By Lindsey Parry
It’s a busy day in the Rideau Centre.
Four teenage girls sit around a table in the food court, eating New York Fries and drinking Coca-Cola. They talk loudly, often all at once.
But although these OAC students are having fun, they still say they have plenty to worry about.
It’s the second day of the Ontario teachers’ strike.
The girls’ concern centres around how their grades will be affected. Come December, graduating students will be applying to post-secondary schools. But because of the strike, university information days at their school — Sir Robert Borden — have been cancelled.
Doris Leung says it is hard to figure out what she wants in a university — especially now.
“We’re now on our own with (university) applications,” she says. “It’s like closing your eyes and picking a course.”
Her friend Erika Bellecrutti is also frustrated. She will be applying this year to the University of Western Ontario, to study human kinetics. But she needs at least a 75-per-cent average to be considered for early acceptance.
“At the moment, we’ve had maybe one test in every subject,” says Bellecrutti. “If you do really bad on the first test, there goes your early admission.”
Unable to predict the length of the strike, teachers gave students work to do on their own.
But Jumoke Fasoyinu says some subjects are easier than others.
“No matter what, we’re going to be at a disadvantage,” she says. “With math, you know where you’re going. You apply the things you’ve learned to the next lesson. But history and geography are different.”
At Borden, classes do not run on a semestered basis. Students take up to eight classes a day. Emily McNamee says as a result, some students will have problems trying to keep up with every course.
Still, the girls say they support their teachers.
Students are dealing with the strike in different ways. Fasoyinu hopes to get a head start on her independent study projects. Bellecrutti is working extra hours at her part-time job. And Leung has a friend who has suggested sharing her math tutor with fellow classmates until school resumes. Each student would pay the tudor $5 a day.
At the same time, there has been public speculation that teens without a place to get into trouble.
But Sgt. Gilles Larochelle of the Ottawa-Carleton olice says youth crime should not rise as a result of the strike.
“There has been no indication that the level of crime has risen because students are out of school,” he says. “It’s like the summer. There’s no rise in crime then, so there’s really no reason for concern now.”
OAC student Fergus O’Connor agrees. As student council co-president at Lisgar Collegiate, he doesn’t consider crime a real issue at the moment.
“There’s been studies done that link boredom to crime, that’s for sure,” he says. “It’s possible, but it’s not an issue. It’s not ‘go to school or the crime rate will go up.’ I’m certainly not going to rob any banks.”
Instead, O’Connor says he will take advantage of his time off. But, he, too, worries how the strike’s outcome may affect his university plans.
“It’s a golden opportunity to relax and walk in the park and read Lord of the Rings,” he says. “But then, it could just be a time hole where you lose out big-time.”