A Peel region school teacher has penned a candid letter pleading for help with the out-of-control violence, vandalism, threats and harassment at her Mississauga middle school.
The letter, obtained by lawyer and anti-woke activist Michael Teper, says Tomken Road Middle School is rife with “countless unsafe interactions on a daily basis” – directed at teachers, custodians, support staff, office administrators and other students.
The teacher says students in this Grade 6-8 school get in your face and tell you to “f-off.” They show over and over again that they are not willing “to uphold any decency” towards both staff and students, she adds.
It is not signed; however it could have been written by many teachers in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and other woke boards, where consequences for bad behaviour (starting with suspension and expulsions) have been replaced by a culture of coddling students who act out.
It’s all under the guise of addressing woke ideology like anti-black racism, oppression, colonialism, pandering to BIPOC students and calling out white supremacy – instead of providing a positive learning environment for all students.
I would venture to say that this out-of-control behaviour has been building over the past few years but has reached “crisis” proportions (as the letter writer puts it) because of a lack of strict oversight by the education minister and education directors who fancy themselves black activists first and educators second.
In fact, as we heard a few months ago the “hug-a-thug” policies of current TDSB education director Colleen Russell Rawlins – who came to Toronto from the Peel Board just two years ago – have exacerbated this state of chaos and violent incidents in several Toronto schools.
A report released last week says 323 TDSB students have been involved in violent incidents between last September and April, the highest since 2018.
The teacher gives a mere “snapshot” of the incidents involving students since last September at Tomken Road middle school – ones that continue to go unchecked.
She says some students defecate in the bathroom and rub their feces on the wall; leave class to get food at the nearest plaza; smoke and vape in corners of the school; steal the wallets and phones of other students; throw empty cups at teachers; bang down doors to get into washrooms or classrooms that teachers have barred and play loud music in the hallways to disturb classes.
The teacher indicates that students threaten other students and teachers with physical violence or will get into physical fights that are filmed and distributed.
She said some students are so scared to go to the bathroom they “soil themselves” at school.
The teacher says there are no consequences for this bordering on animalistic behaviour except for “restorative conversations” with the students and parents who are willing to come to the school.
Suspensions and expulsions are not handed out, and she says, “no one wants to intervene.”
The letter writer says staff are pleading with those who are accountable to return some structure at the school by banning cell phones and forcing students to be accountable for their actions.
“We need higher expectations and we need standards,” she writes. “We are desperately seeking consequences for bad behaviour.”
Talk about mob rule.
It is beyond comprehension that the ill-behaved, violent students in this school and others have been given a free pass to wreak havoc on innocent teachers, administrators and students.
It is even more obscene that the board’s administrators and trustees have turned a blind eye to the chaos.
That’s why when teachers unions, overpaid board bureaucrats and trustees insist it’s all about the kids, I don’t believe them in the slightest.
Pandering to violent criminal behaviour because it would be racist to mete out real consequences has been an absolute recipe for disaster.
