High school students across Ontario are planning simultaneous walkouts next Thursday, April 4th, to protest education changes being instituted by the province.
Lesleigh Dye is the director of District School Board Ontario North East. She acknowledges that it’s an important topic to students, but doesn’t know yet how many of the board’s nine high schools will be part of the protest.
“I would imagine that many would be involved,” she predicts.
Dye says the board wants its students to be civically engaged in their communities. She says disciplinary action for leaving class is not a foregone conclusion, and the students’ desire to voice their displeasure will be respected.
“So we need them to be reasonable in their actions,” she outlines, “ respectful of everyone in their actions and recognize that if they miss class, they have a responsibility to be caught up on that work that they are missing.”
The director says the schools want to work with the students, because DSBOne values the students’ voice.
“Would I prefer that it was outside of instructional time or on the weekend? Absolutely. But we will work with them in a way that hopefully they can communicate their message and that they’re also being respectful, civically engaged students in our system.”
Dye adds that her major concern is the safety of the students when they walk out unsupervised.