Pubdate: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 Source: Toronto Star (CN ON) Copyright: 2000 The Toronto Star Contact: One Yonge St., Toronto ON, M5E 1E6 Fax: (416) 869-4322 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Forum: http://www.thestar.com/editorial/disc_board/ Pages: A1, A30 Author: Louise Brown, Education Reporter ONTARIO GETS TOUGH ON STUDENT BEHAVIOUR New Rules Require Pupils To Recite Oath, Sing Anthem Ontario's tough-talking new code of school conduct gives teachers and principals beefed-up powers to kick kids out of school - rights they say they do not want. The code, which is the first detailed provincial code of school behaviour in Canada, will slap the same stiff penalties on in-school crimes right across the province. The long-touted document, unveiled yesterday as a "zero tolerance policy for bad behaviour," also will let parents decide whether a school should have a mandatory uniform, and will require Ontario's 2.1 million students to recite a morning "pledge of citizenship" and sing "O Canada" starting this September. Under the new rules, students will land immediate suspension and an "expulsion hearing" for possessing a weapon, dealing drugs or weapons, robbery, threatening or harming someone with a weapon, sexual assault, physical assault causing bodily harm requiring professional medical treatment, or providing alcohol to minors. Students now will be suspended immediately if they swear at a teacher, are drunk at school or in possession of alcohol, possess illegal drugs, utter a threat to inflict serious bodily harm, or cause extensive vandalism - consequences many local school boards say already are in place. While many cheered a consistent set of rules across the province, critics slammed the code as empty swagger from a government hooked on law and order, and say what schools really need to be safe is more government money for violence prevention programs for students at risk. The 11-page code likely would not have prevented the sort of violence that broke out last week in a school near Ottawa on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, said Earl Manners, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation. "That stabbing near Ottawa seems to have been triggered by social problems caused by teasing, which is the sort of problem that can be helped by the violence prevention programs now on the chopping block," said Manners, whose federation represents 50,000 high school teachers across the province. "Teachers don't want the right to suspend a kid from school on their own, because you need that third party - the principal - to get the full story." The new code will give the power to expel students to principals, rather than school boards, as is now the case. That change will start next February, said education minister Janet Ecker, to allow time for principals to be trained in these new powers. Similarly, the power to suspend students (usually from one to 20 days) will be expanded to Ontario's 144,000 teachers, rather than just principals, starting in the fall of 2001. "Principals told us they frequently felt they didn't have the authority to make the decisions they needed to, and they didn't get appropriate backup as the issues got bumped upstairs at the school board," Ecker said yesterday. But many principals disagree. "No principal I have ever talked to wants the power to expel a student without a consulting process with someone else, because that component ensures it's not just an emotional call," said Joanne Robinson, president of the Ontario Principals' Council, which represents about 5,000 principals and vice-principals. The code also requires students who have been suspended or expelled to attend special "strict-discipline" programs - for which school boards say they get no government money. Ecker said yesterday there would be some funding, but offered no details. Yesterday, she visited a special new Brampton program for suspended students and called it "a good example of the kind of alternative schooling for suspended students that is expected to become a fixture across Ontario by 2001." The Brampton program is paid for entirely by private fundraising because the Peel District School Board gets no money from Queen's Park for that sort of program. School boards were puzzled that the code refers to an "expulsion hearing" but does not stipulate who would be involved in that hearing. "The principal will have the authority to call a hearing to expel a student," said Rob Savage, education ministry spokesperson, "but we're still developing the process for that." "However," said Gail Nyberg, chair of the Toronto District School Board, "the fact the code mentions a hearing at all is reassuring. But sober second thought allows you to avoid doing something really dumb - like suspending a 5-year-old for swearing when he might be too young to know what he means." - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea