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Education

Around The District

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Red Deer Public Schools-2
Here are some of the events happening in the Red Deer Public School District between now and the end of the month.

MONDAY, APRIL 3
EVENT: SPELL-A-THON
School: Joseph Welsh Elementary
Time: Daily
Location: Various around School
Details: Joseph Welsh, in conjunction with the School
Council, is holding a Spell-A-Thon. Students will collect
pledges for doing their best on the Spell-A-Thon test. Anyone
wanting to contribute to the Spell-A-Thon is invited to call the
school. All funds raised are for school activities.
Contact: Rafaela Marques at 403-346-6377

MONDAY, APRIL 3
EVENT: WEAR BLUE FOR AUTISM AWARENESS
School: West Park Elementary
Time: All Day
Location: Various around School
Details: Staff and students will be wearing blue to support
Autism Awareness Day (Apr. 2) and the month of April.
Contact: Brianne Lindsay at 403-343-1838
MONDAY, APRIL 3 – FRIDAY, APRIL 7
EVENT: AUTISM AWARENESS WEEK
School: Hunting Hills High
Time: Daily
Location: Various around School
Details: Students will be working to help educate and
provide opportunities to learn about the autism spectrum
Contact: Jonathan Davies at 403-342-6655

TUESDAY, APRIL 4
EVENT: MAKERSPACE OPEN HOUSE
School: Mountview Elementary
Time: 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Location: Mountview – Makerspace Room 4
Details: Open house focused on STEM development (3D
modelling, coding, etc.)
Contact: Jeff Plackner at 403-346-5765

TUESDAY, APRIL 4
EVENT: FRENCH IMMERSION AND INTERNATIONAL
BACCALAUREATE INFO NIGHT
School: Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High
Time: FRIM: 6:30 pm; IB: 7:00 pm
Location: School Cafeteria
Details: : The information night is for the parents and
students (currently in Grade 8 French Immersion) that are
interested in continuing in the LTCHS French Immersion
and/or International Baccalaureate programs.
Contact: Dania Hill (FRIM) at 403-347-1171, ext. 1305
Dave Smith (IB) at 403-347-1171, ext. 2104

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5
EVENT: FESTIVAL OF PERFORMING ARTS SCHOOL
CHOIR PERFORMANCE
School: Joseph Welsh Elementary
Time: 9:30 am
Location: Sunnybrook United Church
Details: Students in grades 3-5 from the Joseph Welsh
School Choir will be participating in the Red Deer
Festival of the Performing Arts. The choir has prepared
two pieces. Family and friends are welcome to attend the
performance.
Contact: Alison Veldkamp at 403-346-6377

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 5
EVENT: ADVANCED PLACEMENT INFORMATION
NIGHT
School: Hunting Hills High
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: School Gathering Area
Details: Parent information night for our AP program.
Contact: Sue Merry at 403-342-6655

THURSDAY, APRIL 6
EVENT: RED DEER COLLEGE PERFORMING
FRIENDS IN TIME PLAY
School: Mountview Elementary
Time: 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Location: School Gymnasium
Details: RDC students will be performing a play about
friendship for all of our grade 4 students.
Contact: Diane Roberts at 403-346-5765

SATURDAY, APRIL 8
EVENT: GRAD TIGHT N’ BRIGHT BOWLING
School: Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Heritage Bowling
Details: An enjoyable evening of bowling and socializing
for the 2017 Grads.
Contact: Lisa Olesen at 403-347-1171

TUESDAY, APRIL 11
EVENT: GRADE 8 ORIENTATION PARENT
INFORMATION NIGHT
School: Hunting Hills High
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: School Gathering Area
Details: Information will be shared with parents and
students to help transition new students to grade 9.
Contact: Trevor Pikkert at 403-342-6655

TUESDAY, APRIL 11
EVENT: THURBER IDOL
School: Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Memorial Centre
Details: The 14th Annual Thurber Idol features some of
the most talented students. This year’s talent includes 13
varied and impressive acts from singers to dancers, and
musicians who have been chosen from many acts that
auditioned. Tickets are $13 and are available in advance
(Apr. 6-11) at the Student Leadership Exec Offi ce during
lunch times and remaining tickets will be available at the
door.
Contact: Alan Towne at 403-347-1171, ext. 1305

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
EVENT: KNOW A THON WRAP UP PIE IN THE FACE
School: Mattie McCullough Elementary
Time: 1:30 pm
Location: School Gymnasium
Details: Our top classes raised over $1500 each for our
Access For All playground and won the opportunity to
hit the admin in the face with a pie. Our know-a-Thon
raised over $13,700.00 for our park with phase 1 being
installed this summer.
Contact: Lisa Spicer at 403-343-8958

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
EVENT: RED DEER PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD
MEETING
Time: 1:00 pm
Location: Central Service Offi ce, Board Room
Details: Regular school board meeting.
Contact: Cyndi Ramsfi eld at 403-342-3713
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
EVENT: SPRING FLING
School: Hunting Hills High
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: School Gymnasium
Details: Midsummer Night’s Dream themed dance.
Contact: Jonathan Davies at 403-342-6655
To visit the Red Deer Public Schools website CLICK HERE

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Alberta

Alberta poll shows strong resistance to pornographic material in school libraries

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

A government survey revealed strong public support, particularly among parents, for restricting or banning sexually explicit books.

Albertans are largely opposed to their children viewing pornography in school libraries, according to government polling.

In a June 20 press release, the Government of Alberta announced that their public engagement survey, launched after the discovery of sexually explicit books in school libraries, found that Albertans strongly support removing or limiting such content.

“Parents, educators and Albertans in general want action to ensure children don’t have access to age-inappropriate materials in school libraries,” Demetrios Nicolaides, Minister of Education and Childcare, said.

“We will use this valuable input to guide the creation of a province-wide standard to ensure the policy reflects the priorities and values of Albertans,” he continued.

READ: Support for traditional family values surges in Alberta

The survey, conducted between May 28 to June 6, received nearly 80,000 responses, revealing a widespread interest in the issue.

While 61 percent of respondents said that they had never previously been concerned about children viewing sexually explicit content in libraries, most were opposed to young children viewing it. 34 percent said children should never be able to access sexually explicit content in school libraries, while 23 percent believed it should be restricted to those aged 15 and up.

Similarly, 44 percent of parents of school-aged children were supportive of government regulations to control content in school libraries. Additionally, 62 percent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that “parents and guardians should play a role in reporting or challenging the availability of materials with sexually explicit content in school libraries.”

READ: Alberta Conservatives seeking to ban sexually graphic books from school libraries

At the time, Nicolaides revealed that it was “extremely concerning” to discover that sexually explicit books were available in school libraries.

The books in question, found at multiple school locations, are Gender Queer, a graphic novel by Maia Kobabe; Flamer, a graphic novel by Mike Curato; Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson; and Fun Home, a graphic novel by Alison Bechdel.

 

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David Clinton

Why Are Ontario’s Public Schools So Violent?

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The Audit David Clinton's avatar David Clinton

Ontario’s Auditor General just released a performance audit on the Toronto District School Board. I’m sure it’ll surprise exactly no one that “financial and capital resources are not consistently allocated in the most cost-effective or efficient way” or that “The effective management of operations was not always being measured and assessed for internal decision-making”.

And there was plenty of institutional chaos:

“Between 2017/18 and 2022/23…about 38% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of fire drills required by the Ontario Fire Code annually, and about 31% of TDSB schools did not report conducting the minimum number of lockdown drills required by TDSB policy annually. The TDSB does not have an effective process to ensure the required number of drills are performed by each school, each year, or that they are performed in accordance with TDSB policy when performed.”

What else would you expect from a massive government bureaucracy that employs 40,000 people, spends $3.6 billion annually and – based on many of the highlighted items on their website – is laser-focused on pretty much anything besides education?

What you might not have seen coming was that around half of the report centered on in-school violence. To be sure, we’re told that there were only 407 violent events reported to the board during the 2022/2023 school year – which is a rate of around 17 events for every 10,000 students. 17:10,000 doesn’t exactly sound like an environment that’s spiraling out of control.

There was a caveat:

“Due to input errors by principals, the TDSB underreported the number of violent incidents that occurred between 2017/18 to 2021/22 to the Ministry by about 9%.”

Ok. But we’re still nowhere near Mad Max levels of violence. So what’s attracting so much of the auditor’s attention? Perhaps it’s got something to do with a couple of recent surveys whose results don’t quite match the board’s own records. Here’s how the audit describes the first of those:

“The 2022/23 TDSB Student and Parent Census was responded to by over 138,000 students, parents, guardians and caregivers. It showed that 23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied (e.g., grabbed, shoved, punched, kicked, tripped, spat at), and about 71% stated they were verbally bullied (e.g., sworn at, threatened, insulted, teased, put down, called names, made fun of). Further, about 14% of student respondents indicated they had been cyberbullied. TDSB’s central tracking of all bullying incidents is much lower than this, suggesting that they are not centrally capturing a large number of bullying incidents that are occurring.”

“23% of students in Grades 4 to 12 that responded to the survey said they were physically bullied”. That’s not a great fit with that 17:10,000 ratio, even if you add the 9 percent of underreported incidents. And bear in mind that these students and their families were willing to discuss their experiences in a survey run by the school board itself, so it’s not like they’re hard to find.

But that’s not the worst of it. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) ran their own survey in 2023. They wanted to hear about their members’ experiences with workplace violence. Here, quoting from the audit report, is what TDSB respondents told them:

  • 42% had experienced physical force against themselves in 2022/23;
  • 18% had experienced more than 10 of these physical force incidents in 2022/23;
  • 81% indicated the number of violent incidents increased since they started working;
  • about 77% responded that violence was a growing problem at their school;
  • about 29% indicated they had suffered a physical injury;
  • 57% had suffered a psychological injury/illness (such as mental stress, psychological or emotional harm) as a result of workplace violence against them; and
  • about 85% indicated that violence at their school made teaching and working with students more difficult.

29 percent of teachers suffered a physical injury due to workplace violence. That’s elementary school teachers we’re talking about.

For perspective, even accounting for the 9 percent underreporting, the TDSB was aware of events impacting less than a quarter of a percentage point of their students (and apparently didn’t report any violence against teachers). But by their own accounts, 23 percent of all students and 42 percent of elementary teachers have suffered attacks. Are board officials willfully ignoring this stuff?

And if only there was some way to address violence and other criminal activities on school property. Perhaps – and I’m just spitballing here – there could even be people working in schools whose job it would be to (what’s the word I’m looking for?) police crime.

On a completely unrelated note, back in November, 2017, the Toronto District School Board voted 18-3 to permanently end their School Resource Officer (SRO) program. Since then, police officers have been unwelcome on board property.

To be sure, the TDSB has “accepted” all 18 of the report’s recommendations. But talk is cheap. Who’s to say that commitment won’t play out the same way we’ve seen with their fire drill compliance.

Can you spell “class action lawsuit”?

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