Students at a school that has been in the news recently for its problems with violence had a “jump list” of teachers to target, True North has learned.
York Memorial Collegiate Institute in Toronto has faced teacher work refusals and student protests and has spurred a board-wide safety meeting, all related to the ongoing havoc at the school that has surfaced in recent months.
An Ontario government Ministry of Labour report, obtained exclusively by True North, reveals the extent of the workplace safety concerns held by staff.
The document details the complaints of over a dozen staff members who refused to work due to safety concerns in late November. The summary of complaints shows teachers were regularly yelled at and harassed by students. They say they witnessed fights in the hallways, cash drug deals, and students driving electric scooters through the halls.
Almost all of the staff complain about the “several” students who wore full balaclavas covering their faces who then go on to enter other classrooms, silently stare down teachers, disrupt the class and physically bar teachers closing the door.
While several staff members complain about the ‘jump list’, when it comes to one member “the principal informed this worker that they were on a student’s ‘jump list’,” the report notes. The document does not indicate how many students were associated with the list.
The safety concerns grew so severe that, according to the ministry document, the board has now “instructed staff to use a ‘buddy system’ if they are walking into the school parking lots after school”.
While staff have since returned to work – and some appear to have been reassigned – late last month a number of them testified that they believed the school needed to temporarily close.
According to the report, one “refusing worker… believes that the workplace needs to be shut down while a school code of conduct is developed, more SBSMs (school-based safety monitors) are implemented, and training is provided regarding how to fill out appropriate documentation related to reporting violent incidents that occur.”
A number of the complaints also detail the general poor quality of the physical building, which echoes concerns also made by students.
The current student body is in fact a merger of two schools – George Harvey Collegiate Institute and York Memorial – after a 2019 fire gutted the latter’s building. Some of the havoc is believed to be caused by the integration of the two student bodies, which commenced this September.
Violence in Toronto schools in recent years has included stabbings and even shooting deaths. Last month, a 17-year-old was charged in connection with a fatal shooting that occurred in front of Woburn Collegiate, resulting in the death of an 18-year-old.
These incidents have led to calls to bring back the School Resource Officer program, where police are assigned to work within schools. That program was disbanded in 2017 following an activist push that labeled the program racist.
A social media account belonging to a police constable who worked with students at what is now York Memorial details how, before the program was shelved, he helped organize lego club and took students to farmer’s markets, screenings of inspirational films and other field trips.
While the Ministry of Labour report says the Toronto Police Service are investigating the “jump list”, when True North reached out to ask whether there had been any interventions or other police responses, TPS said they would not comment on matters involving students.
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