Discipline policy draws criticism --- Safe Schools Act fuels concern

Discipline policy draws criticism --- Safe Schools Act fuels concern
Parents fear for disabled, minorities --- Rights watchdog cites suspensions

THERESA BOYLE
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU

Devon is floating somewhere inside an oversized, black quilted jacket, sipping coffee through a straw. His long fingers occasionally follow his gaze to a tiny cell phone on the table, but it doesn't ring.

At 17, he is soft-spoken and still. He keeps an eye on the time. He doesn't want to be late for his job at a small grocery store.

On a Monday afternoon, he should be at his new school, Central Technical, downtown on Bathurst St. But he says a headache prevented him from making the 2 1/2-hour-a-day round trip on public transit.

Devon is one of nearly 113,000 students suspended or expelled from Ontario schools last year for violating the province's two-year-old code of conduct legislation. Officials say the vast majority of those are one- to three-day suspensions for minor offences.

The law makes it mandatory to suspend students of all ages for violations such as swearing at teachers or threatening someone. In situations where a person is injured and requires medical attention, schools are required to call the police.

No one disputes the need to keep schools safe, but many experts question whether the law and school board policies are doing that. There's also a growing concern among parents and educators that schools are pushing children prematurely into the court system.

And while there aren't any statistics to prove it, there's also a deep suspicion among visible minorities that their children are bearing the brunt of the system.

Devon doesn't want his real name published. He's afraid it will affect his chances of getting back into his neighbourhood school, Emery Collegiate Institute, on Weston Rd. near Finch Ave. W. After getting kicked out of Emery, he was able to transfer to Central Technical.

Schools won't discuss students' disciplinary records. The information is considered so confidential teachers are discouraged from sharing it with colleagues.

Devon's problems started at Don Bosco Catholic School, on Islington Ave. near Highway 401. He says Don Bosco expelled him in the fall of 2001 after a fight with another student. The school called the police and Devon was charged with assault.

So in January, 2002, he enrolled at Emery. But he was there less than a term before he was expelled again, following an altercation with a teacher who confiscated a red headband Devon was wearing. Devon says he went after school to get it back and the teacher refused to return it.

At that point, "I said I was going to wet on the school," says Devon, meaning he threatened to urinate on the property. The teacher told him, "You're going to regret saying that."

"I should have not said it. It was a dumb joke," he says. "Everybody makes mistakes."

According to Devon, the teacher accused him of threatening to blow up Emery. The Toronto District School Board's safe schools policy requires schools to contact police in cases of threats of bodily harm. Because of the earlier assault charge, Devon was immediately arrested and sent to a youth detention centre.

He was acquitted on the assault charge. The threatening charge was dropped.

"They don't know how it feels to be 16 years old and get a charge of assault," says the teen.

The worry it caused his mother made the situation worse. She wants him to graduate, maybe learn a trade.

A year after being expelled from Emery, Devon still believes he was unfairly treated. An expulsion or suspension should be handed out if you bring a gun to school or harass a female, he says.

"They're making it look like I'm a bad kid. Nowadays, these schools are just kickin' black kids out," says Devon, who insists he has no gang affiliations and no history of bad behaviour.

Toronto District School Board trustee Kathleen Wynne, who has attended many of the highly confidential forums in which boards decide full expulsions, says, "I assume when I'm going into an (expulsion) hearing it's going to be a young male of colour. And if it's not, I'm surprised."

The board issued fewer than 100 full expulsions in the 2001-02 school year, barring students from schools until they've attended one of the province's discipline programs.

But there were 24,238 suspensions and limited expulsions, a 40 per cent increase over the previous year. School officials say more rigorous recording of suspensions as a result of the legislation might have inflated the numbers.

The man in charge of conduct in Toronto's public schools says he isn't sure if the new rules make schools safer, but it's imperative they maintain a level of civility.

Bruce Cameron says you can't look at disciplinary policies in isolation, that there are myriad anti-bullying and conflict resolution programs offered as well. "But we've also got the responsibility when a kid comes to school with a gun and points it at someone," he said.

Cameron said the number of expulsions from high-risk neighbourhoods isn't out of line with other schools.

"One of the things that never gets talked about is there are kids from advantaged communities that are in equal difficulty," he said. "People assume that if you're in a needier area the suspension rates or the disciplinary measures are more intense. When you start to look around, that's not really the case."

He says boys are disciplined more, but research shows low achievers act out. A disproportionate number of boys have trouble in math and reading.

Richard Tone, the Toronto Catholic board superintendent in charge of safe schools, says he thinks the policies make schools safer and principals apply appropriate discretion.

"We do not tolerate certain kinds of behaviour, but that doesn't mean the consequence is automatic in every case. It is less discretionary than in the past, but there is some discretion," he said, particularly in an isolated incident involving a generally good student.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Elizabeth Witmer says the legislation "doesn't prescribe a zero tolerance approach."

Rather, "it provides a framework for administrators to judge cases on the specific merits of the case," said Patrick Nelson.

Tone says his board hands out fewer than five full expulsions annually, but it needs more programs for students on limited expulsions, which aren't funded by the province. Those students are allowed to attend another school, but if they're expelled in mid-semester it's often too late for them to catch up.

Stephnie Payne, the public board's only black trustee, says the province has imposed a flawed policy in conjunction with a funding formula that doesn't give schools the resources to help students live within the behavioural limits.

Payne says she simply doesn't believe board officials who say discipline rates are no higher in high-risk neighbourhood schools.

She acknowledges that teachers are not social workers and schools must be made safe. But she says the white majority among school officials does not understand "these kids are so angry. When you disrespect these kids, they become violent."

Payne says she has heard reports of dozens of students staying away from school because they feel targeted for discipline by school officials who don't listen to them or understand their issues.

Payne states plainly what most educators will say only off the record — principals are so overworked, sometimes they simply tell high maintenance students to go away.

Minority parents who try to make their case at school board meetings are frequently dismissed as irrational by decision makers, says Payne.

Next September, the Muslim Educational Network Training and Outreach Service in Scarborough will launch a program to match children at risk of suspension with community members and counsellors. While it's not unheard of for children as young as 4 to be suspended, there are no alternative programs for children below Grade 7, says Alimamy Bangura, project developer.

"If you begin to suspend a 4-year-old and they're excluded from school, eventually it gets to a point where the child falls behind in their school work," says Bangura. "So therefore the child isn't going to do very well in school. Ultimately, that child is going to drop out."

He also believes suspensions pose a different risk for young children.

"If your child is suspended for five days and you have to quit work for five days, it's not pretty," says Bangura, who hears of young children left at home alone or in the care of other children.

Lawyer Lisa LaBorde says Toronto's African Canadian Legal Clinic gets calls almost daily about school discipline. "If there are legitimate safety issues, is safe schools legislation actually addressing those? It's not like it's capturing violent incidents. It's capturing trivial behaviour for the most part.

"Black youths don't have a margin of error. There's no room for them to make a mistake. And if they can't make a mistake at school, where can they?"