At the end of September, the education minister sent a memo to all Ontario school boards warning them to keep politics out of their schools on Oct. 7.
The memo indicated that classrooms should focus on learning, not politics and that school-related activities should “never be used as vehicles for political protests” that contain inflammatory, discriminatory and hateful content.
Obviously some schools did not read, or ignored the memo.
At Scarborough’s Winston Churchill Collegiate on the morning of October 7, about 60 or 70 students walked out of class to protest against Israel.
According to eyewitnesses, who didn’t want to be named, they gathered at the front of the school for about 30 minutes until two adult male organizers came to lead them through the surrounding streets.
Observers said one masked man led the chants while 10 or 11 police officers escorted them as if they were visiting dignitaries.
So much for Police Chief Myron Demkiw’s promises to the Jewish community – when he visited a variety of synagogues on the Jewish New Year – that he’d have their backs.
Last I looked, escorting anti-Israel protesters on a hatefest is not what I’d call support.
The principal of another TDSB high school, RH King Academy, actually had the audacity to send parents an email warning of a student walkout on Oct. 7.
The principal, Catherine Chang, has a history of permitting anti-Israel walkouts.
Like she did in October, she claims she is in no position to stop it from occurring.
“We are advising any participating students that they should take place off school property and for their safety, students should stay on public sidewalks and off roads and other public property,” Chang wrote.
“We have also advised students that when expressing themselves, they do so in a constructive, respectful and responsible manner.”
At least this time, she indicated students who leave class will be marked absent. In October, she offered to allow protesters to make up tests and quizzes on another day.
I’ve got news for Chang and Winston Churchill principal Nicole Aloise.
If either had the political will to stop the protests, they could.
The lunatics are not running the asylum, or so one would hope.
Instead of succumbing to mob rule and facilitating the protests, they could have threatened the hateful protesters with suspensions or any other disciplinary tools available to them.
Tamara Gotlieb, who heads up the Jewish Educators and Families Association of Canada (JEFA), called these protests “organized and premeditated defiance.”
She argues that this kind of open anti-Semitism didn’t occur before the implementation of DEI policies.
“Those policies coincide with the staggering increase in hate and the number of incidents,” she said.
The JEFA Instagram page shows that walkouts are also planned for Oct. 9 (perhaps to get around the education minister’s edict) at MIssissauga’s Woodlands school (both elementary and secondary), St. Joan of Arc Catholic secondary school and Stephen Lewis Secondary school.
Woodlands Secondary School officials called on students to wear their keffiyehs on Oct. 7 to show support.
The question now remains whether Dunlop’s edict was just cheap talk or whether she means what she said about no protests on Oct. 7– and metes out punishment or a rebuke, at the very least.
Sadly, the Conservative government, under her predecessor Stephen Lecce, has permitted our school boards and the unions who prop them up to do whatever they please.
Is it any wonder that standardized test scores have bottomed out?
Students are given few boundaries and are being taught more about protesting and alleged oppression than basic academics.
