Entry #25 - March 8, 1999
"We can tell that our principals and vice principals have been
told to keep the schools open at any price and NOT to call "downtown"
for help. A bizarre incident one morning clearly illustrated this."
We all enjoyed having a "slow" week, with many of the Grade 8
students away at the science school, but now we're starting to wonder when
we'll have a "normal" week again. Monday was the beginning of
a strike by our district's 14,000 support staff -- janitors, educational
assistants, cafeteria workers, engineers, secretaries, swim and music instructors,
and many more. Fourteen high schools had to be closed, due to antique boilers
that require 24-hour maintenance, but other schools were told to carry on
with "business as usual," despite expressed concerns from parents
and teachers alike that safety, as well as health, issues would swiftly
arise.
Our attendance has been down all week: some parents have been honoring the
picket lines, others are not sending their children because of those very
health and safety concerns. After a few days' reviewing old material, several
of my colleagues are starting to get jittery. We have to "cover the
curriculum" after all -- the new standards make this imperative --
but how to do this effectively with 30 to 40 percent of the students missing?
Not only that, we can't even pretend to carry on with the regular program
with so many people not available. The educational assistants provided special
math and language support in groupings for students who were significantly
below their class level in these areas. Now the program has to be rewritten
to focus on whole-class activities. Library, media and computer services
are not available, and all after school activities are canceled.
Principals, vice principals and superintendents -- nicknamed the Management
Maintenance brigade -- have been deployed to make the rounds with plungers
and Lysol, cleaning bathrooms and emptying garbage cans (teachers may not
be asked to perform the duties of other employees on a legal strike). That
means the administrators not available to handle any acting-out students
-- so those have been summarily sent home. It's been pretty quiet in the
halls!
In the press, parents have been asked to come to the school to pick up assignments
for their children. However, few of ours do this -- and for most it is not
a realistic option. Most of our students accomplish little in the way of
"homework" -- sometimes there is cultural conflict, sometimes
the typical laissez-faire attitude of middle-school kids towards out-of-school
assignments, but also very real obstacles to their getting work done at
home: overcrowded living arrangements with too many domestic responsibilities
on the kids' own shoulders. Most of my colleagues have decided to press
on with the next units of study, despite the high absentee rate.
Not all our district's non-teaching staff are on strike, however. I was
thrilled to see our school psychologist in the office last week and briefly
shared my concerns with her about the student who has talked of suicide
(I discovered, by asking around, that the boy has mentioned this to other
staff as well). She came in at lunchtime one day this week and we discussed
his situation in some detail. I didn't know how to approach the family,
or how to get the "higher-ups" moving, but she had several very
concrete ideas for action, and will take it the next step -- scheduling
a meeting with family and including the principal and our itinerant behavioral
support teacher (even though the boy is not a behavior problem).
She agreed with me that it is URGENT to move on getting this boy some help
NOW. A medical consultation would also be advisable, since so much of depression
we now know to be physiological and responsive to medication, but other
supports, such as the Teen Clinic at our children's hospital, or even a
Big Brother or mentor, might be a critical factor in helping this boy change
his world view, which seems to have gotten locked into a negative spiral.
At least I KNOW she will follow through (always a problem at our school)
and pressure the appropriate personnel to get moving on support systems
for this boy.
Meanwhile, conditions in the schools have been deteriorating rapidly. Vandalism
has not been a problem in our own school, but it has in others. Filth, malfunctioning
heating systems, limited lavatory access, fields of ice surrounding schools,
making it unsafe even to walk in -- all have parents clamoring for the schools
to be closed and the contract dispute settled.
We can tell that our principals and vice principals have been told to keep
the schools open at any price and NOT to call "downtown" for help.
A bizarre incident one morning clearly illustrated this. The outside door
locks had been jammed or glued shut, and the administrators' master keys
would not open them. We were dumbfounded when they asked students to gather
rocks, break a window, and then asked a student to climb through the broken
window and open the doors! Fortunately for all concerned, he was not severely
injured -- but I was aghast that such an action would be considered in the
first place!
A mediator has been appointed in the labor dispute, but no settlement is
in sight. How long can we go on pretending it's "business as usual?"
Rumor has it that the reason more schools haven't been closed is because
the district fears losing government money. Usually it is *teachers* who
are accused of using children as pawns in labor disputes -- it sure looks
like the shoe is on the other foot this time!
We've had another sudden and severe snowstorm, so I can't imagine how we'll
cope next week without sidewalks, schoolyards and parking lots cleared of
snow. Parents are organizing to close down some of the schools, mainly high
schools, and meanwhile the rest of us are muddling along as best we can.
The office is out of paper, and the head office fax machine is out of toner.
I guess they WILL settle this by the end of the month, or -- who'll do the
payroll? Now THERE'S an invitation to mass mayhem!
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