from the report. ipods over human pods.

Theft, bullying and students who bring weapons to school are the three activities that are the most likely to be identified as “serious” or “very serious” problems by the students at C.W. Jefferys. For example, over two-thirds of the respondents (67%) feel that “students who steal from other students” is a serious problem at their school. Similarly, 60% of the respondents believe that students “who bring weapons to school” is a serious problem. Sixty percent also think that “students who pick on or bully other students” is a serious problem.

hmmmm not enough basketball courts for the little darlings ?

I think that they should post armed security guards at schools in areas like the Jane Finch area. This is getting serious.

Front page of the paper today, one of the recommendations is that the SCHOOL BOARD should acquire and deploy gun sniffing K9 units (that'd be plural) and randomly inspect the schools on an on-going, permanent basis.

One recommendation I did not see was five years in jail for bringing a gun to school. I note that five years is HALF of what an adult can get if they don't have their paperwork up to date on their deer rifle.

M1, I must respectfully disagree sir. The proper approach is simply to expel, -forever-, the rodents who security guards are supposed to be watching for but never seem to catch.

See how they like the street, or failing that, jail.

M1: "I think that they should post armed security guards at schools" .
Can't do it M1. There has to be that illusion of an open unprotected society. Strange though; many private schools have a fenced schoolyard (a real fence, not a 3 foot high decorative one), the first line of defense.
And where would terrorists strike first? Well in Israel it was: you guess where.
Your children are safer in a shopping center. The grounds and shops are patrolled by organized....

Phantom and Gunney99:

I would make the security guards like police and allow surveilence and other seemingly drastic measures to enforce order and protect honest students. In addition, students caught with drugs and weapons, or committing felony offences or repeat offenders are to be expelled and removed from the school and forbidden to ever return, as well as being faced with criminal charges.

Its long past time to start making schools safe again and to start clamping down on serious and chronic troublemakers. I say this from the viewpoint of someone who has actually been bullied in elementary school merely because I was slightly different from everyone else.

My recommendations may not be instituted in the foreseeable future, but if they ever are, types like Al Sharpton and Alex Jones would be having coronaries, but at least there would be a good chance to stop all this trouble.

quick, get Ruby Dhalla to send in the Punjab Police to restore order

The news item on CBC Radio Two this afternoon was that the study fingered "society" as the culprit.  Reminds me of the Monty Python skit -- "It's a fair cop, but society's to blame." 
"Agreed.  We'll be charging them too."

If only it were that easy...

In regards to Ontario Schools,the best piece of Legislation the Conservative Harris Government brought in was the "Safe Schools Act".

It worked amazingly well at removing the violent trash,disruptive creeps and the criminal thugs from the student body so that those who were in school to get an education,could get one,without having to be robbed,beaten,sexually assaulted or shot.

Of course that smart and effective idea had to get tossed out the window by the Liberal government in power when it was discovered that a certain Race of people were being expelled from school in hugely disproportionate numbers.

The end result of cries of "Yo,It beez Racizm" ,Liberal Political Correctness and the scrapping of the Harris gov't "Safe Schools Act" is Lil' 15 year old Jordan Manners,ending up all alone,with a bullet in the head,in a High School hallway and an early trip to the grave.

BRING BACK THE SAFE SCHOOLS ACT !!!!!!!

Couldn't get past page 4 of the report without feeling like puking or doing violence to the TSB. Blaming a "Safe School" policy brought in by the Tories where kids who bring guns or knives to schools are expelled as the reason for the shooting of this young boy? That is just wrong on so many levels. What a bunch of weasels.

I click on the first PDF and find a SUMMARY thats FIFTY-FIVE pages, wel I hurl and move on....

Nothing obviouly here.

The boomers and hippies and socialists of the 60's decided that one of the most prosperous and civilized society in world history had it all wrong and everything needed to be changed. This is the result. Way to go hippies. Socialism is what caused all the problems and they think that more socialism is going to fix it. My youngest is still nine years out of high school. I can just imagine what it will be like when he gets there.

After many years in the classroom this is what "Safe Schools" and "Zero Tolerance" means:

Safe for the bully.

Zero tolernance for any teacher who consistently reports violent/anti-social behaviour in students.

We're doomed, guys, unless we start to get really tough on the thugs walking the hallways of our schools. However, the report, apparently, rejects "a punitive approach" to "hungry" kids.

When we rejected the Scriptures that have held our civilization (and country) in good stead for centuries--"Spare the rod and spoil the child"--we threw all our young people to the dogs, which is something, at the very least, that this report
confirms.

Kyrie Eleison.

I tried to copy, unsuccessfully, the section of The Executive Summary of this report that said a tired, hungry thirteen year old should be exempt from the standards of behaviour and education held for those who are well fed and more ready to learn.

Bull!

That's exactly what I was afraid of—and exactly what I predicted. Unlike the writers of this travesty, I’ve actually successfully educated, for decades, the kind of “complex-needs” kids they’re willing to further victimize, by setting the bar low, rather than high.

The authors claim that a “punitive approach”—the very words used by a mediocre administrator to describe my very successful methods and program: I call it “tough love”—doesn’t work. Interesting . . . the appeasement approach I’ve seen in action for the past close to two decades has been an unmitigated disaster: I think it has a lot to do with the horrendous behaviour we’re seeing from all too many students who feel entitled and are emboldened by the adults’ misplaced attempts to “buy” their acquiescence. THIS APPROACH DOES NOT WORK.

My classroom has always been a safe, no-nonsense place for ALL my students. The rules are fair and clear—for everyone, always. Academic standards are set high, but my kids are always provided with the support they need to meet the expectations incrementally. Extenuating circumstances—a term the boards love to use—are, on a case by case basis, taken into account. (A lot of these kids have been conditioned—by such useful idiots as the writers of this report and most administrators, not to mention many of their irresponsible parents—to play the system in order to get themselves off the hook. That approach doesn’t work with me: “She always knows when we’re lying” said two of my more savvy grade sixes!)

I respect my students enough to really expect the best of and for them: when the TDSB says that, it’s just empty words.

I’ve taught mini Jordan Manners: sorry about the pun, but their manners and academics always improve markedly because they know I expect nothing less and that there will be serious consequences if they don’t. Are these kids unhappy? No way. As their social and academic skills improve, so does their self-esteem, which is not something one can give a child, as the educational gurus mistakenly believe: it has to be EARNED. My kids’ hard efforts and successes earn them their new found self-respect and feelings of well-being. (A few years ago, I visited the school I’d taught in the year before: my most “difficult” students ran up and hugged me, with big smiles on their faces. So did the Educational Assistant, who was very unhappy working in a much more laid back regime: chaos reigned. He said everyone was unhappy.) Mr. Falconer—just like the educational establishment as a whole—don’t tend to talk to people like me.

In the “olden” days, I worked with real educators, real pros: we weren’t afraid of the kids or their parents and we worked together in order to let the kids know what we expected and to be sure it got done. The impostors, who now set and administer educational policy, are appeasers who are letting all of us down—especially the most disadvantaged kids.

Kyrie eleison.

Apparently Falconer wishes to appease and reinforce the propaganda of the socialist masters of Toronto.

From page 21 of the executive summary: "The majority of C.W.Jefferys staff were very dissatisfied with the current school administration. Most felt that discipline was too lenient or inconsistently applied at the school and that this situation had caused a significant decline in school safety and a worsening of student behaviour over the past few years."

From page 30: "The staff respondents at Westview did indicate that changes are necessary. Several respondents felt that discipline was too lenient or inconsistently applied at the school and felt that this situation had caused deterioration in school safety and student behaviour."

Ok, there's a discipline problem. Does the remainder of the report propose a mechanism for increasing discipline? Of course not. On pages 50 to 55, the report proposes hiring 20 new full-time social workers, 20 additional child and youth counselors, and 24 additional attendance councilors, and a dozen new agencies, panels, boards, and commissions, and new incursions into state sanctioned discrimination based on race, class, and gender.

Well of course, because pace the platitudes strewn throughout the summary about various stakeholders, we all know that TDSB insiders think that the TDSB only has one stakeholder: the TDSB. As Sir Humphrey has noted, socialist bureaucracies measure success not by results, but by the size of the bureaucracy.

Anyone surprised?

What a crock....oh and by the way, we spent oodles of cash on this, must have been paying by the word. When do these school boards start to take credit for their actions they've been Harris Free for years now and I've only seen things get worse.

Its pretty easy, create a safe weapons free school by whatever means necessary, Students who bully, tote guns have made a choice and they dont' deserve a place in an academic institution.

This is the manifestation of the true ethinic mosaic. Youth are the next generation.

My five year old knows that he get away with stuff when there are no consequences. It is a learning experience for me to see how I have to react to get him to behave.

Too bad too many kids see that bad behavior goes unpunished in todays schools.

But, not to cast too much blame on the schools.......where are the parents? That has to be one of the most used quotes of our time.

There is a little "stop-n-go" corner store in my little corner of average run of the mill Saskatoon. In the summer there may be upwards of 100 plus 12 and 13 year olds hanging out in front of this guys store at 11PM I come out and have spit on my car and have to endure all kinds of crude comments.

Now, I can see a couple of kids doing this, but 100?

I wonder how many parents believe their little Johnny and Susie were actually at the place they said they would be when they left.

It all starts at home.

The Toronto District School Board is culpable. They and their radical left-wing teacher union hacks are at the root of this. They caused it....they sure as hell can't fix it.

Man alive. This city REALLY wants to be Detroit. I'm not going to read it to know that this is the single most absurd document that could ever have been produced.

It's crap like this that could make someone racist. Thank God for multiculturalism. Poverty and violence all over the place. It's disgusting. Thank God we live in a society where both parents have to work to make ends meet, leaving the kid to do God knows what.

Thank God for socialism.

a crap story about a crap report

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/01/10/toronto-schools.html

and there is no violence on an indian reserve if you discount the natives.

Among other left-wing credentials, Falconer was Maher Arar's lawyer. I found it difficult to get information about the politics of the other two writers of the report. However, given the altogether left-wing, politically correct TDSB and the "port" (versus starboard!) drift of the report, I’m pretty sure the two women are card carrying feminists and useful idiots.

If an educator of my experience, expertise, and point of view had been included—dream on!!—I guess the report would have never been finished: I’d have parsed every sentence with a fine tooth comb. Then, when we didn’t agree, I’d have written a minority report.

This investigation has obviously been a travesty from day one. Besides being a purely political document, which will solve absolutely nothing, the three authors, after two extensions, have made a pile of money on our backs.

I don’t think the Charter would allow it, but I believe we need two parallel public education streams: academic schools and “boot” schools. If a child’s behaviour is sufficiently disruptive—the proportion of seriously misbehaving to deranged students is growing exponentially—he/she will be assigned to “boot” school to shape up: and parents will NOT have the option to opt out. Maybe some parents would even be shamed—now, isn’t that a novel idea?—into seeing that their little darlings start to act like civilized children rather than barbarians: “And which school is your child going to?”

As the behaviour of a critical mass of our children seriously deteriorates, the means for teachers to deal with problem children—who do not behave like the problem children of a few decades ago—has been removed. E.g., The teacher says to Johnny, a grade four student,“You are not to leave your desk.” With an insouciance that would bowl most people over, Johnny says, “No way”, stands up, and starts toward the computer he wants to use. In the old days, a teacher could take the student by the hand or wrist to escort him back to his seat. Now, we are not allowed to TOUCH a student—and they know it. If the teacher does touch the student by taking the hand or even the clothing in hand, the student can accuse the teacher and it could be treated as an assault. (If a teacher puts his/her body in front of the student or holds up his/her hand, signalling stop, the student may deliberately bump into the teacher and then make an accusation.) Who is administration afraid of and who does administration usually support? Teachers are justifiably scared. ’Guess who’s running the asylum?

The director and chair[man] have written at the web site of the TDSB, “We welcome this report, which provides insight on important issues that will help us enhance our culture of trust and openness. It will guide us in improving our accountability and our reporting processes so that we can make our schools the safest, fairest learning environments they can be.” What a lot of BS: by all accounts from those in the trenches, this board is rife with secrecy and repression, and—from the bottom up—has no transparent process for accountability and reporting. (All the communication moves from the top down.) If the TDSB and its sycophantic administrators—who regularly ignore the board’s rubrics, including those to do with the safety of their staff and students—could really be held to account, the board and they would get a failing grade, big time.

Mike Harris is God.

Hey dude, Ontario socialists have to believe in something...

P.S. The union would fail big time too. It's altogether full of the same left-wing toadies as administration and does NOTHING to support teachers with seriously misbehaving students.

I predict the union will support the report and gloss over all the substantial issues the report and the TDSB are glad to have deep sixed.

I'd be glad to be wrong, which is what I said when I was waiting for the results of this inquiry. But, I wasn't wrong. And I don't think I will be this time either. 'Too bad.

I just thank the Lord my girls are through with and survived, the public school system. it sucks almost as hard as the healthcare system

The climate within a school is set by the principal. Period.

The school board/superintendents don't want to hear about problems and are generally quite prepared to give a strong principal his/her head to run his/her school and set the climate for their own school. If this person has a strong endorsement from parents, things will go well.

To often, the problem resides in the principal by not using the power that is open to him/her and by not doing a whole lot of managing by walking around during the day (a sound principal of management). Rather they take the path of least resistance, hide out in their offices shuffling paper or meeting with all those social workers, aides, counselors, etc. etc. and lack the guts to back their teachers.

What the school boards can do is to have principals working full time in administration (1.0) - not being in a classroom for part of the day. It is absolute union garbage that an effective principal must be in the classroom to understand students & teachers. If the Board is not prepared to do this - then it is no wonder they have no strong people to choose from.

Problems happen at any time of the day and having a teaching-principal is totally dysfunctional. The same holds true for vice-principals. Rather than having 2-3-4 vice principals that are all teaching .6,.7, .8, have one vice that is 1.0 admin. and no other v/p's.

Using sniffer dogs for guns/ammo anywhere within a school on an unscheduled basis is a great idea. Can't you just seen the first principal trying this being hauled into Human Rights Tribunal?

thankfully my kids are young enough so that I have time to save to put them in a private school for their high school years.

Why not just give out high school diplomas to every kid when they are finished Elementary School. It will mean just as much as the one they give out now.

Dalton McGuinty, the Education Premier.
Bring back the Safe Schools Act Dalton. Then resign.

Just a few things to add.

1. With 3 daughters(12,16,20), I live with the effects of librano social engineering every day.
Although to a lesser extent, we are seeing the same sorts of patterns in our schools here. I can say for a fact that things were way better under the Harris government.

2. Where on earth are the parents of these wannabe thugs? When your only role model is fiddy(50 cent, the thug, punk, scumbag rapper)why is anyone surprised by the violence? My company's head office is at Keele and Finch, and I take the odd drive through that neighborhood, and it is downright scary. Children as young as 10 wandering freely at night. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?

M1 Garand said (waaaay back at 9:01 pm): "I would make the security guards like police and allow surveilence and other seemingly drastic measures to enforce order and protect honest students."

This is the "law enforcement" method. In all seriousness, there are two problems with this approach. First, it works about as well in a school as it does in The Hood, or in a jail. Second, its incredibly expensive.

The reason it doesn't work is the kids won't work with the cops. They will work -against- them. Same as jail. So you get an incredibly expensive way to not keep order in the school, kids don't learn, blah blah blah.

The trick is to get the kids working WITH the school. Its called school spirit. It gets built when kids see Justice being done. Do the crime, do the time baby.

It gets destroyed when they see bureaucratic indifference, stupidity, favoritism, all the kinds of things one usually finds in a Politically Correct socialist system like the Toronto School Boards. Adding uniformed coercion to socialism just gets you a slave-ship mentality where the only rule is "don't row."

Teenagers are not stupid, in fact they are infallible bullsh1t detectors. If a kid feels he/she needs a friggin' gun at school, even if they are in a street gang that means the school management has CREATED an unsafe environment. For these MORONS TSB to be suggesting roving K9 teams means they have completely lost control.

Ain't no rent-a-cop going to fix that level of failure.

failure. something a liberal socialist will never admit to. remember it is the intent not the result that matters.

It really is a co-incidence that the "Education Premier"'s children or those of his Number 1 syncophant (WK) don't go to Public School.

Those who are old enough to remember the debates going on in the early 70's when opening the door to third world immigration was being discussed will remember those who predicted what's happening today and were labelled racist for saying so.

You can't import millions of people from places with far higher crime rates than your own and not expect to see it play out on your streets. We might have been able to keep the problem down somewhat if we'd had a little cultural pride and insisted on maintaining the quaint notions we had at the time that gave us the peaceful streets we enjoyed.

The problem will get far worse before (if?) it gets better because we still aren't prepared to do so.

hmmmm let me guess...this report mirrors all the superficial rhetoric and placebo public safety initiatives of the current Librano regime....primary among them the need to ban guns from target shooters and hunters..."for the safety of children"

Frankly I resent paying a penny in tax when I see the type of toxic social engineering and fabian politics it produces in the public education system...you gotta be nutz to expose your child to these public indoctrination cesspools...it's a form of child abuse.

Time for Mike Harris to do a bit of suing. This is outrageous.

Time to bring back the strap. In my 13 years of school,(1 kindergarten), I can only remember about 3 people actually getting the strap. It was the spectre of the strap looming over you that curbed your behavior in my day.

Also, for all those hippies who don't want their kids to be submitted to that, we could allow them the option to go instead of their child.

These days kids just laugh at the teachers and then parents take the side of their kids. When I was growing up, I would have opted for punishment at school in order to avoid dealing with my parents.

Parents need to take responsibility for their childrens' actions and give the teachers back some power over their children.

Trevor

You are right Trevor,

One kid was suspended at my childrens school and his mom goes I don't know why they do that at home he just plays Nintendo all day....

In fact you can tell the problem kids they are divorcees or refuse to spank their special lil ______.

Lookout, your comments as usual are right on, particularly being in the trenches and seeing this stuff on a daily basis. All of the posters can identify the problem and solutions as they are so evident to those of us who grew up in the disciplined, fair school system of earlier days compared to the undisciplined rabble of today.

Liberal leftists refuse to see either the problem and certainly not the solutions. We have a society now that seems to have no sense of responsiblity but voters continue to support its socialist tilt. The schools have succeeded in one thing and that is drilling the leftist ideology and sense of entitlement into today's students which is reflected in their later voting pattern.

The ongoing pillaring of Harris, our best Premier, and Harper continues through the schools and the media. I really fear for our future.

An Adobe search-count on the word "should", as in the TDSB 'should...' in the recommendations section, chapter 4 returns 592 instances! Man, that's a lot of shoulds. As if the administrators, police etc aren't burdened enough, along comes hundreds and hundreds of shoulds.

IMO, I think the recommendation section should have been a lot shorter.

I think M1 and I have not received fair criticism for our "armed guards" approach. I am assuming that a solution is possible and I think M1 is on side with this. But where do you start? Strong language is not going to work even if there are teachers not too frightened to try it. One has to start by grasping control first, then perhaps the strong "Principal" method can work. You have to have someone present who can extract an armed student and not have to face him re-armed and back at school (or at your home) again the next day. The idea that the "justice" system is going to deal with him is a non starter.
A good professional "guard" can pick out the thug on sight and deal with him immediately, no sniffer dogs necessary. Minimal impact on good students and likely less costly than the dogs. It is amazing to watch how well shopping center guards deal with troublesome youth groups. They establish a relationship and gain respect. They establish a pipeline of informants.
An additional bonus: the school is ready for the terrorist attack.
And why can't the "guard/s" be the Principal and Vice-Principals or specific teachers?

Thanks, Dave, and your fear for the future is well justified.

Gunney99, I'm very sympathetic to your point of view. Yes, the system has to re-establish its authority. And I agree with the authorities establishing a relationship with the toughies, on OUR pre-Charter terms, not the kids': I’ve found that being assertively friendly, but no-nonsense, calling a spade a spade–sorry!—and setting clear expectations, with meaningful and appropriate consequences, consistently administered, makes something happen that has a real effect. It’s called RESPECT. To get there, being pretty tough with the kids sometimes might look to someone—who’s shallow and expedient—like I’m not very nice: guess what? Sometimes I’m not, which is just what the troublemakers deserve and need—and the administrators are terrified of. But, if one looked at the deeper situation, one would see relaxed, productive children who share many good times with me and a team approach to their behaviour and learning. My badly behaved, underachieving—until I get a hold of them!—kids can take—even expect—to be called on the carpet for insubordination.

Gunney99 asks, “And why can't the 'guards' [in the schools] be the Principal and Vice-Principals or specific teachers?” Good question. The reason they can’t, at this point, is there’s no wit—the educational overlords are, as a group, unintelligent, lefty, politically correct, sheeple clones—or will for such a model. Teachers like me are demeaned and undermined because we don’t fit the “Pollyanna” model the board prefers, even though such teachers are incredibly ineffective with hard-core miscreants.

These days, ministries, faculties, and public school boards, top heavy with utopian idiots, wouldn’t know “best practice” if they tripped over it. But they do recognize the teachers who adhere to this concept because they’re usually the ones who are willing to talk back and stand up for the best interests of their students. “Can’t have that, can we?” The best are usually sidelined and punished: the boards have myriad ways to do this. It’s a mess, and enough to make a grown person cry!

If this report actually starts a REAL DEBATE about the sinking of the educational “Titanic”, public scrutiny and input will be worth the unworthy vehicle. But don’t expect teachers to be vocal: although students are encouraged to “identify and stand up to bullies”, the gulag doesn’t take kindly to such behaviour in its teachers: HYPOCRISY writ large.

In my day as a public school teacher in Ontario, I had it clearly pointed out to me that the Education Act of Ontario stated that we, as teachers, were acting "in locis parentis" while in the classroom and this meant acting as a "wise and judicious parents". If this act is still in force, wouldn't any teacher acting as a "wise and judicious parent" prevent the type of behaviour that now takes place in schools without fear of repercussion as he or she would be acting within the law?

Does anyone know if the Education Act is still in effect and being enforced?

Gunney99 and M1, please be clear I'm not criticizing -you-, just the idea of security guards.

Lets face it, the presence of a guard means that the guard is authorized to use force, which is pretty quelling to the average student. But, it also means ONLY the guard is authorized to use force. If the guard's not there you can do what you want, pretty much.

If the teachers are legally authorized to lay hands on the students, you don't need a guard do you?

If there are students in the classroom that are known for assaulting teachers and other students, maybe that's a huge mistake and those students need to removed. Permanently.

Currently we have a perfect storm of the exact opposite. You touch a student and your career is over, students cannot be permanently expelled for any reason including assault. Adding guards to that only undermines the teachers even more in the eyes of the students, probably leading to more assaults.

Yes, oldtimer, "in loco parentis" is still on the books. But, guess what's almost entirely supplanted it? The Charter of so-called Rights and Freedoms, which applies to minors as well as adults.

So, who has all the rights now, usually backed by their unwise and not at all judicious parents? Administration's so afraid of litigation or being seen to be politically incorrect that, if push comes to shove, it caves to the parents of the kids with the most egregious behaviour nearly every time. (There's a very real parallel between the educational establishment's appeasement of badly behaved students and the West's caving to Muslim extremism.)

’Remember I said that the educational bureaucrats readily ignore the rubrics that are supposed to regulate their own behaviour? This is a perfect example. Remember, too, that the Education Act is from another age—long before political correctness and the ensuing madness. Yes, I think the bureaucrats should definitely use the powers assigned to them—and to their teachers—in the Act, in order to assert their authority. But remember that they’re swayed by the Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Age) and feel embarrassed about authority: “equality”, which the bureaucrats have fallen for, hook, line, and sinker, trumps legitimate authority almost every time. Remember, too, that these toadies are not very smart.

Most teachers—and most teachers are young now and thoroughly indoctrinated by the creeds of PC—are so intimidated by administrators that they wouldn’t dare question their calls. Despite its misuse all the time by entitled kids, assertiveness, as in “You do what I tell you to do”, which is seen as being possibly “intolerant”, is not an attribute that’s in good favour with most of our young people who become teachers. On the other hand, I had plenty of role models of assertive teacher behaviour and use it all the time! Hmm . . . it usually works.

Imagine a teacher going into an administrator’s office and reminding her (it usually is) of “in loco parentis”. The administrator would likely, as usual, simply gloss over it. I’ve challenged administrators many times in my long career: most of the time, they simply ignore the challenge—even, or especially, when they’re blatantly out of step. Unfortunately, the Harris reforms have made the bureaucrats so strong, with so much power over teachers—e.g., the Teacher Performance Appraisals are regularly used as a vehicle for political “payback”—there’s not much a teacher can do to attain any redress. I actually believe administrators are now INSTRUCTED to ignore teacher challenges: it’s an effective way to keep them in their place. And, as the union is full of administrator wannabes, it’s no help at all. Really.

Teachers are pretty much out on a narrow limb over crocodile infested waters, all by themselves. Welcome to our Brave New World!

Phantom, good points. Thanks.

I really think we need "boot" schools for the most egregiously behaved kids. It's about time THEY were expected to do some fancy footwork, rather than all the adults dancing to their tune. Enough!

The strap was quite a deterrent, although almost none of us who lived in that age can remember anyone getting it. But, some kids WERE strapped: it wasn't just a threat.

I truly believe that many acting out kids—and their often irresponsible, immature, idiot (I say that advisedly)—parents would think twice and modify their behaviour accordingly if the “punishment [THAT word: oh no!!] fit the crime” and they had to do time in a boot school. Now, the consequences for the most appalling and dangerous behaviours are so puny, or non existent, that the kids keep misbehaving and escalating the misbehaviour because they enjoy the power it gives them.

It’s high time the so-called adults in the educational establishment stopped behaving like subservient idiots!

I have two family members teaching in the GTA. The "new" version of the safe schools act means that students banned for life from a school board in Toronto (banned because of violence, assaults against other students or teachers, Young Offender Act convictions) get to start fresh in another jurisdiction. I believe in second chances but often there is no change in the kid's behaviour, so a whole new school system is now put at risk. Of course they start with a blank slate in their new school and teachers and other students have no knowledge of the 'new kid's past'. It's a big problem when there are repeat offenders who are deemed too dangerous for a particular school board. Moving this 'problem' to a new district is obviously ill advised.

Oldtimer, as far as I know that section of the Education Act in Ontario is still in place. Although I think that the "parentis" definition has recently been changed.

Parents are no longer ultimately responsible the misbehaviour and correction of their gang colour wearing, gun toting, prison pants and shoe laceless shoes wearing, drug dealing, knife wielding, "don't dis me bro" sprouting offspring, society is.

So if parents have no obligation to discipline and control their children, teachers are surely free to ignore the little come toting bast*rds when they enter the local high school looking to even the score with the "bro" or "unbro" that may or may not have dissed them with a firecracker.

The Toronto school board (specifically the NW quadrant and parts of Scarborough) is screwed unless the start to take control of this situation by involving the police, children's aid (if they will ever actually remove children at risk), listening to and engaging the responsible parents that live in those troubled areas, and demanding the provincial government tear down these sickening, low income housing projects and start disbursing the problems throughout the city where they can be dealt with on a more individual, and less overwhelming, basis by our public schools.

The clustering of social ills created by lack of education, poverty and yes, I'll dare to say it certain immigration, in a single area only exacerbates the problems associated with having to try to educate the high percentage of children who come from completely dysfunctional families. Have we learned nothing of Detroit, New York, LA or Chicago?

Single parents either living on social assistance or working two jobs with too many kids by more than one father, some of whom are colour wearing drug dealers and gang members themselves. (Hey, it beats working at Mickey D's for 10 bucks an hour.) When the daddies get their housing free by living periodically with assorted baby mama's it's the ultimate deal. No rent. No responsibilities. No problems, aside from the job-related bullets they might have to dodge as they go about their "business".

When I was in the hospital having my second child, I haemorrhaged. Normally, I would have been in the hospital no more than a couple of days but because of this problem, I was given a room with a young (18 year-old) girl. She had been in the country for two months, sponsored by an Aunt and Father. The hospital Social Worker came in to visit (by request of the sponsors) and since only a curtain separated our beds, I overheard the whole interview.

She had no hospital coverage (of course - she'd been in the country two months). She had no money and naturally, had no idea where the father of the child was. Aunt and Father were not prepared to pay and had indeed applied to have their sponsorship reduced to 5 years rather than 10, which apparently, at least according to the social worker's response, in the scant space of two months they had come to achieve.

Rather than discussing how they might pay the bill for their charge, they came in to demand that they be relieved of their sponsorship duties, entirely. They could not possibly house this young woman and child in their home as they already had a grandmother living with them in the only spare room. Granny could not have her sleep interrupted.

Their belief was that the "government" should provide a new apartment for the mother and child and perhaps even the grandmother as she too was becoming a burden they weren't willing to bear. Sleep disruption be darned.

The poor girl was a kind, chatty, yet completely ignorant and uneducated young thing who kept ringing for the nurses to attend to her and her sore nursing breasts, demanding the nursing staff bottle care for her crying baby. I think she had watched too many 1930's era movies as, these days, that is not what nurses do in maternity wards. The nurses tried to explain their duties to no avail and finally gave up. Bringing her baby bottled water whenever she requested it - a big "no, no" for newly nursing babies and mothers - but the nurses became to frustrated in trying to explain and I think just figured, screw it.

At one point she said to me, "I don't know how you Canadians do it. This is a wonderful country. I'm going to get a nurse to assist me when I get home and I'm going to go to school to get my high school diploma!"

I bit my tongue but now dearly wish I had said, very dryly, "We pay taxes and I hope some day you will too."

I often wonder what became of that mother and child. Whether she ever managed to graduate from high school. Which project they live in and how many more babies she has had since I last saw her over 16 years ago? I'd be more than willing to bet she outdid my two.

On the day that she was discharged, she insisted on having a nurse take her down to the exit by wheelchair - a maternity service long past my generation. I suspect it was the only time in her life she had truly felt special and she was going to relish the experience. On leaving, her Aunt looked at me and said, "Why aren't you being forced to leave. You look perfectly good to me!"

I was just plain speechless but I will never forget the look of utter hatred on her face. I will never know why she hated me, but I suspect it was because she knew I was never going to have to make my home in the Toronto projects.

My bad, I guess.

the educational system is a failure just like our "justass" and immaration systems

they ALL need fixing, to fix the SCHOOLING problems

and those will not get fixed until we fix the socialist/ingnorance problems

I blame many of these problems on a sizeable crop of parents who would rather be their kids friends than disciplinarians combined with sterile teachers who can neither hug or punish them.

No wonder so many kids today(I feel old just typing that)haven't a clue of their boundaries with no swift or tough consequences for crossing them.

We can wage war all we want between the LPC,NDP and CPC at the federal and provincial levels,but can someone here tell me how the f*ck we remove this 'nobody's responsible for anything' leftist disease now entrenched in our schools?

Teachers are being threatened with being shot, and getting sent home as if they were the criminals. Teachers are being abused by students and are getting sent home as if they were the abusers. The TDSB is so scared of being sued by parents, they are throwing the teachers to the wolves, with no back up or support!!!! Teachers are so afraid of losing their jobs, they don't sue. Falconer got it right, there is a big cover up going on in the board. The principals met yesterday in an emergency meeting to further figure out how to COVER THEIR OWN BUTTS!!!

I have a sibling who teaches in the TDSB. A student threatened to shoot her. He is still at school, with no suspension at all. The Safe Schools Act, the Education Act and the Canada Labour Law were not employed in the decision by this principal. Hmmm, sounds like a safe place to work, right? The irony?
The principal holding a staff meeting about the Safe Schools Act. Doncha just want to scream? We are as bad as the American school system now. Oh, yeah, this particular school - it's also in the NW, just like C.W. Jeffrey's

The more people post on this thread, the more I think a nice voucher program in the GTA would be the cat's whiskers. A little shot of COMPETITION is just the thing to put the wind up about 40,000 mid-level bureaucrats, principals, and other seat warming types.

Kick that ant hill baby, watch those ant bastiges RUN!

TDSB is broken and voice of truth, you are SO right! In my post of two days ago, I wrote, "Teachers are pretty much out on a narrow limb over crocodile infested waters, all by themselves."

At their meeting, I'll bet the principals got an earful about how to spin the document and, as usual, keep everything under wraps. Teachers, as usual, will remain quiet: don't expect that they'll be talking about this report at school or challenging it in any way.

It's true that the teachers are the fall guys here: I personally know of a fine career teacher summarily removed from his class on a few minutes notice—no "charges" were disclosed until nearly two weeks later—and sent home, on the strength of a mere accusation—false, BTW—of two 10 year old visible minority students, with a reputation for arrogance and histrionics. The teacher was ordered to remain silent, was removed from the board’s email system and hasn’t been back in the class since. (At least he’s being paid, but his reputation’s damaged.) A meeting with the administration didn’t occur until nearly two months later and the principal refused to accept the teacher’s word about what really happened. Teachers are treated as no more than serfs in the TDSB gulag.

Of course, the students have been reprimanded and have had serious consequences for their little game. Sarc. Off. They have gotten off, scott free and continue to swan around the school and their class as if they own the place, ignoring the rules and instructing teachers about what they will and won’t do. They appear to be on very happy terms with the principal—most likely an affirmative action appointee.

Yes, Phantom's idea of a voucher system sounds good to me.

I retired from teaching last year and I'm glad. In 30 years, my profession went from one I was proud of to one you might compare with a whipped puppy. "Discipline" and "authority" are not dirty words, but they became so, along with "respect" and "honesty". Over the years, we eventually backed off in nearly every situation that would have required a bit of fortitude. We started to find excuses for kids who didn't achieve and, instead of insisting they do (and helping them do it) we let them off the hook--over and over again. We wanted our graduation rates to be politically acceptable because yes indeed, some kids from certain groups didn't succeed very well. But we weren't allowed to say so. Instead, we lied to them and their parents and fudged the marks and adapted the courses until they were mostly meaningless. It made it so much easier on everybody. The lies became entrenched in the system. We had to all join in the big lie so that everyone felt good about themselves, and those who refused to play 1984 were punished with career stalling, punitive transfers and other measures. The "blockers" (as one of our in-service days chose to label such stubborn folks) were marginalized by very nice and well-meaning but totally ineffectual people. Someone told a little fable one day to illustrate what education had become in the mid-1980's. Super-teacher looked across a group of students one day and noticed that some were taller than others. This would not do. The short students would feel bad and the tall students would feel superior. Instead of accepting it and working with it, the solution was to dig a trench under the taller ones so it looked as if everyone was the same. We threw words around but as they say, "When all is said, and nothing is done, the meeting is over." All the while, we were losing ground to politically correct sensibilities, the kids were losing on getting a genuine education, and teachers were losing heart as they saw their roles diminish from educators to panderers.

I am very sorry for the kids and teachers in that part of Toronto--actually pretty well all of Canada. If kids do manage to get through school and are literate, have a decent work ethic and go on to be productive members of society, they are lucky indeed. I don't believe you have to be cruel or beat children to make them learn and behave properly, but you do have to expect much from them (and from yourself) and you have to feel that you, the other teachers, the parents and your bosses (Boards and Admin) are on side. Unfortunately, that is often not the case and then everyone suffers. Also, though I don't think you should write off every kid who acts up or gets into trouble, sometimes the best choice is to remove them from the school so that those students who can profit from education are permitted to do so. It's very sad when kids go astray, but to make excuses for them, without requiring them to do better, means that you're prepared to sacrifice them as well as the other kids whose education is being hampered by their presence. What future can such kids hope for if they choose violence and crime as survival mechanisms? And how can their classmates get the benefit of education in such circumstances. How can teachers even do their job? Schools and teachers are ill-equipped to dealt with such youth.

Too often, we expend all our compassion and resources on kids who cannot and will not benefit from school, and ignore the others who get along in spite of everything but whose experience is diminished because of the tension. So if we do need a special school, or a boot school, or youth facilities to deal with intransigent kids (and perhaps also their inadequate parents) then let it be. Staff it properly. You will need quite different instructors in such facilities than you would in regular schools--no less compassionate, but immensely tough and resilient.

Part of the solution, and this will take a long time, is to return some sort of authority to the teachers and give them back a sense of confidence. If you know that your judgement will be respected and that you will be supported, you can do your job so much better. Right now, teachers are aware that they need to serve their students properly, but they're always having to second guess their every decision. If little Johnny is acting like a jerk, it should be possible to say so and take certain actions without having to worry that they might backfire on you. I'm not talking about abusing kids but surely, a teacher should be able to act firmly, including some limited physical action such as restraining a kid who is acting up, without fearing some sort of career-destroying repercussions. The teacher should be able to refer difficult students to someone in administration and expect that the matter will be dealt with properly. Proper conduct should be expected from all students (whether they've had breakfast or not). Address the problem of inadequate food, but don't accept crappy behavior because of it. If instead of making excuses, you start out by assuming that most students can behave properly and the ethic of the school makes it possible to insist every day, fairly and firmly, you will succeed--if teachers, admin and boards all support that.

Excellent analysis, Rita. Many thanks for your thoughts. The cover up's so complete, the moat between the teachers and the administrators in their ivory towers is so wide, and the will to change so not there—the Falconer Inquiry puts blame in the wrong places and ENDORSES keeping up the charade—my prediction is that little will change.

The TDSB’s an altogether PC, dysfunctional board. Only those who are not “blockers” are allowed to direct policy. It’s more than a shame and the biggest losers are the disadvantaged, acting out kids the board says it’s trying to help. In fact, the board is one of their worst enemies.

I have appreciated your comments too, Lookout. In fact when I read them I thought, how lucid and sensible! Why is it so difficult for the people who somehow end up in charge to understand this? I think perhaps they get where they are by glossing over the problems and reassuring people that things aren't that bad--certainly nothing that a fancy mission statement can't fix. Some administrators make themselves look very good by rising on the efforts of the very staff members they despise and undermine. This is not to say that I haven't met any good administrators. It's a very difficult job, and the good ones have my total respect. But a poor or incompetent administrator can damage a staff so badly, there can almost be no recovery except for a complete changeover. And I have nothing but utter contempt for those who look upon their job as nothing more than skillful public relations. Sadly, that breed seems to be gaining. Boards tend to be peopled by those who have an axe to grind, or who have higher aspirations and will not risk offending anybody, but also some naive folks who mean well but lack the good sense and fortitude for the job. Such people prefer to believe that every kid who goes wrong is just a little bit misguided. Actually, there are some really mean little buggers out there. They deserve understanding and compassion, but what they DON'T deserve is being excused for their bad behavior because they are thought of as being disadvantaged. And it's going to take more than a few chats with a social worker to turn them around.

There is a difference between classroom discipline and school security--yet somehow, these get lumped together. The kid stabbing or raping his fellow classmates is not going to respond to the same curbs as the one goofing off in math class. People don't want to upset kids and parents by having security and sniffer dogs in the schools. I wonder if it's any less upsetting to have kids raped, robbed or attacked on school property. You don't need to employ bouncers, rabid Dobermans or the Gestapo. We had a policeman assigned full time to our school (around 2000 high school students). He was just right for the job. He didn't flaunt his authority but he was a presence when needed. Much of his job was preventative crime control and community relations. He developed a good relationship with the students. Teachers are trained to be teachers and police are trained for policing. As schools and the communities they serve become more complex, it become apparent that we need both. Certainly, it didn't stop all the problems, but that one key person made an important difference. Find a few more like him and have them involve themselves in the schools in Toronto. Might make a difference.

Now that I've gotten going, I can't shut up. Some of the comments here are breaking my heart. Teachers threatened with being shot. Teachers sent home because of unfounded accusations. Kids ruling the roost. The word "kafka-esque" comes to mind. I'm extrapolating here but I assume that the majority of people go into teaching because they like kids and want to make an important contribution. When you mistreat and abuse teachers in this fashion...what a huge loss this is to all of us! Basically, society is taking all that hope, skill, and training and throwing it away like trash from a fast food restaurant.

We're on the same page for sure, Rita. It's a delight to read your comments: you know exactly what I'm talking about.

I'm elementary panel: I make a difference, but, in 2008, dealing with a critical mass of functionary administrators and dysfunctional parents is like swimming upstream in molasses in January—with lead fetters around my ankles. The utter waste of human potential is a major tragedy: fine, dedicated teachers, and kids, who could make it with the high expectations these teachers set, are just fodder for the utilitarian educational (sic) mill. (Actually, these days, the better the teacher, the more likely he/she is to be distrusted and targeted by administration: people who aren’t “yes-men” are “not wanted on the voyage”. To aspire to and become part of the administration of such a travesty as most public boards are today means to sell one’s soul. Unfortunately, it's largely those willing to sell their souls who now run the show.)

The self-important, privileged Julian Falconers, the "I'm OK, you're OK" big buck earning apparatchiks of the ministries and public school boards, the Pollyanna social workers—no matter how abusive the student’s been: “Make sure your consequences don’t hurt his feelings!”—and other hangers-on can go—sorry!— to hell. Whoops, wrong tense: we'RE IN hell. Right now. Right here. In Canada.

I’m pessimistic, I’m afraid. I think we’re past the point of no return. It's a very bleak picture, which the Falconer Commission might have painted—by numbers. What pompous, deluded, dangerous fools these people are!

Some wonderful comments and observations made by Rita and Lookout. What I wonder is this: why isn't the teacher's union making sure that teachers are safer? Teachers pay dues. Why are they not demanding that their unions force the TDSB to provide safer working conditions? This is a Human Rights issue, and Canada Labour Law issue, and it says, right in the Education Act, that these teachers are supposed to be given a safe working environment. Who is asleep at the wheel?

voice of truth, good questions. As I've said before, the union's part of the problem. The people in the union are made of the same stuff as the "pompous, deluded, dangerous fools" I mention above.

Teachers generally work in a fair amount of isolation, bowed under by the enormous workload and politically correct diktats of the job. The union apparatchiks are elected by a minuscule number of politically active, mainly unmarried, no kids of their own teachers—who else has the time or energy after a full day’s work? E.g., I remember not bothering to vote last time because I had not a clue who the candidates were. When the day is done, all one can do is read the campaign literature and despair.

To be elected to the union is a dream come true for these NDP types—the union's solidly left wing and socialist. To get out of the classroom, with an expense account, many perqs—including no curriculum, no principal, no kids and no parents!—and be paid big bucks is a dream come true.

But, it doesn’t last forever. Most union types aspire to become part of administration when they go back to the board: no curriculum, no teaching or yard duty, etc. and the big bucks! Conflict of interest, anyone?

Just how hard will a union clone come down on a person who might, later on, be the one to decide whether one joins the administrative ranks or not? (BTW, the head of the TDSB teachers’ union is married to a TDSB administrator.)

It’s an incestuous mess and the teachers are, once again, sold down the river. It’s really that bad.

The idea that teachers think their unions are great and that they fulsomely support them is hogwash. Most teachers couldn’t even tell you the name of the president, let alone the VP and other officers. Teachers would also have no clue about the union’s philosophy or policies. But, one thing they could do: teachers who get in trouble on trumped up political charges can tell you the union is no bloody use at all.

Teacher unions...my view is that they're peopled by very nice folks who are prepared to work very hard as long as their efforts do not require any confrontation with the government, school administration or anyone who might be upset. So, they set up workshops, have meetings, print brochures and keep track of the unfunded liability in the pension funds...and they use teacher dues to pay for teacher welfare such as disability payments for those teachers who finally succumb to depressive or other long-term illness. Sometimes they're forced to take action by their membership, usually on contract issues, but as far as alleviating poor working conditions, and health and safety problems, they're not really effective. I call it the "nice guy" syndrome. The only one of my colleagues who ever got a positive settlement over a wrongful dismissal suit was one who hired his own lawyer, even though legal advice is supposed to be part of the service provided by our union. Teachers are conditioned to be nice and caring folks but they totally suck when it comes to sticking up for themselves. I believe in co-operation as long as progress is made in resolving problems, but often, that just means nothing ever improves. We get grudging increases in our salaries which supposedly compensate us for horrendous class loads, and crushing responsibility which we bear with no corresponding authority to do the job properly but that's about it. If that isn't a recipe for breakdown and despair, I don't know what is. So my experience with teacher unions is that they're peopled with very sincere folks who would travel across the province to hold your hand when you're in trouble, but who lack the essential grit to confront opposing groups. We're all (government, boards, parents, admin) supposed to be on the same side--wanting what's good for the kids--and that becomes a copout on just about every issue that would mean making a stand for the teachers.

Amen, Rita! The whole system's dysfunctioanl and in meltdown. Our kids are being sold out: the rest of us too.

It's a slogan, but true, "Teachers' working conditions are students' learning conditions." I've never seen teachers so demoralized and despondent in my life: and it’s not just a few, but in general. Their workloads and the responsibilities laid on them—to be teacher, social worker, coach, etc.—are crushing, while their authority has been vastly diminished. It’s a formula for disillusion and disaster. Quite a few teachers have given up on serious discipline as they so often find themselves unsupported and even chastised by administration for their efforts. Such sycophancy and injustice on the part of administration, now epidemic in public boards, is sickening. The union is well aware of this and does NOTHING. (I know of a school where the whole staff actually did meet with higher ups in the union in order to pass on to the principal, who was an out of control maniac, their grievances. After 5 months, after the union had gathered and verified the various complaints, guess what happened? Absolutely nothing: no meeting with the principal occurred and the principal continued to abuse the teachers at the school.)

When disaster strikes, as in the Jordan Manners case, the establishment closes ranks and produces fairy tales: e.g., it’s Mike Harris’s fault and let’s “dumb down”—different standards, that eschew excellence, are all we should put in place for our “complex needs” students. I predict that the union, a group of socialist utopians—will jump on the Falconer—“Let’s throw more money and create more jobs to solve this problem”— Bandwagon. The unions won’t even have the wits to notice that teachers are NOT being supported here, e.g., MORE supervision, on top of our already overextended duties? What teachers need is their authority restored and strong support from administration. I don’t believe those conditions are recommended in the report.

Pity.

Interesting comments by Lookout regarding getting a principal censured. At my sister's school, there were 3 human rights complaints lodged with the Superintendent, as well as 3 people on stress leave. Several staff went to the Superintendent, and absolutely NOTHING was done, but guess what? The Superintendent got kicked upstairs. Nothing happened to the principal at all - someone who made racial slurs and made disrespectful comments about disabled students. This same principal had actually been removed from her last school - not demoted, not fired - just placed in another school to wreak havoc.
The teachers who are desperately trying to make a genuine difference for students are starting to leave the profession because they are not being treated with dignity and respect. This filters down to the students mimicking what they see from the adults. One news article says that if the teaching environment isn't safe, neither is the learning environment. I think that says it all.