By Arthur Weinreb
Monday, June 4, 2007
Shortly after her 15-year-old son was gunned down at C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in northwest Toronto, Loreen Small called for an inquest into his death as well as the appointment of a provincial youth commissioner. Small was quoted as saying, "Please don't let my son die in vain".
Of the many people who don't want a loved one who has died under tragic circumstances to have died in vain, Ms. Small may just get her wish. But an inquest into Jordan's death and the creation of another bureaucratic position simply won't cut it. We need a full blown public inquiry; not about Jordan's death at Jefferys but about violence and the lack of control in our province's schools. Since the murder of Jordan Manners past and present teachers at C.W. Jefferys have been coming out with tales of assaults, threats, vandalism and other criminal acts being committed by students and others within the hallowed halls of the school. The school's administration not only discourages teachers from reporting such incidents to the police and but what on the outside would be considered crimes, go unpunished within the school. And this is the same school that Donna Quan, the safe schools superintendent referred to as "outstanding". This is the school that Toronto District School Board trustee Stephanie Payne said that she had never heard of a major problem before Jordan's school. Either both these women are lying or there is a systemic cover up of what is exactly going on within this institution that is supposed to educate children and teach them how to function in society.
What we are not seeing are teachers with familiarity of other schools coming forward with the same type of horror stories that the Jefferys teachers are now slowly but surely revealing. It's a no brainer that none of this would be coming out had it not been for the fatal shooting within the Toronto high school. And it is impossible to believe that within the city of Toronto and the province, C.W. Jefferys is somehow unique and worse than all the other schools; the only one where what happened could have taken place.
We don't need an inquiry or an inquest or the appointment of a youth commissioner to investigate why students bring guns to schools. We already know the answer; kids bring guns to school because they have them and they take them everywhere else. And we already know what the recommendations of such an inquiry will be; prevent law abiding citizens from owning guns and prevent all guns from coming into the country, the latter being impossible to realistically implement and the former having virtual no effect in solving the problem. Guns in the hands of what the trendy like to refer to as "at risk youth" is certainly a problem but anything done in response to Jordan Manners death should deal with the issue of apparent lawlessness in schools and not guns in general
When Premier Dalton McGuinty was in opposition, nothing was too small for him to jump up and demand a public inquiry into. What a difference an election makes. It's doubtful that the guy who bills himself as "the education premier" will call an inquiry into violence in the public school system. But that shouldn't stop people from demanding answers and making the state of our schools an election issue. Ontarians have the right to know exactly what is going on in these taxpayer funded schools and the facts that are now emerging about Jefferys is undoubtedly just the tip of the iceberg.
We need a public inquiry and we need it now. We have to stem the fatal exercise of political correctness that deems that violent students that are non white cannot be expelled or punished lest the school be accused of racial profiling. We need to compel principals, teachers and other school authorities to come forward and tell what is really going on in our provincial schools where it is apparent that even provincial bureaucrats and school board trustees haven't got a clue. In this violent society, parents should at least be able to expect to send their kids to school without having to worry about whether or not they will be gunned down.
The next step is up to our education premier.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement