The findings of the school safety panel investigating violence in the Toronto District School Board were reported in today’s Globe and Mail. Teachers, I think, will see the almost universal truth expressed in the section I have placed in bold print.
Fears of career suicide stopped educators from reporting violence
CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND OMAR EL AKKAD
From Friday's Globe and Mail
January 11, 2008 at 4:01 AM EST
Teachers and school staff are too intimidated to speak out about violence in Toronto's public schools, a damning report charges.
A school safety panel revealed yesterday that employees of the Toronto District School Board told them they feared that revealing school safety issues or anything that would reflect negatively on the board would be "a career-limiting move."
As a result, hundreds of incidents that should have been reported were not. This "culture of fear" led to a failure of the system and its overseers to protect students from violence, including robberies and sexual assault, on school grounds, the report said.
"Jordan Manners died on May 23, 2007, of flat neglect, pure neglect," panel chair Julian Falconer said yesterday, referring to the 15-year-old whose shooting sparked the inquiry.
The panel's findings had officials at Canada's largest school board facing uncomfortable questions about why so many violent incidents go unreported, and why it took the death of a 15-year-old to prompt a review of school safety.
"I think that until [the Jordan Manners shooting] happened, we probably thought we had a pretty good handle on it," said John Campbell, chair of the TDSB. "And I think what that did is it really drew attention to the fact that we didn't have a very good handle on it."
Mr. Falconer said many officials within the school system are too intimidated to report violent incidents. Many of the school officials interviewed by the panel refused to go on the record for fear of reprisal.
"People are afraid and it's not just students; it's teachers," Mr. Falconer said.
Toronto District School Board officials hastily convened a press conference yesterday. Both the School Community Safety Advisory Panel's final report and the press conference were scheduled for early next week, but the report was leaked to virtually all the city's major news media outlets on Wednesday.
The panel - led by Mr. Falconer - was asked to report on school safety after Jordan was shot to death at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York.
The report, which is almost 1,000 pages, describes the country's largest school system as rife with violence, including robberies and sexual assaults - all unreported by school officials.
The lack of reporting is the biggest problem the board must deal with, according the Manners family's lawyer.
"That is one of the greatest concerns," said Courtney Betty. "That code of silence continues to be maintained."
Mr. Betty said it remains to be seen the extent to which the TDSB will continue the "mirage" that everything is all right within the school system.
Jordan's mother, Laureen Small, is especially upset that a summary of the report was not given to her in advance, the lawyer said. Ms. Small found out about its contents from news stories yesterday.
Since Jordan's killing, Mr. Betty said, no one from the TDSB has contacted Ms. Small to express condolences.
Gerry Connelly, the TDSB's director of education, said that while the school board's own information shows that students feel safe in their schools, the report clearly indicated more work is needed.
"With respect to weapons, with respect to violence, with respect to sexual assaults: our students and our staff must feel clearly, absolutely safe and they must feel empowered to report any incident or suspicion that comes to their notice."
The school board is piloting a "Safeline" that students can call anonymously 24 hours a day to report incidents.
But Mr. Falconer said there is no "quick fix" to the board's problems.
"You could fill a Home Hardware with the amount of knives kids bring to school, but we don't find them," he said.
Since Jan. 13, 2006, the panel says, it found 177 violent incidents in schools across the district, including gun incidents, robberies and sexual assaults. During its inquiry, the panel came across allegations of a gang sexual assault of a Muslim female student at C.W. Jefferys.
At Westview Centennial Secondary School near the corner of Jane and Finch, 29 female students said they had been victims of major sexual assault at the school in the past two years, according to the report.
The panel issued 126 recommendations, including that the board employ canine units to sniff out weapons in a "non-intrusive" manner.
The panel also calls on the Ministry of Education to strike a task force on implementing the recommendations.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne would not comment on specific recommendations in the report, saying she needed more time to study it. However, she said the ministry will fund more social workers and counsellors and continues to pump more money into the school system.
"There's always more to do," she said. "We've been changing the funding formula every year."
Some of the panel's other recommendations received mixed reviews.
A Toronto police officer questioned a proposal for each school to set up a "student hot-line," manned by pupils familiar with such issues as bullying, augmented by a TDSB-created website allowing students to relay anonymous crime-related tips.
Such tip lines are already in place, albeit in different forms.
"And we don't need to reinvent the wheel," said Constable Scott Mills, who runs Toronto's Crime Stoppers school program.
Constable Mills said he offered to speak to the Falconer panel, but none of its members got back to him.
At C.W. Jefferys yesterday, students didn't seem too concerned about the dire condition the report says their school is in. However, some said that students simply don't talk about violent incidents.
"The reputation going around is: when you talk, you're basically a snitch," said student Chandé Wilmot. "[People worry] that they might get beat up."
With reports from James Bradshaw, Timothy Appleby and Anthony Capuano
*****
Violent acts
Examples of violent incidents involving Toronto public school students:
February, 2006 - A high-school student was in a laneway behind the school passing a rifle back and forth with another student. Shots were fired into a window at the back of a house.
February, 2006 - Two female secondary-school students were in a conflict over a boy. One girl brought a knife to school and used it to threaten the other girl. Police investigated and cautioned the girl with the knife. The school issued a 20-day suspension.
April, 2006 - Five secondary-school students robbed another student of his MP3 player at the back of the school. The victim was searched for money but only had 25 cents in his wallet, which the suspects took. All five students were arrested and charged with robbery.
September, 2006 - A male secondary-school teacher entered the staff washroom and caught two students engaged in a sex act. Both students were taken to the office and the administration called the police. Even though the sex act was determined to be consensual, criminal charges were laid against the male student because of the age of the female. The school was to discipline the female student.
March, 2007 - A male student at a high school tried to drag a female student into the washroom to perform fellatio. She broke free and ran to the principal. When arresting the male, police found 10 dime bags of marijuana.
May, 2007 - A student brought a BB gun to school and shot at two students. The student was charged by police.
September, 2007 - Several boys were allegedly involved in the sexual initiation of a female high-school student, who told a teacher about the incident. Police are investigating.
November, 2007 - A secondary-school student assaulted another student with a knife on school property. Police arrested the student and told him to keep away from the school. The principal issued a 20-day suspension pending possible expulsion.
Source: The Road to Health: A Final Report on School Safety
Showing posts with label c.w. jeffreys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label c.w. jeffreys. Show all posts
Friday, January 11, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
School Safety
Below, I am posting the latest news about the Toronto District School Board and its culture of concealment. One would be naïve, however, to think that the failure of administrators to report assaults is unique to that board. I remember an incident in my own career a few years back when the vice-principal informed me that a student would be joining my English class three weeks into the semester. I was told that the student had been a victim of bullying in one of her classes, and therefore her entire schedule was being rearranged so she would no longer be in the class where the bullying took place. When I asked the vice-principal why this student was being victimized a second time by having her schedule disrupted, she said, “Lorne, I’m trying to save this girl.” When I asked why the people responsible for the bullying weren’t being punished instead, she claimed that she didn’t know their identities, something I found hard to believe. Two days later, a guidance counselor confirmed to me that the v.p. had been lying in claiming not to know their identities. Similarly, you will read of administrative cravenness and ineptitude in the story that follows. I have put the most pertinent parts in bold print.
SCHOOL SAFETY
Report describes 'culture of fear' in TDSB
Hundreds of assaults go unreported
CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND OMAR EL AKKAD
January 10, 2008
The Toronto District School Board should consider purchasing and using firearm-detecting K9 units, according to one of the recommendations of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel report - a document that paints perhaps the grimmest picture yet of Toronto's public schools, rife with hundreds of violent, often unreported, assaults.
The panel's final report - set to be released in a few days, but obtained by The Globe and Mail yesterday - weighs in at almost 1,000 pages and describes not only numerous violent incidents but a pervasive culture of silence among students, staff and principals when it comes to reporting those incidents.
"This culture of fear, or culture of silence, permeates through every level of the TDSB," the report says.
"There is a community-wide crisis of confidence in the ability of the TDSB to ensure violence-free and weapons-free environments in all of its schools," it says.
The panel was set up by the TDSB after the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners last May at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York. The final massive report comes after the panel, headed up by respected criminal lawyer Julian Falconer, asked for and received several budget and timeline extensions.
The report's findings show a shockingly high number of violent school incidents.
Since Jan. 13, 2006, the panel says it found 177 violent incidents in schools across the district -- they include gun incidents, robberies and sexual assaults. The panel found there were guns in select schools across the city "in non-trivial numbers."
At Westview Centennial secondary school near the corner of Jane and Finch, the panel found that one of every three female students said they have been the victim of sexual harassment at their school over past two years. Almost 30 per cent of female students at the school said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact over that period of time.
Twenty-nine female students said they had been victims of major sexual assault at the school.
At C.W. Jefferys, almost 20 per cent of female students said they had been the victims of sexual assault, the report said.
One of the most shocking side effects of the panel's investigation over the past few months was the discovery of the alleged sexual assault of a female Muslim student at C.W. Jefferys. The final report sheds more light on the incident, which took place in October, 2006.
According to the report, several students approached a female teacher to report that a Muslim girl had been sexually assaulted in the second-floor boys washroom by a group of boys.
"The students came forward because they were concerned that the boys involved were targeting girls who were unpopular and isolated," the report says.
The female teacher and the students told a vice-principal about the alleged attack, but neither police or her parents were informed, the report says.
As more students heard about what happened, however, the female student was further harassed by other students, although steps were taken to curb abuse, the report says.
The female student was eventually transferred to another school at the request of both her and her father. But no steps were taken to remove the alleged attackers from school, the report says.
The former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys have been charged under Ontario's Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student, Toronto District School Board education director Gerry Connelly confirmed this week, before the final report's release.
Some of the report's recommendations are almost as sensational as some of the findings.
"The TDSB should take immediate steps to ensure that adequate security measures are employed to ensure all potential storage areas for weapons (including lockers) are the subject of regular non-intrusive searches," the report says.
Consideration should also be given to random usage of TDSB-owned K9 units that specialize in firearm detection, the panel advised.
The panel also recommended the provincial government amend the education act to create a mandatory reporting obligation for all school staff when it comes to such violent incidents.
Schools with high suspension, expulsion or dropout rates should be staffed with full-time social workers and youth workers, the panel advised - TDSB should also hire 20 new full-time social workers dedicated to high-priority schools.
SCHOOL SAFETY
Report describes 'culture of fear' in TDSB
Hundreds of assaults go unreported
CAROLINE ALPHONSO AND OMAR EL AKKAD
January 10, 2008
The Toronto District School Board should consider purchasing and using firearm-detecting K9 units, according to one of the recommendations of the School Community Safety Advisory Panel report - a document that paints perhaps the grimmest picture yet of Toronto's public schools, rife with hundreds of violent, often unreported, assaults.
The panel's final report - set to be released in a few days, but obtained by The Globe and Mail yesterday - weighs in at almost 1,000 pages and describes not only numerous violent incidents but a pervasive culture of silence among students, staff and principals when it comes to reporting those incidents.
"This culture of fear, or culture of silence, permeates through every level of the TDSB," the report says.
"There is a community-wide crisis of confidence in the ability of the TDSB to ensure violence-free and weapons-free environments in all of its schools," it says.
The panel was set up by the TDSB after the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners last May at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York. The final massive report comes after the panel, headed up by respected criminal lawyer Julian Falconer, asked for and received several budget and timeline extensions.
The report's findings show a shockingly high number of violent school incidents.
Since Jan. 13, 2006, the panel says it found 177 violent incidents in schools across the district -- they include gun incidents, robberies and sexual assaults. The panel found there were guns in select schools across the city "in non-trivial numbers."
At Westview Centennial secondary school near the corner of Jane and Finch, the panel found that one of every three female students said they have been the victim of sexual harassment at their school over past two years. Almost 30 per cent of female students at the school said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact over that period of time.
Twenty-nine female students said they had been victims of major sexual assault at the school.
At C.W. Jefferys, almost 20 per cent of female students said they had been the victims of sexual assault, the report said.
One of the most shocking side effects of the panel's investigation over the past few months was the discovery of the alleged sexual assault of a female Muslim student at C.W. Jefferys. The final report sheds more light on the incident, which took place in October, 2006.
According to the report, several students approached a female teacher to report that a Muslim girl had been sexually assaulted in the second-floor boys washroom by a group of boys.
"The students came forward because they were concerned that the boys involved were targeting girls who were unpopular and isolated," the report says.
The female teacher and the students told a vice-principal about the alleged attack, but neither police or her parents were informed, the report says.
As more students heard about what happened, however, the female student was further harassed by other students, although steps were taken to curb abuse, the report says.
The female student was eventually transferred to another school at the request of both her and her father. But no steps were taken to remove the alleged attackers from school, the report says.
The former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys have been charged under Ontario's Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student, Toronto District School Board education director Gerry Connelly confirmed this week, before the final report's release.
Some of the report's recommendations are almost as sensational as some of the findings.
"The TDSB should take immediate steps to ensure that adequate security measures are employed to ensure all potential storage areas for weapons (including lockers) are the subject of regular non-intrusive searches," the report says.
Consideration should also be given to random usage of TDSB-owned K9 units that specialize in firearm detection, the panel advised.
The panel also recommended the provincial government amend the education act to create a mandatory reporting obligation for all school staff when it comes to such violent incidents.
Schools with high suspension, expulsion or dropout rates should be staffed with full-time social workers and youth workers, the panel advised - TDSB should also hire 20 new full-time social workers dedicated to high-priority schools.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Nemesis is Sometimes a Sweet Thing
As much as I would like to claim personal magnanimity and say I take no pleasure in the misfortune of others, the story from today’s Globe and Mail that I am reprinting below made my day in its exposure of administrative duplicity. As anyone who has taught for any period of time will know, management, ranging from school to senior administration, frequently has a seemingly endless capacity for concealing things that reflect badly on their schools. I attribute this to the likelihood that the people who are attracted to management tend to be political, and I mean that in the worst sense of the word. In any event, my prediction is that unlike teachers who might have done the same thing, these administrators will not lose their jobs. In fact, one of them mentioned in the article has already retired. But that double standard is perhaps the basis of a future post.
C.W. Jefferys staff charged with failing to report alleged assault
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
January 8, 2008 at 4:36 AM EST
Days before the release of a report on safety in Toronto schools, three senior staff members at the high school that spawned the inquiry face troubles of their own.
The former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute have been charged under Ontario's Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student, Toronto District School Board education director Gerry Connelly confirmed yesterday.
Disposition of those non-criminal charges, however, will likely wait until the courts deal with the six young people charged in the alleged sex attack, in which a 14-year-old Muslim girl told of being assaulted in a school washroom.
Principal Charis Newton-Thompson and vice-principals Silvio Tallevi and Stan Gordon face fines of up to $1,000 if convicted. Ms. Newton-Thompson and Mr. Gordon are on paid leave; Mr. Tallevi has retired.
The sex charges stemmed from the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, shot last May inside C.W. Jefferys, a 900-student high school near Keele Street and Finch Avenue West.
Two males aged 17 at the time of the killing face charges of first-degree murder.
Jordan's death prompted creation of a panel examining school safety issues, led by criminal lawyer Julian Falconer, whose findings are expected to be aired early next week.
Among other things, the panel learned of the alleged attack on the girl, in which she is believed to have been lured inside a school washroom in October, 2006, and forced to perform oral sex on one or more boys while the others kept watch.
The six youths have been charged with gang sexual assault, forcible confinement and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
The CFSA charges, in turn, reflect allegations aired at the panel hearings that school staff became aware of the washroom incident but failed to report it to police or the Children's Aid Society, as the law requires with allegations of physical or sexual assault.
"Following policy, we sent the three administrators home and notified the police," Ms. Connelly said yesterday. "Now they've charged the three a
C.W. Jefferys staff charged with failing to report alleged assault
TIMOTHY APPLEBY
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
January 8, 2008 at 4:36 AM EST
Days before the release of a report on safety in Toronto schools, three senior staff members at the high school that spawned the inquiry face troubles of their own.
The former principal and two vice-principals at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute have been charged under Ontario's Child and Family Services Act with failing to report an alleged sexual assault on a student, Toronto District School Board education director Gerry Connelly confirmed yesterday.
Disposition of those non-criminal charges, however, will likely wait until the courts deal with the six young people charged in the alleged sex attack, in which a 14-year-old Muslim girl told of being assaulted in a school washroom.
Principal Charis Newton-Thompson and vice-principals Silvio Tallevi and Stan Gordon face fines of up to $1,000 if convicted. Ms. Newton-Thompson and Mr. Gordon are on paid leave; Mr. Tallevi has retired.
The sex charges stemmed from the investigation into the death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, shot last May inside C.W. Jefferys, a 900-student high school near Keele Street and Finch Avenue West.
Two males aged 17 at the time of the killing face charges of first-degree murder.
Jordan's death prompted creation of a panel examining school safety issues, led by criminal lawyer Julian Falconer, whose findings are expected to be aired early next week.
Among other things, the panel learned of the alleged attack on the girl, in which she is believed to have been lured inside a school washroom in October, 2006, and forced to perform oral sex on one or more boys while the others kept watch.
The six youths have been charged with gang sexual assault, forcible confinement and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
The CFSA charges, in turn, reflect allegations aired at the panel hearings that school staff became aware of the washroom incident but failed to report it to police or the Children's Aid Society, as the law requires with allegations of physical or sexual assault.
"Following policy, we sent the three administrators home and notified the police," Ms. Connelly said yesterday. "Now they've charged the three a
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