Extracurricular activities are being reduced or cancelled altogether for many students at Lisgar Collegiate Institute as a result of teachers’ protests against the Ontario government.
The unions representing school teachers in the province have advised teachers to stop volunteering to supervise or coach extracurricular activities following the passage of new legislaion on strikes.
Bill 115, recently passed by the Ontario government, enforces a two-year ban on strikes, leaving teachers with few ways to protest outside of reducing their volunteer efforts.
The most noticeable impact on extracurricular activities has been the cancellation of many high school sports teams. Eleven of the 25 high schools in the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board did not register any teams or individuals at all for fall sports by the Sept. 17 deadline.
Lisgar has registered athletes in some areas of individual sports, such as golf, tennis and cross-country running.
For the fall season, Lisgar usually offers team sports, such as junior and senior boys’ soccer, girls’ and boys’ hockey, junior and senior girls’ basketball, senior boys’ volleyball, and boys’ rugby.
But due to the cutback in teacher volunteers, all of these teams have already been cancelled for the fall season after failing to meet the registration deadline.
Concerned citizen John Savage underlined the negative effects that this will have on Grade 12 students who are in their last year of high school.
“If this goes on for a year or two, for some kids this is going to cost them scholarships. Some kid’s futures will be forever damaged by this,” he says.
“Every time there is some sort of labour dispute, the kids are held hostage. Is that fair?”
Due to their larger teaching staff, Glebe Collegiate was able to register athletes in most of the 14 categories of team and individual sports.
Richard Deadman, a member of the Glebe School Council, says that despite the strike many students understand the teachers’ difficult position.
“Probably more students and parents sympathize with the teachers since we have a connection with the teachers,” he says.
“We want to support our kids while also supporting our teachers, who many of us know personally.”
Dan Maxwell, president of the Ottawa-Carleton branch of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, says it’s a tough time for both students and teachers.
“Teachers who have made decisions to not participate in voluntary activities are doing that on their own accord at this point;. that’s a personal protest,” he says.
“Volunteer activities, that’s what they are: volunteer. If parents want to come and volunteer in schools, I commend them for doing that. But at this point in time, our members are not feeling compelled to offer volunteer services to the system.”
Mardi de Kemp, a spokesperson for the Ottawa Catholic School Board, said the Catholic teachers’ union settled with the Ministry of Education in early July.
Schools in the local Catholic school board including Immaculata High School have not been affected by any work-to-rule stoppages or a lack of teacher volunteers.
At an OCDSB trustee meeting on Sept. 18, board members heard from the public and examined ways in which the community could make up for the lack of teacher volunteers.
At the meeting, Savage said that there are plenty of talented coaches in Ottawa who would be willing to donate their time.
Debborah Evraire said she feels that the OCDSB hasn’t encouraged the community in light of the cutbacks.
“I just don’t think that the call out to the community has been loud enough,” she said. “Let us know what the obstacles are. It’s OK to say to the community, ‘We need your help.’”
The OCDSB’s policy for volunteers states that the volunteer must be 22 years of age or older, have a current police check, and be certified in the area in which they hope to volunteer.
In the case of coaching a team, volunteers must pass standards set by the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association, the governing body for all registered high school sports in Ottawa.
Community members can volunteer coaches as long as they have participated in a National Coaching Certification Program, attended a workshop about that particular sport, or had past experience as a player or coach.
However, if a team were to be coached solely by a community volunteer, it could only participate in regular season games.
If the team wanted to participate in the playoffs at an official NCSSAA tournament or compete at a provincial level, there must be a staff member of the school present at all times throughout the game.
Though Lisgar hasn’t registered any teams for the fall season, the winter and spring seasons are not yet out of reach if enough volunteers step up.
But the complex regulations might be discouraging, Deadman says.
“Some parents I’m sure would be willing to volunteer," he says. "But my understanding is that [these] certifications will make it difficult to find suitable and willing volunteers for a number of the programs.”