Raise the Hammer

Feb. 21, 2014.

Just the other day, I took a sit in the foyer at Parkview to rest and observe. I’m familiar with students, staff and the school and watched as students repeatedly gathered with fellow school mates. Most often words shared between adolescence, echoed, not suitable for printing. A teacher/support over heard the language and came to seat herself next to one of the students and began a conversation. “Why are you not in class (name)?” Student: “not going cause ** angry about (issue).” Student continued to detail circumstances using a few words not printable. The support/teacher carried on and shared her own insight, listened, and also reminded her about language that isn’t very ladylike. With time, there was calm and the student rose to proceed to class. Timeframe (Thirty minutes) While seated it was a constant repeated gathering of students traveling the halls, rough housing, and socializing briefly? Always a teacher/support would appear and briefly chat with students giving them added direction. In two and a half hours, witnessed various interventions, individual counseling, outreach techniques and motivational speakers all under the same roof. I was observing the intricate framework that made Parkview Secondary a specialized school, a safe place for children at risk, familiar with the mental health challenges that often created conflict within a “regular school structure”. Now imagine the day when you “transition” students of Parkview into a “regular system”, 1300 capacity bricks and mortar, with existing policy and regulations for all. The “illusion of inclusion “we begin to see the reason why we had Parkview in the first place. This will never be able to come close to the standards and qualities meshed tightly within a specialized school. Our children all deserve equal access to a safe, suitable place to learn and not be filler for the education system to balance the cost of public education. This all has to do with funding cost vs children’s rights to an education that have complex needs. The HWDSB needs to invest in our children, in a bricks and mortar to properly transition our students instead of placing them at risk. That is the bottom line reality as they push ahead with a “transitional plan” that leads only to an illusion that everyone will have their educational needs met. Without a specialized school, it is only an illusion. Cheryl Hobbins