SD 57 Issues Concerns Over Planned Student Walkout
Prince George, B.C. –The Labour Relations Board is expected to deliver its ruling today on the Province's rolling back of teachers wages for May because of job action.
Regardless of what that ruling might be, students are preparing to express their frustrations.
There is a buzz in the community that students will be walking out today, to express their feelings about the teachers’ contract dispute .
School District 57 Superintendant Brian Pepper has issued a notice to all parents.
In the notice, Pepper says the Ministry of Education and the School District respect the desire of students to express their views on the issue, “the proposed walkout raises a number of concerns particularly with regard to student safety.”
Superintendant Pepper says parents need to know, that any walkout activities are not sanctioned by the district or the schools.
As a result, parents and students should be aware that:
- while districts are responsible for the safety of students on school property, student safety cannot be guaranteed for students participating in walkout activities outside school property even if those activities take place during school hours.
- The school district says it does not know who, if anyone, is organizing local walkout activities. Parents and students should not expect those activities to be supervised by school or district staff.
- districts strongly encourage students not to participate in the walkout, both to ensure their own safety and to avoid adding further unnecessary and unproductive disruptions to their learning during this already difficult dispute.
“We fully respect the voice of students and their legitimate right to share their concerns", reads the notice from Pepper. " While we do not want to unduly alarm parents or students about the potential risks of participating in the walkout ,we felt it important that you were aware of our safety concerns.”
Comments
While it seems that there is a legitimate concern here, it seems rather to be driven from a political perspective, in that the government doesn’t want to see any more support shown by individuals in support of the teachers.
They hate it when the people get onside with anything they oppose.
Campbell’s Liberal government vowed to disband all trade unions and the Liberals are still working on it…
I can remember government wage contracts being 3 years with 0%, 0% and 0% for three terms in a row and they still complained they were paying too much but were personally taking nice hefty wage increases.
The joys of having a majority government , you can do pretty much what you like with little chance of being held responsible for it. Just legislate it and off you go.
Posted by: bcracer on June 4 2014 5:53 AM
I can remember government wage contracts being 3 years with 0%, 0% and 0% for three terms in a row and they still complained they were paying too much but were personally taking nice hefty wage increases.
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Still more then most civil servants are worth but what does this have to do with a student walkout?
“They hate it when the people get onside with anything they oppose” .. where does it say this walkout is in support of the teachers? This walkout is the same as the sit in, that wasn’t, to show their frustration with both sides. Peppar saying they are concerned with their loss of learning for a day and their safety is pure BS.
“The joys of having a majority government , you can do pretty much what you like with little chance of being held responsible for it. Just legislate it and off you go.”
The NDP enjoyed a majority government for a whole decade and sure enough it did pretty much whatever it wanted to do and it legislated and ruled and off it went! Anybody remember?
BTW, in order to ever have a minority government in B.C. it would require a minimum of three viable parties getting significant percentages of the vote.
The one with the largest % could form the minority government, even though the added together % of the others would be greater.
BC is polarized with only two parties duking it out and who knows when that is going to change.
If the students are going to protest, they can congregate in the auditoriums, or on school property, and then return to school. Leaving school property opens up all kinds of other problems.
In any event its the Government, Teachers, and Parents who deal with these problems, not the students. We have enough problems with the three listed above without adding students to the equation.
Next thing you know K-6 students will be protesting.
Its called democracy Pal. And PG has pretty much summed it up. It starts at the Federal level and it works its way right down to the municipal government. Its all about the power to control its citizens and spend their dollar for the glory of government.
Cheers
“Next thing you know K-6 students will be protesting.”
Great idea! Might as well start them young.
“In any event its the Government, Teachers, and Parents who deal with these problems, not the students.”
and yet the students are the ones affected the most with lack of class time, lack of after hours help etc etc.
I think the students should have a say in this and what they say should be “shut up and get back to work, sort your problems out on your time, not mine”
What I would love to see is the students walking around with signs saying “BCTF – Quit yer whining and go back to work like you’re paid to do”.
What do you think the chances would be of that?
LOL. Good post, interceptor! :-)
LMAO – well I guess they have two slogans now
At least it’s one way to engage young Canadians in our political processes…..
In any event I doubt that the students will make any effort to do anything other than take selfies and send inane messages back and forth.
Is this why there are teens wandering all over College Heights this morning? Seems like it’s an excuse to skip school more than anything.
The students don’t support either side. The students are stating that both sides are failing to befighting for students. I support the students
Whatever.
Peegee there is a power outage. The students may have been let go.
This was before the power outage.
The students have been planning this since last week. In the lower main land they set up a Facebook and it’s been on the news all week. Nothing to do with power outage
Children learn by example. Leaders of tomorrow? Gimmee a break, eh?
I walked the dog through CHSS and area this am (before power outage) and there were a bunch of students in the parking lot goofing off in and around their cars. Their conversations consisted of “like this walkout, we should do it every day – to Extra long lunch, Man.” Clearly they were not protesting much except being in school at all. There were a few marching around at the driveway entrance on Domano, perhaps they were actually ‘demonstrating’ something besides sloth.
An almost too simplistic solution in this digital age, is to issue every voter with a user ID and password. It seems to work fine for banks, professional associations, corporations. They all use on-line voting methods. Then this could be dealt with easily. The government simply poses the question – How much would you like your taxes raised to pay teachers more and reduce class size a)4%, b)3%, c)2% d)1% e)0%. They can take the weighted average, and viola, you have the people’s wishes heard. And don’t worry about those seniors who don’t know how to use the internet, this blog is proof enough plenty of seniors know how the internet works
ski50, in that situation, why couldn’t the Government simply raise my taxes by the level that “I” choose? If I get a 2% wage increase and I think that the teachers should get the same, then I choose 2% and the Government increases my taxes by 2%. If I only receive 1%, then I choose 1% and my taxes increase by 1%.
If you get a raise of 5% and you think that the teachers deserve 5% as well, then choose to have your taxes increased by 5%. If you only receive 1%, but you still feel that the teachers deserve 5%, then you would still have the opportunity to choose 5% and have your taxes raised accordingly.
Seems fair!
Don’t look now, but it looks like the Labour Board ruled in favour of the government being able to roll back 10% of teacher wages for work they’re not doing.
It might get interesting.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-teachers-strike-government-can-dock-pay-rules-labour-relations-board-1.2665311?cmp=rss
From the above article: “Earlier this week, the BCTF union announced it was reducing its wage demands from a 15.9 per cent increase over four years to roughly 14 per cent over four years, including increases for the cost of living.”
I’m not sure which planet the BCTF is living on, but it sure isn’t here.
“Regardless of what that ruling might be, students are preparing to express their frustrations”.
What a JOKE!,are there people actually out there that believe this BS? Kids are out there enjoying there free time off and a lot of them are oblivious as to how this BS will effect them in the coming weeks. With finals in the loom teaches couldn’t have planned a better time to pull this criminal act!!
TEACHERS SHOULD BE REPRIMANDED FOR THERE BEHAVIORS!Just as one would when dealing with a spoiled child.
I say take what the Government is offering and teach our children to be upstanding citizens not criminals.
“I’m not sure which planet the BCTF is living on, but it sure isn’t here”
It’s here off the BC coast, little island called Lackamunny!
Great to the see the students stay in school today, sure they’re a little concerned about exams and report cards, you know, Education.
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