St. Lawrence Secondary Students To Walk Out Tuesday December 11th at 1 PM Over Bill 115 – HD VIDEO

CFN –  No, it’s not the Cornwall version of Twilight!

I love seeing young people become political.  Maybe it’s because I’m middle aged and getting older fast?  Maybe because it gives me hope?  Maybe it’s because it reminds me of when I was a much younger cat?

Josh Welsh (Grade 12) Emma Douglass (Grade 10); Edward Ross & Alex Merizzi  (both Grade 12) braved the cold and spoke with me outside their school.

Since last week students across our area and Ontario have been revving up and rumbling for a one day walk out Tuesday December 10th, 2012.    Here in Cornwall Ontario St. Lawrence Secondary students have announced a walk out for 1 PM and other schools are doing so at various times too such as TAGWI at 9:30 AM.

“We’re not going to be used as pawns.”   Josh Wells Grade 12 Student

What’s turning frustration into fire?    Students extra curricular activities are being chopped and as you can see in the upcoming video it’s essentially a tactic to get students upset.   It’s working too, but the question is who really should the students, many of whom aren’t dumb, be angry with?

“I feel like a scape goat…we’re being used as a human shield…by the unions”  Edward Ross  Grade 12

My support for the teachers over the issues of Bill 115 have diminished.  Cancelling Proms?  Trips abroad?    This is after all a teachers union that let itself be bought off by the highest bidder which for the last decade or so was the Liberals after Bob Rae and the NDP had Rae Days.   It’s also a union that’s high demands have hurt support workers as the government focuses on keeping them happy.   CUPE protested recently over the wiping out of time and other issues that their members have just lost.

You’d think teachers would put students first no matter what?   Schools are not sweat shops.  Teachers are not being abused.   Do they really think Tim Hudak and the Conservatives would give them a great big hug and sing Koom By Ya with them?

Ontario like almost the entire rest of the world is not terribly flush with cash right now.   Cuts have to be made and are being a made across the board.

As one of the students said:

Everyone that works for the government should get the same cut.

Cancelling proms and trips abroad will not create wealth in Ontario.   While the government should deal with the teachers in good faith, surely there has to be a better way for teachers to leverage their EXTORTION negotiation with the government  than abusing students and using them as negotiating pawns?

Tomorrow should be interesting to see exactly how many students protest around the province.    Petitions are also being created.    If anything hopefully more students will become aware and learn about how the system works so that they can help create a system that they truly want they and their future children to live in.

Do you think the students are pawns or victims in this battle between some of the teachers unions and the government of Ontario?   You can post your comments below.

8 Comments

  1. The students are the victims. They are being harmed by the actions of the teachers, the union bosses, the school board bosses and the government bosses. Only the students can stop themselves from being victims. They must learn to autodidact themselves and drop out of the indoctrination institutes. Students need to create their own educational associations and develop their own credentials for themselves. They are their own knowledge masters and must depend on themselves not to be educational victims.

  2. OMG you have students you are the only hope for the education system. I am not a big supporter for government and how they mis spend money but for the education system to hold you as hostage for a personal belief or job security is wrong.

    I recently had a long discussion with a family member who is a teacher, I asked them one question, “Prove what the union says about the boards not being able to negotiate exists in the bill” we looked for hours and it does not exist. They can negotiate but there are restrictions. Restrictions no different then any one of the union members or teachers would implement if someone worked for them.

    Please student follwo through with the walk out. Teachers and their unions have set precedence. You D|O NOT have to do what you are told!!!!!

    If I was home at that time I would lead all of you on to the streets

  3. omg *l* sorry bout the poor grammer but i was kind of into the moment

  4. just wanna add ccvs is as well doing the walk out for 12:30

  5. Teachers like nurses have lost the ability to call themselves a profession with their self protecting unions
    When they start to act like a professional body rather than the teamsters they will have gone up in my estimations

    There should also be performance evaluations where poor performers are dismissed like all other industries, as the quality of the work has diminished greatly in the past 20 years. We are now producing school graduates who cannot add or write legibly and they are expected to rock university.

    Whether some of these issues are the decisions of the government or the school board, the teachers union should use their might focussing on the functionally illiterate that they are churning out than whether they get 80k a year for having a degree and a teachers certificate.

    When they wanted to make sure that they also got family day as well as the 3 months regular vacation plus other stat holidays they forced the government to create a situation where the government were in conflict with the education act that required a set minimum number of days education in a year. They were quite willing to sacrifice the students education for their extra day off then so what is so surprising about their self interest now.

    Being a teacher nowadays is no longer a vocation but is on a par with churning out widgets.

  6. What’s really happening here is simply that teachers are withholding volunteer labour until their dispute with the employer is over. This does not necessarily need to harm the students. Whatever the teachers were providing in terms of extracurricular activities could just as easily be organized by community members now that the teachers are no longer willing to volunteer their time for it. Prom? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen places other than schools hold big dances before. Organized sports? Start your own league. Trips abroad? I’m pretty sure people can arrange for their own travel, what with the internet and all. It’s certainly inconvenient, but to act as though the union is taking hostages when they’re only withholding extra labour verges on the absurd.

    I’m not going to dissect the many grammatical and logical errors in this article, nor will I make an argument regarding its obviously prejudicial tone, but I am going to ask one question: is it really in keeping with a journalistic code of ethics that an interviewer should ask such lading questions to a group of children?

  7. Very true David
    The education system pretty much downloads any and all responsibility on parents.

    The volunteer work they perform includes putting the attendance into the computers at work. This is really an admin responsibility. If the school and its administration cannot figure out how to better control its operations at such a simple and easy level how do you expect them to teach?

  8. Why does the media persist in pushing a false government talking point?

    It was a strong teachers union which negotiated a series of reasonably good deals for their membership……which is their job.

    It was a corrupt government that sold out the best interests of the general public by trading better deals for support in 2 elections.

    Now that the light is starting to shine on the mess, the government is madly messaging that it’s the EVIL unions……..so people don’t look at the real culprits…….

    …….a corrupt government that used taxpayer funds to buy election support from one sector.

    One more time…….the unions did their jobs properly for their members……….the government sold favours in exchange for support at election time……..

    THAT’S CORRUPT GOVERNMENT……

    Stop blaming the unions for the government influence peddling.

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