A
15-year-old boy was killed last week at a high school where I spoke a month
ago. Two of his classmates at C.W. Jeffreys High School in Toronto, Ontario,
Canada were charged yesterday with the crime of gunning down Jeffrey Manners in
cold blood in a school hall in the middle of a school day.
I am
horrified by this killing, and I really regret not bringing up the topic
of “safety in our schools” when I spoke
to 450 C.W. Jeffreys High School students last month. I only had 60 minutes to
interact with them; I walked away from dozens of unanswered questions about how
kids can understand their rights in the workplace.
C.W.Jefferys
is located in a high-needs part of Toronto; the students there represent almost
50 nations and speak dialects from all parts of the world. They are an amazing
collection of future leaders, and I was honored to meet them and share my story
of losing my teenage son to a workplace accident.
I was taken into the C.W. Jeffreys office by
then principal Ann Kojima, and given a list of post-secondary scholarship
winners from the school to study business, engineering, math, sciences and
humanities. The opportunity to achieve and impact the way we live is not taken
for granted by students or staff at C.W.Jeffreys.
What would provoke
students to bring a hand gun to a place of learning?
The
Ontario Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne responded correctly last week by
publicly asking, “What would provoke students enough to bring a hand gun to a
place of learning?
“There
is no simple solution to keep schools safe at all times,” Minister Wynne
continued. “If there were, it would already be in place.”
Putting
more cameras and computer monitors in schools (C.W. Jeffreys had them on order
when the killing happened) will help with patrolling the halls for intruders. But
that will never be enough; we need everybody's input - students, staff,
parents, police and the community at large - to help protect our halls of
learning.
You can
help by starting to ask questions:
- Ask
your kids at home do they know exactly a “lock-down plan” looks like and why
it’s important.
- Ask
the school if their lock-down drills are conducted without or without a
heads-up.
- Do
substitute teachers know what to do during a lock-down?
- Is
there a code or phrase that students should recognize as an emergency lock-down
notification?
Don’t just point your finger at government
failings
If
you’re a student, email or pick up your cell phone and ask your school staff how you can help. They need your support
and POSITIVE suggestions.
As a
parent or concerned citizen, consider yourself a community partner and
volunteer your innovative safety ideas to the school system. Let’s not point
the finger at government officials to deal with safety in our schools; we need
to own this issue ourselves!
Schools
are places of learning and understanding - not
shooting grounds. We’ve seen the reality of killings at C.W.Jefferys and
Virginia Tech and Montreal’s Dawson College (last year) and… (the list is
depressingly long).
Let’s
find better and innovative safety solutions for our schools together. Please, do
it in memory of an outstanding young man, Jordan Manners, who died last week in
a place he loved - his school.
