Teachers & Trustees Are To Blame

The minute teachers and trustees decided that the relationship between teacher and student had to change from one where authority ruled to one where teachers and students became buddies IMO the system fell apart. Think about it....under the Mr. Kotter system of education how many students became successful?

Teacher's letter about school shocks
By IAN ROBERTSON

Teacher Sandra Fusco is being lauded for her courageous call for better security and discipline at a North York high school in which a student was murdered.

The former teacher at C.W. Jefferys wrote the Sun after Jordan Manners was shot last week about her experiences.

"Our e-mail has been flooded in response to Fusco's column -- almost all of it backing the former C.W. Jefferys teacher," editorial page editor Rob Granatstein said.

Published Saturday, "her story took readers on a trip inside the hallways and classrooms of today's schools and our readers were shocked by the journey," he said. "Few had realized how bad the situation had become at some of our public schools."

He said readers "are outraged by the abusive students and the complete lack of respect shown for teachers and the school system."

'I THINK SHE'S RIGHT'

Outside a Keele St. funeral home where visitations for Manners began yesterday, Desislava Bashkova, 19, who graduated last year and had been in Fusco's class, said, "I think she's right."

Bashkova said "the school should be protected more. There are so many fights and nobody seems to care.

"If you hang out with the right people and have nice friends, you'll be okay," she said. "If you don't bother anyone, they don't bother you."

Standing outside C.W. Jefferys, Grade 12 student Hijal DeSarkar said, "people come into this school all the time."

Never comfortable there, classmate Carla Carrilo, 17, said "there were a lot of little gangsters." Most fights involve boys, but "sometimes girls fight in the cafeteria."

A student who only gave his first name, Jaime, said, "I've seen fights, but a lot worse in other schools. I didn't feel unsafe in this school."

Fusco blamed "apathetic administrators" and the TDSB "which is hesitant to administer effective consequences to misbehaviour for fear of legal repercussions.

'A GOOD SCHOOL'

Board boss Donna Quan said "this is a good school" and Fusco's issues could have been addressed if she had confided her concerns.

"An article like this harms the students," she said. Then, while reading the column, added Fusco "has some important things to say. If she has some valid suggestions, then I wish to hear from her."

Jefferys lawless: Teacher
IAIN MARLOW May 30, 2007
C.W. Jefferys Collegiate is a school wracked by lawlessness, where students swear, threaten violence, and throw textbooks at teachers who do not have authority to keep order, say some present and former teachers.