If they can’t enjoy extracurricular activities, why should they bother with the curriculum?
That’s the message students at more than 10 Waterloo Region District School Board schools had Wednesday, as they left their classrooms and spent the day in the hallway.
“We’re just sitting in the halls and talking. We’re not going to do work or anything,” said Brooke Korczynski, a student at Kitchener’s Queensmount Public School.
“We are going to stay until we get our stuff back.”
Wednesday marked the first day job action by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario included a ban on teachers taking part in extracurricular activities like athletics, clubs and musical groups.
That includes the school choir Korczynski enjoys being part of.
“After they took that away, I’m not sure I really like school,” she said.
A spokesperson for the school board said she understood the students’ frustration, particularly on the first day of the enhanced job action.
“We’re hoping that we’ll get our students back in the classroom tomorrow,” said communications superintendent Marty Deacon.
Parents are also voicing concerns about what they perceive as a lack of supervision in the schoolyard.
Nicole Philion says she saw three boys playing roughly when she dropped her daughter off at school Monday.
“It escalated to physical hurt, and one boy was injured,” she said.
Philion said she didn’t see any teachers or staff around to attend to the situation.
According to the school board, principals and their assistants are now doing most of the supervisory work, with student safety their main priority.
An ETFO representative declined to comment for this story.
