A safe and healthy learning environment is an essential
part of student achievement.
Provincewide school safety audits, new security devices, a
bullying-prevention program in all schools and training for principals are
several ways we've already made school buildings safer.
Keeping the building secure is one part of school safety - engaging
students in active learning so that they are in classrooms instead of
wandering the malls or streets is another.
We have 9,000 more teachers and 7,600 more support staff who are giving
more individual attention, helping all kids focus on learning, and helping
at-risk youth avoid trouble.
Learning is now mandatory to the age of 18, meaning increased graduation
rates, and lower dropout rates.
Our Community Use of Schools program makes school buildings available and
affordable for community groups, clubs and sports groups.
We will continue to make more improvements to our schools, but we know
that schools alone cannot provide the total solution. Last June, Premier
McGuinty appointed former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and former Speaker of the
Legislature Alvin Curling to conduct a review of youth violence. The review
will help identify contributing factors to youth violence and provide
recommendations to continue building safer, stronger communities.
The work of making our schools as safe as possible is never done, and we
must remain vigilant.
As Minister of Education, I strongly believe that our publicly funded
schools offer Ontario students the best education possible. Ontario's schools
should be as inclusive, welcoming and safe as possible.
Students should have every opportunity to flourish and to become
well-rounded citizens who can contribute to a cohesive society and our future
prosperity. Students ask for nothing more. And we owe them nothing less.
Ministry of Education
Statement by Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne re: school safety
TORONTO, Jan. 10 /CNW/ - I would like to thank Julian Falconer, his panel
and the Toronto District School Board for their report and recommendations.
I appreciate the Toronto District School Board's commitment to reviewing
school safety. This report raises some serious issues that the board needs to
study and carefully consider. And the Ministry of Education will continue to
work with the Toronto school board, educators and parents to make sure our
schools are the best places for students to learn.
We know that in order for students to be at their best, they need to be
safe and feel safe. A safe and healthy learning environment is an essential
part of student achievement.
Provincewide school safety audits, new security devices, a
bullying-prevention program in all schools and training for principals are
several ways we've already made school buildings safer.
Keeping the building secure is one part of school safety - engaging
students in active learning so that they are in classrooms instead of
wandering the malls or streets is another.
We have 9,000 more teachers and 7,600 more support staff who are giving
more individual attention, helping all kids focus on learning, and helping
at-risk youth avoid trouble.
Learning is now mandatory to the age of 18, meaning increased graduation
rates, and lower dropout rates.
Our Community Use of Schools program makes school buildings available and
affordable for community groups, clubs and sports groups.
We will continue to make more improvements to our schools, but we know
that schools alone cannot provide the total solution. Last June, Premier
McGuinty appointed former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and former Speaker of the
Legislature Alvin Curling to conduct a review of youth violence. The review
will help identify contributing factors to youth violence and provide
recommendations to continue building safer, stronger communities.
The work of making our schools as safe as possible is never done, and we
must remain vigilant.
As Minister of Education, I strongly believe that our publicly funded
schools offer Ontario students the best education possible. Ontario's schools
should be as inclusive, welcoming and safe as possible.
Students should have every opportunity to flourish and to become
well-rounded citizens who can contribute to a cohesive society and our future
prosperity. Students ask for nothing more. And we owe them nothing less.
CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada: Guns, sex assaults plauge T.O. schools
CANOE -- CNEWS - Canada: Guns, sex assaults plauge T.O. schools
Guns, sex assaults plauge T.O. schools
TDSB panel calls for metal detectors in wake of report
By SARAH GREEN, SUN MEDIA
The Toronto Sun
School violence: We were warned
Jefferys students OK with searches
How to make schools safer
There are an alarming number of guns in Toronto schools and sex assaults are increasing at a "disturbing" rate with the vast majority going unreported, an advisory panel probing school safety found in its report yesterday.
The panel -- struck by the Toronto District School Board following last May's shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in a hallway of C.W. Jefferys C.I. -- called installing metal detectors at Toronto's 150 high schools "extraordinarily expensive," but recommended the use of gun detection dogs to sniff out weapons in hallway lockers.
Lawyer Julian Falconer, who headed the panel, said the money used to buy metal detectors, at the cost of up to $25,000 each, would come at the expense of youth workers, extra-curricular activities and other badly needed prevention programs.
'NO GUARANTEE'
"It is not investing in (students) to buy metal detectors," he said. "It is a quick fix with no guarantee of a solution."
Students at C.W. Jefferys and neighbouring Westview Centennial painted a disturbing picture of weapons and sexual violence in their hallways in surveys for the panel.
Nearly 23% of students at Westview said they knew someone who brought a gun to school in the past two years. Similarly, 21% said they knew at least one student who had been sexually assaulted at school, and 29 students said they had been the victim of a major sexual assault.
The vast majority of students at both schools said they didn't report crimes involving them or other students to staff or police.
Falconer stressed guns and sexual assaults are not only a Jane-Finch problem.
Of 125 weapons incidents, robberies and sexual assaults reported at Toronto schools in the last two years, only five were at Jane-Finch schools, the panel found. It acknowledged many incidents in those schools go unreported.
"Nothing can be further from the truth that this is a problem involving black kids at Jane and Finch. That's simply and utterly a myth," Falconer said.
He called sexual assaults a "sad reality" at Toronto schools and the report found the board's sexual violence policies are "deficient," with school staff lacking the training to deal with assaults.
"We have failed young women and girls in our schools. We are not protecting them," Falconer said.
The panel -- which held a moment of silence for Manners before detailing its findings -- was also critical of the "utterly failed" Safe Schools Act, saying punishing marginalized students does nothing to motivate them.
"We suspend in droves. It fails," Falconer said. "Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007, out of flat neglect. There were insufficient supports in place to encourage him to make better choices."
The panel also cited a "culture of silence and fear" which prevents school and board staff from speaking out on safety issues.
Falconers said there should be a "legal requirement" for school staff to report guns and other incidents while offering them "whistleblower-type protection" from reprisals.
Gerry Connelly, TDSB director of education, said the board will analyze the panel's 126 recommendations, but stressed work in many areas is already underway.
Among the board's initiatives is a 24-hour Student Safeline, to be launched as a six-month pilot project, where students can anonymously report violence, intimidation, assaults and weapons.
"We've made much progress, but there remains a lot to be done," Connelly said.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, a former Toronto trustee, said that in her experience the pervasive culture in TDSB schools is not one of violence and fear as described by the report.
'MORE OPTIMISTIC'
"I'm much more optimistic about publicly funded education in Toronto than that would suggest," Wynne said.
However, she said that it is unacceptable if any child or adult is scared to speak up.
She said the government has overhauled the provincial Safe Schools Act, criticized in the report as unhelpful and punitive, and those changes will take effect on Feb. 1.
Police Chief Bill Blair said he had not yet reviewed the panel's recommendations.
"Anything we can do to make our schools safe, I'm prepared to look very seriously at, but I would also emphasize that there's been a tremendous amount of work done with our partners in the school system -- students and faculty and the school boards," he said
Guns, sex assaults plauge T.O. schools
TDSB panel calls for metal detectors in wake of report
By SARAH GREEN, SUN MEDIA
The Toronto Sun
School violence: We were warned
Jefferys students OK with searches
How to make schools safer
There are an alarming number of guns in Toronto schools and sex assaults are increasing at a "disturbing" rate with the vast majority going unreported, an advisory panel probing school safety found in its report yesterday.
The panel -- struck by the Toronto District School Board following last May's shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners in a hallway of C.W. Jefferys C.I. -- called installing metal detectors at Toronto's 150 high schools "extraordinarily expensive," but recommended the use of gun detection dogs to sniff out weapons in hallway lockers.
Lawyer Julian Falconer, who headed the panel, said the money used to buy metal detectors, at the cost of up to $25,000 each, would come at the expense of youth workers, extra-curricular activities and other badly needed prevention programs.
'NO GUARANTEE'
"It is not investing in (students) to buy metal detectors," he said. "It is a quick fix with no guarantee of a solution."
Students at C.W. Jefferys and neighbouring Westview Centennial painted a disturbing picture of weapons and sexual violence in their hallways in surveys for the panel.
Nearly 23% of students at Westview said they knew someone who brought a gun to school in the past two years. Similarly, 21% said they knew at least one student who had been sexually assaulted at school, and 29 students said they had been the victim of a major sexual assault.
The vast majority of students at both schools said they didn't report crimes involving them or other students to staff or police.
Falconer stressed guns and sexual assaults are not only a Jane-Finch problem.
Of 125 weapons incidents, robberies and sexual assaults reported at Toronto schools in the last two years, only five were at Jane-Finch schools, the panel found. It acknowledged many incidents in those schools go unreported.
"Nothing can be further from the truth that this is a problem involving black kids at Jane and Finch. That's simply and utterly a myth," Falconer said.
He called sexual assaults a "sad reality" at Toronto schools and the report found the board's sexual violence policies are "deficient," with school staff lacking the training to deal with assaults.
"We have failed young women and girls in our schools. We are not protecting them," Falconer said.
The panel -- which held a moment of silence for Manners before detailing its findings -- was also critical of the "utterly failed" Safe Schools Act, saying punishing marginalized students does nothing to motivate them.
"We suspend in droves. It fails," Falconer said. "Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007, out of flat neglect. There were insufficient supports in place to encourage him to make better choices."
The panel also cited a "culture of silence and fear" which prevents school and board staff from speaking out on safety issues.
Falconers said there should be a "legal requirement" for school staff to report guns and other incidents while offering them "whistleblower-type protection" from reprisals.
Gerry Connelly, TDSB director of education, said the board will analyze the panel's 126 recommendations, but stressed work in many areas is already underway.
Among the board's initiatives is a 24-hour Student Safeline, to be launched as a six-month pilot project, where students can anonymously report violence, intimidation, assaults and weapons.
"We've made much progress, but there remains a lot to be done," Connelly said.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne, a former Toronto trustee, said that in her experience the pervasive culture in TDSB schools is not one of violence and fear as described by the report.
'MORE OPTIMISTIC'
"I'm much more optimistic about publicly funded education in Toronto than that would suggest," Wynne said.
However, she said that it is unacceptable if any child or adult is scared to speak up.
She said the government has overhauled the provincial Safe Schools Act, criticized in the report as unhelpful and punitive, and those changes will take effect on Feb. 1.
Police Chief Bill Blair said he had not yet reviewed the panel's recommendations.
"Anything we can do to make our schools safe, I'm prepared to look very seriously at, but I would also emphasize that there's been a tremendous amount of work done with our partners in the school system -- students and faculty and the school boards," he said
CTV.ca | Toronto schools plagued with violence: panel
CTV.ca | Toronto schools plagued with violence: panel
Toronto schools plagued with violence: panel
Updated Thu. Jan. 10 2008 7:01 PM ET
toronto.ctv.ca
A revamped approach is needed to address the widespread violence at Toronto schools, which are littered with dangerous weapons such as guns and knives, an advisory panel says.
The board-appointed School Safety Community Advisory Panel, headed by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, says there are a high number of unreported violent incidents at schools across the district, including sexual assaults.
"The lack of safety comes from disengaged, marginalized youth that we have been unable to help as a society," Falconer said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
"We as a society are responsible to assist the Toronto District School Board in discharging their mandate to provide a nurturing environment for the youth that enter their halls.
"There is no magic formula, no quick fix to removing what has been an ongoing endemic problem in select schools across the city."
Falconer said punishment, such as unnecessary suspensions, are having the opposite effect when it comes to better protecting students.
"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves; it fails.''
The panel was formed after the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Manners inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate last May.
Their 1,000-page report was originally set to be released on Monday, but copies were leaked to the media, and details were published on Thursday morning.
Troubling incidents
The report, which uncovered an alarming number of unreported incidents of violence and sexual assault, recommends -- among other things -- random locker searches and using trained dogs to sniff out guns hidden in school lockers.
Since January 2006, the panel says it found more than 170 incidents of violence, including robberies, gun incidents and sexual assaults.
At Westview Centennial Secondary School, in the troubled Jane and Finch Streets corridor in the city's northwest where C.W. Jefferys is located, a school survey found 23 per cent of students knew somebody who had brought a gun to school in the previous two years. Almost one-quarter of the teens said they saw a gun at school.
Falconer said the violence isn't limited to the one area, as there were 54 reported gun incidents outside the Jane-Finch area.
"Nothing can be further from the truth that this is a problem involving the black kids from Jane and Finch," Falconer said. "That is simply an utter, specious myth. This is a problem we as a society share."
After interviewing staff and students, panel members found:
* A high number of violent incidents in schools go unreported
* Nearly 20 per cent of female students at one school say they were sexually assaulted on school grounds
* Some 80 per cent of sex assault victims at one school said they wouldn't report the attack
* There is a lack of confidence the board can ensure school environments that are free of weapons and violence
The report, which has cost the board more than $800,000, says there is a culture of silence among students, staff and principals when it comes to reporting violent incidents.
Earlier this week, Toronto police announced they have charged a former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys under the Ontario Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a female student.
It is alleged that the assault was reported to administrators but that they did not forward the complaint to authorities.
Recommendations
The report lists more than 120 recommendations to curb violence in schools. Some of the key recommendations are:
* Regularly searching lockers for any signs of weapons
* Using firearm-detecting canine units to sniff out lockers and storage areas
* Setting up a website for teens to anonymously report violent acts
* Hiring full-time social workers and counsellors at schools with high cases of violence
"You could fill a Home Hardware with the amount of knives kids bring to school," Falconer said.
"There are guns in the schools, in non-trivial numbers, in select schools across the city, and neither the Toronto District School Board nor the Toronto Police Service are in a position to track the amount of guns in any given school."
Installing metal detectors in the more than 150 secondary schools is an "extraordinarily expensive venture" that is not feasible, Falconer said.
He says the key to reducing violence is addressing the root causes of violence, and this can only be done with more money from the Ministry of Education.
"Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007 out of flat neglect -- pure neglect. There was insufficient supports in place in our system to encourage him to make better choices," Falconer said.
"The reality is, disengaged youth, no matter how small the number, can completely transform an environment if no steps are taken to address their needs."
Manners' mother, Lorraine Small, said she is pleased with the board's approach and hopes it will make schools safer.
With reports from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and Naomi Parness
Toronto schools plagued with violence: panel
Updated Thu. Jan. 10 2008 7:01 PM ET
toronto.ctv.ca
A revamped approach is needed to address the widespread violence at Toronto schools, which are littered with dangerous weapons such as guns and knives, an advisory panel says.
The board-appointed School Safety Community Advisory Panel, headed by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, says there are a high number of unreported violent incidents at schools across the district, including sexual assaults.
"The lack of safety comes from disengaged, marginalized youth that we have been unable to help as a society," Falconer said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon.
"We as a society are responsible to assist the Toronto District School Board in discharging their mandate to provide a nurturing environment for the youth that enter their halls.
"There is no magic formula, no quick fix to removing what has been an ongoing endemic problem in select schools across the city."
Falconer said punishment, such as unnecessary suspensions, are having the opposite effect when it comes to better protecting students.
"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves; it fails.''
The panel was formed after the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Jordan Manners inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate last May.
Their 1,000-page report was originally set to be released on Monday, but copies were leaked to the media, and details were published on Thursday morning.
Troubling incidents
The report, which uncovered an alarming number of unreported incidents of violence and sexual assault, recommends -- among other things -- random locker searches and using trained dogs to sniff out guns hidden in school lockers.
Since January 2006, the panel says it found more than 170 incidents of violence, including robberies, gun incidents and sexual assaults.
At Westview Centennial Secondary School, in the troubled Jane and Finch Streets corridor in the city's northwest where C.W. Jefferys is located, a school survey found 23 per cent of students knew somebody who had brought a gun to school in the previous two years. Almost one-quarter of the teens said they saw a gun at school.
Falconer said the violence isn't limited to the one area, as there were 54 reported gun incidents outside the Jane-Finch area.
"Nothing can be further from the truth that this is a problem involving the black kids from Jane and Finch," Falconer said. "That is simply an utter, specious myth. This is a problem we as a society share."
After interviewing staff and students, panel members found:
* A high number of violent incidents in schools go unreported
* Nearly 20 per cent of female students at one school say they were sexually assaulted on school grounds
* Some 80 per cent of sex assault victims at one school said they wouldn't report the attack
* There is a lack of confidence the board can ensure school environments that are free of weapons and violence
The report, which has cost the board more than $800,000, says there is a culture of silence among students, staff and principals when it comes to reporting violent incidents.
Earlier this week, Toronto police announced they have charged a former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys under the Ontario Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a female student.
It is alleged that the assault was reported to administrators but that they did not forward the complaint to authorities.
Recommendations
The report lists more than 120 recommendations to curb violence in schools. Some of the key recommendations are:
* Regularly searching lockers for any signs of weapons
* Using firearm-detecting canine units to sniff out lockers and storage areas
* Setting up a website for teens to anonymously report violent acts
* Hiring full-time social workers and counsellors at schools with high cases of violence
"You could fill a Home Hardware with the amount of knives kids bring to school," Falconer said.
"There are guns in the schools, in non-trivial numbers, in select schools across the city, and neither the Toronto District School Board nor the Toronto Police Service are in a position to track the amount of guns in any given school."
Installing metal detectors in the more than 150 secondary schools is an "extraordinarily expensive venture" that is not feasible, Falconer said.
He says the key to reducing violence is addressing the root causes of violence, and this can only be done with more money from the Ministry of Education.
"Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007 out of flat neglect -- pure neglect. There was insufficient supports in place in our system to encourage him to make better choices," Falconer said.
"The reality is, disengaged youth, no matter how small the number, can completely transform an environment if no steps are taken to address their needs."
Manners' mother, Lorraine Small, said she is pleased with the board's approach and hopes it will make schools safer.
With reports from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and Naomi Parness
TheStar.com | GTA | 'Crisis of confidence,' in school safety: Report
TheStar.com | GTA | 'Crisis of confidence,' in school safety: Report
Crisis of confidence,' in school safety: Report
FRANK GUNN/CP
Students are escorted to waiting buses at C.W. Jefferys C.I. in Toronto on May 23, 2007, after the school was evacuated to investigate the shooting of a 15-year-old student on school grounds.
Email Story Email story
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AddThis
Your view: School violence
Safety panel report excerpts (.pdf)
Speak Out: School searches
Student transfer policy spreads gang ills: Panel
School officials to heal rift
DiManno: A heart-breaking sendoff
'Don't let my son die in vain'
Board to probe conditions at school
Family seeks action
Photos: Mourning slain youth
Murder charges in school shooting
CP Video: Students, AG react
Police mum on shooting motive
Teens cope with grief online
'Don't die, Jordan'
Mentors preferred to detectors
Stunned students trickle back
2007 fatal shootings up from last year
Trustee has insider's view
Students, community traumatized
Your view: School security
Deadly school shooting
'Every mother is crying' for Jordan
Shootings at Canadian schools
Miller blames gun scourge
C.W. Jefferys seen as safe haven
CP Video: School locked down
1,000-page report contains more than 120 recommendations to improve safety in Toronto public schools
Jan 10, 2008 08:18 PM
Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter
There is a community-wide "crisis of confidence" in the ability of the Toronto District School Board to ensure its public schools are safe, according to a stinging report released today.
The School Community Safety Panel released a massive report, almost 1,000 pages, containing more than 120 recommendations to improve safety in Toronto public schools.
The report was prepared following the slaying last year of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, who was shot dead inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York.
While interviewing students and staff, panel members uncovered allegations of a 2006 sexual assault against a female Jefferys student who was reportedly forced to perform oral sex in a boys' washroom while other males stood guard. It was not reported to police.
After anonymous surveying of staff and students and reviewing incident records for the last two years, the panel concluded that "there are guns in select schools across the city in non-trivial numbers.
" The panel has also found that sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools."
Among the startling recommendations in the report was that the TDSB should use canine units that specialize in arms detection to patrol schools at random.
In addition, the report calls for all Toronto District School Boards school doors, apart from the front door, to be locked from the outside. And entry and exit from the school doors should be monitored by an adult at all times that the school is in use.
Surveys carried out at Westview Centennial indicated that 23 per cent of students reported that they knew someone who had brought a gun to school in the last two years. However, in the case of Westview, police recorded only one gun incident in the last two years.
Shockingly, the report found that neither the school board nor the Toronto police know exactly how many weapons are going in and out of schools.
The youths carrying guns are showing sufficient "street smarts" to avoid detection, the panel said.
The panel found that there are "no quick fixes."
“This took more than days to create as a problem and it will take more than days to fix,” panel chairman Julian Falconer told a news conference.
“We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn’t work. We suspend in droves; it fails.”
The report shied away from calling for measures such as metal detectors inside schools. That would consume "sparse resources and do little to nurture, re-engage and finally teach our marginalized youth," the report concluded.
The issue of safety, the panel said, should be viewed against the greater context of societal decline in how we provide for our most marginalized populations.
“It’s high time that we recognized that this is about taking responsibility for our weakest links,” Falconer told the news conference. “You can’t suspend a youth and send them home to learn a lesson if their home consists of a shelter.”
The panel report directed part of the blame at the school board.
"The post-amalgamation climate has been characterized by increasing safety concerns as the current TDSB has failed in its attempts to address the fundamental needs of youth who come to school unable to learn because of the challenging lives outside of school," the report said.
The panel found that the board's own cultural limitations and under-funding have rendered the board unable to address the needs of a disengaged youth.
The panel also attacked the Safe Schools Act, which it said emphasized safety without regard for equity.
To many, the act meant "oppression and discipline void of equity."
As long as the "Safe School" culture exists in name, their efforts will be unsuccessful, the panel stated.
The panel concluded that the TDSB cannot restore safety to its most vulnerable schools by itself.
The panel found that the Ministry of Education should create a special portfolio — the Provincial Safety and Equity Officer — to provide support and oversight on issues of school safety.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne was non-committal about giving school boards more funding, saying she wants to examine all the recommendations in the report. But Wynne, a former Toronto District School Board trustee, said she doesn’t like the idea of sniffer dogs in Ontario schools.
“It’s not my experience that there is an invasive culture of fear” in Toronto schools, she said in an interview.
“I don’t think anything that’s going to make our schools into fortresses or fearful places is the right way to go. I’m very supportive of preventative measures, but I’ll have to look at the specific recommendations.”
Conservative education critic Joyce Savoline said Ontario’s governing Liberals ignored earlier warnings from principals about school violence, and should act quickly on the report by increasing funding to all boards.
But Savoline agreed it’s too soon to consider using sniffer dogs in schools.
“I think it’s premature to talk about any one particular option,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not going to be the same for every school community.”
New Democrat Michael Prue blamed cutbacks by previous Conservative governments for the violence plaguing some schools, but said the Liberals must give boards adequate funding to cope with such problems.
“I’m not asking for special treatment for Toronto,” Prue said. ``But I am saying that school boards have to have discretionary funding, whether that is for aboriginal youth in northern Ontario, or in rural Ontario for better access to buses, or whether it’s in Toronto for social workers and programs to keep youth out of trouble.”
The panel report also recommended that the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth should conduct systemic reviews to protect and advocate for youth at Westview Secondary School and at the First Nations School of Toronto.
Here are a few of the leading recommendations:
— The TDSB should develop a "sexual assault and gender-based violence policy."
— The TDSB should establish programs at both the high school and junior-intermediate level for students who have engaged in repeated acts of gender-based violence."
— The TDSB should partner with community agencies to provide services for women and girls experiencing violence.
— The TDSB's policies relating to sexual assault and gender-based violence should be posted in schools.
— The TDSB should review and broaden its online code of conduct to address acts of cyber-violence.
with files from The Canadian Press
Crisis of confidence,' in school safety: Report
FRANK GUNN/CP
Students are escorted to waiting buses at C.W. Jefferys C.I. in Toronto on May 23, 2007, after the school was evacuated to investigate the shooting of a 15-year-old student on school grounds.
Email Story Email story
Print Print
Text Size Text Size Text Size Choose text size
Report Typo Report typo or correction
iCopyright License this article
AddThis
Your view: School violence
Safety panel report excerpts (.pdf)
Speak Out: School searches
Student transfer policy spreads gang ills: Panel
School officials to heal rift
DiManno: A heart-breaking sendoff
'Don't let my son die in vain'
Board to probe conditions at school
Family seeks action
Photos: Mourning slain youth
Murder charges in school shooting
CP Video: Students, AG react
Police mum on shooting motive
Teens cope with grief online
'Don't die, Jordan'
Mentors preferred to detectors
Stunned students trickle back
2007 fatal shootings up from last year
Trustee has insider's view
Students, community traumatized
Your view: School security
Deadly school shooting
'Every mother is crying' for Jordan
Shootings at Canadian schools
Miller blames gun scourge
C.W. Jefferys seen as safe haven
CP Video: School locked down
1,000-page report contains more than 120 recommendations to improve safety in Toronto public schools
Jan 10, 2008 08:18 PM
Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter
There is a community-wide "crisis of confidence" in the ability of the Toronto District School Board to ensure its public schools are safe, according to a stinging report released today.
The School Community Safety Panel released a massive report, almost 1,000 pages, containing more than 120 recommendations to improve safety in Toronto public schools.
The report was prepared following the slaying last year of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, who was shot dead inside C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York.
While interviewing students and staff, panel members uncovered allegations of a 2006 sexual assault against a female Jefferys student who was reportedly forced to perform oral sex in a boys' washroom while other males stood guard. It was not reported to police.
After anonymous surveying of staff and students and reviewing incident records for the last two years, the panel concluded that "there are guns in select schools across the city in non-trivial numbers.
" The panel has also found that sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools."
Among the startling recommendations in the report was that the TDSB should use canine units that specialize in arms detection to patrol schools at random.
In addition, the report calls for all Toronto District School Boards school doors, apart from the front door, to be locked from the outside. And entry and exit from the school doors should be monitored by an adult at all times that the school is in use.
Surveys carried out at Westview Centennial indicated that 23 per cent of students reported that they knew someone who had brought a gun to school in the last two years. However, in the case of Westview, police recorded only one gun incident in the last two years.
Shockingly, the report found that neither the school board nor the Toronto police know exactly how many weapons are going in and out of schools.
The youths carrying guns are showing sufficient "street smarts" to avoid detection, the panel said.
The panel found that there are "no quick fixes."
“This took more than days to create as a problem and it will take more than days to fix,” panel chairman Julian Falconer told a news conference.
“We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn’t work. We suspend in droves; it fails.”
The report shied away from calling for measures such as metal detectors inside schools. That would consume "sparse resources and do little to nurture, re-engage and finally teach our marginalized youth," the report concluded.
The issue of safety, the panel said, should be viewed against the greater context of societal decline in how we provide for our most marginalized populations.
“It’s high time that we recognized that this is about taking responsibility for our weakest links,” Falconer told the news conference. “You can’t suspend a youth and send them home to learn a lesson if their home consists of a shelter.”
The panel report directed part of the blame at the school board.
"The post-amalgamation climate has been characterized by increasing safety concerns as the current TDSB has failed in its attempts to address the fundamental needs of youth who come to school unable to learn because of the challenging lives outside of school," the report said.
The panel found that the board's own cultural limitations and under-funding have rendered the board unable to address the needs of a disengaged youth.
The panel also attacked the Safe Schools Act, which it said emphasized safety without regard for equity.
To many, the act meant "oppression and discipline void of equity."
As long as the "Safe School" culture exists in name, their efforts will be unsuccessful, the panel stated.
The panel concluded that the TDSB cannot restore safety to its most vulnerable schools by itself.
The panel found that the Ministry of Education should create a special portfolio — the Provincial Safety and Equity Officer — to provide support and oversight on issues of school safety.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne was non-committal about giving school boards more funding, saying she wants to examine all the recommendations in the report. But Wynne, a former Toronto District School Board trustee, said she doesn’t like the idea of sniffer dogs in Ontario schools.
“It’s not my experience that there is an invasive culture of fear” in Toronto schools, she said in an interview.
“I don’t think anything that’s going to make our schools into fortresses or fearful places is the right way to go. I’m very supportive of preventative measures, but I’ll have to look at the specific recommendations.”
Conservative education critic Joyce Savoline said Ontario’s governing Liberals ignored earlier warnings from principals about school violence, and should act quickly on the report by increasing funding to all boards.
But Savoline agreed it’s too soon to consider using sniffer dogs in schools.
“I think it’s premature to talk about any one particular option,” she said. “I’m sure it’s not going to be the same for every school community.”
New Democrat Michael Prue blamed cutbacks by previous Conservative governments for the violence plaguing some schools, but said the Liberals must give boards adequate funding to cope with such problems.
“I’m not asking for special treatment for Toronto,” Prue said. ``But I am saying that school boards have to have discretionary funding, whether that is for aboriginal youth in northern Ontario, or in rural Ontario for better access to buses, or whether it’s in Toronto for social workers and programs to keep youth out of trouble.”
The panel report also recommended that the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth should conduct systemic reviews to protect and advocate for youth at Westview Secondary School and at the First Nations School of Toronto.
Here are a few of the leading recommendations:
— The TDSB should develop a "sexual assault and gender-based violence policy."
— The TDSB should establish programs at both the high school and junior-intermediate level for students who have engaged in repeated acts of gender-based violence."
— The TDSB should partner with community agencies to provide services for women and girls experiencing violence.
— The TDSB's policies relating to sexual assault and gender-based violence should be posted in schools.
— The TDSB should review and broaden its online code of conduct to address acts of cyber-violence.
with files from The Canadian Press
The Canadian Press: Punishment no deterrent to guns, sex abuse in Toronto schools: panel chairman
The Canadian Press: Punishment no deterrent to guns, sex abuse in Toronto schools: panel chairman
Punishment no deterrent to guns, sex abuse in Toronto schools: panel chairman
15 hours ago
TORONTO - The problem of violence in Toronto's public schools has become so serious and so widespread that it cries out for fresh thinking and a revamped approach to how best to protect students, the head of an advisory panel said Thursday.
Julian Falconer, chairman of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel, punctuated the early release of the panel's massive final report by tearing a strip off how society as a whole deals with troubled or marginalized students.
"This took more than days to create as a problem and it will take more than days to fix," Falconer told a news conference.
"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves; it fails."
The panel's 1,000-page report, which uncovered an alarming number of unreported incidents of violence and sexual harassment at specific schools in Toronto, recommends - among other things - using dogs to sniff out guns hidden in school lockers.
It also calls for closer monitoring of school front doors and ensuring all other doors remain locked from the outside, a provincial portfolio dedicated to monitoring school safety, an end to the zero-tolerance Safe Schools Act and policy measures to deal with gender-based violence and cyber-bullying.
The report concludes that many of the more than 250,000 students at Toronto public schools contend daily with a "culture of fear" that pervades many of the city's secondary-school institutions, and identifies a community-wide "crisis of confidence" in the board's ability to ensure a violence-free and weapons-free environment.
At Westview Centennial secondary school, near the infamous, crime-riddled intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue in northwest Toronto, the panel found one out of every three female students reported some form of sexual harassment in the past two years.
Nearly 30 per cent of female students reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact during the same time frame, but aren't getting the protection they need from the school board because of their reluctance to report incidents, Falconer said.
"It's high time that we recognized that this is about taking responsibility for our weakest links," he said. "You can't suspend a youth and send them home to learn a lesson if their home consists of a shelter."
The panel was convened in the wake of the May shooting death of 15-year-old student Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute.
The school's former principal and two vice-principals were charged this week with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student in a school washroom in October 2006 even though they were made aware of the incident.
Falconer also said the board itself, while expected to take on responsibility for "complex-needs" students, doesn't get anything like the necessary funding to deal with the problem properly.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne was non-committal about giving school boards more funding, saying she wants to examine all the recommendations in the report. But Wynne, a former Toronto District School Board trustee, said she doesn't like the idea of sniffer dogs in Ontario schools.
"It's not my experience that there is an invasive culture of fear" in Toronto schools, she said in an interview.
"I don't think anything that's going to make our schools into fortresses or fearful places is the right way to go. I'm very supportive of preventative measures, but I'll have to look at the specific recommendations."
In January 2006, the panel recorded 177 violent incidents in schools across the district, including some involving guns, robbery and sexual assault.
That November, the board, which comprises 560 schools and 266,000 students, surveyed all pupils in grades 7 through 12 and found that the vast majority felt safe in the classroom and on school property.
Having dogs sniffing for guns may send the wrong message to the community, said Harvey Newman, who for 14 years was the principal of a school in New York, where some schools have security guards and metal detectors.
"It sends a message of a lack of trust," said Newman, a senior fellow at the Center for Educational Innovation with the Public Education Association in New York.
"It is an overreaction and it probably won't even achieve the objectives. If somebody wants to get into a school and do some damage, they won't go in the direction of the dogs or detectives.
"Forget all the book learning. The real message that you're sending to children is that that's the way a society must operate to be effective - a lousy social message.
"I wouldn't want to send my kids to a school where dogs are sniffing them up."
Conservative education critic Joyce Savoline said Ontario's governing Liberals ignored earlier warnings from principals about school violence, and should act quickly on the report by increasing funding to all boards.
But Savoline agreed it's too soon to consider using sniffer dogs in schools.
"I think it's premature to talk about any one particular option," she said. "I'm sure it's not going to be the same for every school community."
New Democrat Michael Prue blamed cutbacks by previous Conservative governments for the violence plaguing some schools, but said the Liberals must give boards adequate funding to cope with such problems.
"I'm not asking for special treatment for Toronto," Prue said. "But I am saying that school boards have to have discretionary funding, whether that is for aboriginal youth in northern Ontario, or in rural Ontario for better access to buses, or whether it's in Toronto for social workers and programs to keep youth out of trouble."
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Copyright © 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Punishment no deterrent to guns, sex abuse in Toronto schools: panel chairman
15 hours ago
TORONTO - The problem of violence in Toronto's public schools has become so serious and so widespread that it cries out for fresh thinking and a revamped approach to how best to protect students, the head of an advisory panel said Thursday.
Julian Falconer, chairman of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel, punctuated the early release of the panel's massive final report by tearing a strip off how society as a whole deals with troubled or marginalized students.
"This took more than days to create as a problem and it will take more than days to fix," Falconer told a news conference.
"We miss the point if we believe that the road to health involves punishing or using enforcement methods to try to re-engage youth. It doesn't work. We suspend in droves; it fails."
The panel's 1,000-page report, which uncovered an alarming number of unreported incidents of violence and sexual harassment at specific schools in Toronto, recommends - among other things - using dogs to sniff out guns hidden in school lockers.
It also calls for closer monitoring of school front doors and ensuring all other doors remain locked from the outside, a provincial portfolio dedicated to monitoring school safety, an end to the zero-tolerance Safe Schools Act and policy measures to deal with gender-based violence and cyber-bullying.
The report concludes that many of the more than 250,000 students at Toronto public schools contend daily with a "culture of fear" that pervades many of the city's secondary-school institutions, and identifies a community-wide "crisis of confidence" in the board's ability to ensure a violence-free and weapons-free environment.
At Westview Centennial secondary school, near the infamous, crime-riddled intersection of Jane Street and Finch Avenue in northwest Toronto, the panel found one out of every three female students reported some form of sexual harassment in the past two years.
Nearly 30 per cent of female students reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact during the same time frame, but aren't getting the protection they need from the school board because of their reluctance to report incidents, Falconer said.
"It's high time that we recognized that this is about taking responsibility for our weakest links," he said. "You can't suspend a youth and send them home to learn a lesson if their home consists of a shelter."
The panel was convened in the wake of the May shooting death of 15-year-old student Jordan Manners at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute.
The school's former principal and two vice-principals were charged this week with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student in a school washroom in October 2006 even though they were made aware of the incident.
Falconer also said the board itself, while expected to take on responsibility for "complex-needs" students, doesn't get anything like the necessary funding to deal with the problem properly.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne was non-committal about giving school boards more funding, saying she wants to examine all the recommendations in the report. But Wynne, a former Toronto District School Board trustee, said she doesn't like the idea of sniffer dogs in Ontario schools.
"It's not my experience that there is an invasive culture of fear" in Toronto schools, she said in an interview.
"I don't think anything that's going to make our schools into fortresses or fearful places is the right way to go. I'm very supportive of preventative measures, but I'll have to look at the specific recommendations."
In January 2006, the panel recorded 177 violent incidents in schools across the district, including some involving guns, robbery and sexual assault.
That November, the board, which comprises 560 schools and 266,000 students, surveyed all pupils in grades 7 through 12 and found that the vast majority felt safe in the classroom and on school property.
Having dogs sniffing for guns may send the wrong message to the community, said Harvey Newman, who for 14 years was the principal of a school in New York, where some schools have security guards and metal detectors.
"It sends a message of a lack of trust," said Newman, a senior fellow at the Center for Educational Innovation with the Public Education Association in New York.
"It is an overreaction and it probably won't even achieve the objectives. If somebody wants to get into a school and do some damage, they won't go in the direction of the dogs or detectives.
"Forget all the book learning. The real message that you're sending to children is that that's the way a society must operate to be effective - a lousy social message.
"I wouldn't want to send my kids to a school where dogs are sniffing them up."
Conservative education critic Joyce Savoline said Ontario's governing Liberals ignored earlier warnings from principals about school violence, and should act quickly on the report by increasing funding to all boards.
But Savoline agreed it's too soon to consider using sniffer dogs in schools.
"I think it's premature to talk about any one particular option," she said. "I'm sure it's not going to be the same for every school community."
New Democrat Michael Prue blamed cutbacks by previous Conservative governments for the violence plaguing some schools, but said the Liberals must give boards adequate funding to cope with such problems.
"I'm not asking for special treatment for Toronto," Prue said. "But I am saying that school boards have to have discretionary funding, whether that is for aboriginal youth in northern Ontario, or in rural Ontario for better access to buses, or whether it's in Toronto for social workers and programs to keep youth out of trouble."
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Searches in schools recommended: A panel investigation into school-based violence said the Toronto District School Board should consider using firearm-detecting canine units to randomly conduct "non-intrusive" searches of student lockers and all potential storage areas to ensure weapons are not being hidden, according to a leaked report that includes shocking revelations about the extent to which violence and sexual harassment are prevalent in Toronto schools. Nearly 1,000 pages in length, the final report of the School Community and Safety Advisory Panel, due out Monday, makes 126 recommendations to address school safety aimed at both the Toronto District School Board and the province, which, according to the report, is under-funding the education system.
Searches in schools recommended: A panel investigation into school-based violence said the Toronto District School Board should consider using firearm-detecting canine units to randomly conduct "non-intrusive" searches of student lockers and all potential storage areas to ensure weapons are not being hidden, according to a leaked report that includes shocking revelations about the extent to which violence and sexual harassment are prevalent in Toronto schools. Nearly 1,000 pages in length, the final report of the School Community and Safety Advisory Panel, due out Monday, makes 126 recommendations to address school safety aimed at both the Toronto District School Board and the province, which, according to the report, is under-funding the education system.
Violence report reveals culture of fear in Toronto schools
Violence report reveals culture of fear in Toronto schools
Violence report reveals culture of fear in Toronto schools
Jordana Huber, CanWest News Service
TORONTO — A panel investigation into school-based violence said the Toronto District School Board should consider using firearm-detecting canine units to randomly conduct "non-intrusive" searches of student lockers and all potential storage areas to ensure weapons are not being hidden, according to a leaked report that includes shocking revelations about the extent to which violence and sexual harassment are prevalent in Toronto schools.
Nearly 1,000 pages in length, the final report of the School Community and Safety Advisory Panel, due out Monday, makes 126 recommendations to address school safety aimed at both the Toronto District School Board and the province, which, according to the report, is under-funding the education system.
"There is a community-wide crisis of confidence in the ability of the TDSB to ensure violence-free and weapon-free environments in all of its schools. The panel shares this concern," the report said.
View Video Gallery Global National reports Principal, 2 vice-principals charged Email to a friendEmail to a friend Printer friendlyPrinter friendly
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In making its recommendations, the panel noted a pervasive culture of silence and fear both among students and staff at the TDSB that is leading to unreported incidents.
Led by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, the panel found neither the school board nor police are in a position to effectively track the number of weapons going in and out of schools.
"The youth carrying guns exhibit sufficient ‘street smarts’ to, in the vast majority of cases, avoid detection," the report said.
To address safety concerns, the panel recommends a number of initiatives, including posting adult supervision at the entrance of schools during regular hours and identification tags for students.
In order to develop an enhanced presence in their schools, teachers should increase their supervision duties, according to the report, which calls for the TDSB to negotiate with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary Students Teachers Federation for increased remuneration to reflect the additional workload.
Prompted by the shooting death last May of Jordan Manners, 15, at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, the TDSB appointed Falconer to lead an investigation into school safety procedures at the high school.
As part of its investigation, but unrelated to Manners’ death, the panel uncovered allegations that a Muslim female student had been sexually assaulted in a school washroom at C.W. Jefferys the previous year, but that the incident was not reported by school administrators.
Citing serious safety concerns during the course of its investigation, in June the panel expanded its mandate to look at other schools in the area, including Westview Centennial.
According to the Falconer report, in October 2006, several C.W. Jefferys students approached a female teacher and reported that a group of boys had sexually assaulted a female Muslim student in the second floor boys washroom. The report said the girls confided in the teacher because they feared the teens were targeting female students who were unpopular and isolated. The teacher and students then reported their concerns to the principal, the report said.
But there was no follow-up, according to the panel. The alleged sexual assault was not reported to police or the alleged victim’s parents because, according to the report, the administrator had concerns that due to the alleged victim’s ethnic background she would be the subject of abuse at home.
The report said as students at C.W. Jefferys heard rumours of an attack, the alleged victim became the subject of intense sexual harassment and ridicule by other students.
The panel notes some steps were taken to curb the bullying and abusive behaviour but it continued to the point where the young woman was eventually transferred to another school at her own request and that of her father.
The report said no further steps were taken to remove the alleged perpetrators from the school. Indeed, no further actions were taken until the panel uncovered the allegations this summer and reported them to the TDSB, which in turn, reported them to police.
Six males were arrested in September and face charges of forcible confinement, gang sexual assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
In February, the principal and two former vice-principals of C.W. Jefferys will appear in court to face charges under the Ontario Child and Family Services Act that they failed to report an incident contrary to their obligation, according to Toronto Police.
Indeed, the panel found that "sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools," the report said.
According to a student survey conducted at Westview Centennial, 33 per cent of students surveyed reported being a victim of sexual harassment in school over the past two years. Twenty-nine per cent reported being the victim of unwanted sexual contact, including touching or grabbing at their school, and 29 female students or 7 per cent of respondents reported being the victim of a major sexual assault at their school.
The panel calls for a series of initiatives to address the issues of sexual harassment, including a public awareness campaign concerning sexual assault and gender-based violence. In addition, each school should establish a student hotline staffed by students trained in reporting and aware of appropriate supports for students being victimized.
The panel also recommends the TDSB develop a sexual assault and gender-based violence prevention strategy. In addition, the TDSB should partner with community agencies that provide services for women and girls who experience violence in order to enhance supports available to students to help prevent and respond to gender-based school violence.
The four-volume report also takes the government to task over its funding formula. The panel recommends increasing the benchmark costs for all components of the formula in order to close the gap between funding provided and actual costs.
It also recommends the minister of education strike an implementation task force to oversee recommendations.
Further recommendations in the report include:
• The hiring of 20 new full-time social workers.
• The policy that safe school transfers only be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a discipline.
• The province creates a standing educational justice committee.
• The TDSB amend its transfer process to permit teachers at schools in at-risk communities to be transferred to a different school upon request.
• Develop an inclusive curriculum that explores ways to incorporate African-centred perspectives and other forms of cultural knowledge.
• Require principals to stay five years in priority communities.
• Revise and broaden online code of conduct to include acts of cyber violence and the consequences for students who engage in such conduct on or off school property.
©CanWest News Service 2008
Violence report reveals culture of fear in Toronto schools
Jordana Huber, CanWest News Service
TORONTO — A panel investigation into school-based violence said the Toronto District School Board should consider using firearm-detecting canine units to randomly conduct "non-intrusive" searches of student lockers and all potential storage areas to ensure weapons are not being hidden, according to a leaked report that includes shocking revelations about the extent to which violence and sexual harassment are prevalent in Toronto schools.
Nearly 1,000 pages in length, the final report of the School Community and Safety Advisory Panel, due out Monday, makes 126 recommendations to address school safety aimed at both the Toronto District School Board and the province, which, according to the report, is under-funding the education system.
"There is a community-wide crisis of confidence in the ability of the TDSB to ensure violence-free and weapon-free environments in all of its schools. The panel shares this concern," the report said.
View Video Gallery Global National reports Principal, 2 vice-principals charged Email to a friendEmail to a friend Printer friendlyPrinter friendly
*
A
A
A
A
Font:
In making its recommendations, the panel noted a pervasive culture of silence and fear both among students and staff at the TDSB that is leading to unreported incidents.
Led by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, the panel found neither the school board nor police are in a position to effectively track the number of weapons going in and out of schools.
"The youth carrying guns exhibit sufficient ‘street smarts’ to, in the vast majority of cases, avoid detection," the report said.
To address safety concerns, the panel recommends a number of initiatives, including posting adult supervision at the entrance of schools during regular hours and identification tags for students.
In order to develop an enhanced presence in their schools, teachers should increase their supervision duties, according to the report, which calls for the TDSB to negotiate with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Secondary Students Teachers Federation for increased remuneration to reflect the additional workload.
Prompted by the shooting death last May of Jordan Manners, 15, at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate, the TDSB appointed Falconer to lead an investigation into school safety procedures at the high school.
As part of its investigation, but unrelated to Manners’ death, the panel uncovered allegations that a Muslim female student had been sexually assaulted in a school washroom at C.W. Jefferys the previous year, but that the incident was not reported by school administrators.
Citing serious safety concerns during the course of its investigation, in June the panel expanded its mandate to look at other schools in the area, including Westview Centennial.
According to the Falconer report, in October 2006, several C.W. Jefferys students approached a female teacher and reported that a group of boys had sexually assaulted a female Muslim student in the second floor boys washroom. The report said the girls confided in the teacher because they feared the teens were targeting female students who were unpopular and isolated. The teacher and students then reported their concerns to the principal, the report said.
But there was no follow-up, according to the panel. The alleged sexual assault was not reported to police or the alleged victim’s parents because, according to the report, the administrator had concerns that due to the alleged victim’s ethnic background she would be the subject of abuse at home.
The report said as students at C.W. Jefferys heard rumours of an attack, the alleged victim became the subject of intense sexual harassment and ridicule by other students.
The panel notes some steps were taken to curb the bullying and abusive behaviour but it continued to the point where the young woman was eventually transferred to another school at her own request and that of her father.
The report said no further steps were taken to remove the alleged perpetrators from the school. Indeed, no further actions were taken until the panel uncovered the allegations this summer and reported them to the TDSB, which in turn, reported them to police.
Six males were arrested in September and face charges of forcible confinement, gang sexual assault and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
In February, the principal and two former vice-principals of C.W. Jefferys will appear in court to face charges under the Ontario Child and Family Services Act that they failed to report an incident contrary to their obligation, according to Toronto Police.
Indeed, the panel found that "sexual assault and sexual harassment are prevalent in TDSB schools," the report said.
According to a student survey conducted at Westview Centennial, 33 per cent of students surveyed reported being a victim of sexual harassment in school over the past two years. Twenty-nine per cent reported being the victim of unwanted sexual contact, including touching or grabbing at their school, and 29 female students or 7 per cent of respondents reported being the victim of a major sexual assault at their school.
The panel calls for a series of initiatives to address the issues of sexual harassment, including a public awareness campaign concerning sexual assault and gender-based violence. In addition, each school should establish a student hotline staffed by students trained in reporting and aware of appropriate supports for students being victimized.
The panel also recommends the TDSB develop a sexual assault and gender-based violence prevention strategy. In addition, the TDSB should partner with community agencies that provide services for women and girls who experience violence in order to enhance supports available to students to help prevent and respond to gender-based school violence.
The four-volume report also takes the government to task over its funding formula. The panel recommends increasing the benchmark costs for all components of the formula in order to close the gap between funding provided and actual costs.
It also recommends the minister of education strike an implementation task force to oversee recommendations.
Further recommendations in the report include:
• The hiring of 20 new full-time social workers.
• The policy that safe school transfers only be used in exceptional circumstances and not as a discipline.
• The province creates a standing educational justice committee.
• The TDSB amend its transfer process to permit teachers at schools in at-risk communities to be transferred to a different school upon request.
• Develop an inclusive curriculum that explores ways to incorporate African-centred perspectives and other forms of cultural knowledge.
• Require principals to stay five years in priority communities.
• Revise and broaden online code of conduct to include acts of cyber violence and the consequences for students who engage in such conduct on or off school property.
©CanWest News Service 2008
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