Principals balk at reporting fights
June 18, 2008
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Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
Ontario's public school principals don't want to be forced to report altercations between students, saying it would be "time-consuming, inappropriate and costly."
"While reports to the police should be made" in cases of physical assault where a student requires medical attention, among other situations, "involving the police in school life is a decision best left to educators who know students the best," says yesterday's letter to the education minister from Lisa Vincent, president of the Ontario Principals' Council.
But Tory MPP Frank Klees (Newmarket-Aurora) says the province needs "the force and effect of law which provides for consequences when the protocol is not followed."
Klees has been pressing the provincial government to close the loophole in the Child and Family Services Act, which mandates reporting of adult-on-student crime or suspicion of it, but not student-on-student.
The move comes after a Grade 1 boy in a York Region Catholic school was allegedly whipped by two Grade 8 boys in a school washroom. The school's principal did not report the incident to police nor to the boy's parents, who found out from their older child.
The parents called police immediately, and two youths have since been charged with assault and assault with a weapon.
The York Catholic District School Board has said the principal did not follow board protocol.
"Where there is evidence of assault or even suspected assault, we expect that police would be called," board spokesperson Chris Cable has said.
Last year, an alleged sexual assault in a washroom at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate in Toronto was not reported to police.
The former principal and two vice-principals were charged under the Child and Family Services Act, although the charges were recently thrown out because of the time it took to have them sworn.
The Crown has since appealed and the case will be heard in August.
In the York Catholic case, "the principal and the school board made every attempt to minimize this incident, leaving the parents distraught with a system that appeared more concerned with public perception," said Klees in a letter yesterday to the principals' council.
Klees also raised the issue again in the Legislature yesterday.
While the principals' council has said it would be onerous for administrators to have to call police for all incidents between students, Klees said he's only talking about cases of serious assault.
"Parents must have the confidence that they have recourse in law in circumstances where a school official fails to exercise the responsibilities with which they are entrusted," his letter states.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne has said the Safe Schools Action Team is looking into an Ontario-wide policy and protocol for reporting, and into any gaps that exist in various pieces of legislation.
The result of that is expected this fall.
Toronto Star