SCHOOLYARD BULLIES

Guess who's the biggest bully in the schoolyard? You may or may not be surprised to learn that it's the School Board themselves. Specifically that would be the Waterloo Region District School Board. This opinion of mine is shared by parents who have come up against the system , some very honest and courageous teachers within the system and finally I would suggest by Record reporter Luisa D'Amato in her Opinion piece in Saturday's Kitchener-Waterloo Record titled "Tory M.P.P.'s challenge public school board over child care". Let me quote her directly and you the reader decide if I'm overstating the case: "I covered education for many years at this paper. Sitting at school board meetings, I was routinely infuriated by what I saw as the board's culture of hostility to dissent, and it's intransigence."

"...the board's culture of hostility to dissent...". Wow that's pretty strong language and it's accurate. This I know from personal experience dealing with them when my children were young and in their clutches. You can't imagine my relief when both my children were out of high school and they and their parents no longer had to deal with the cowardly bullies who run our education system. My wife and I spent seven years in and out of Court, as a direct result of the School Board's refusal to deal honestly and properly with issues that they bore responsibilty for. Although our case was thank god significantly less horrific than the Ron Archer case, that case is one that this School Board should all wear to their graves. Indeed if there was one iota of justice in the local education system, there would have been a housecleaning at the Waterloo Region District School Board over their grotesque and I believe criminal failure to stop that pedophile in his tracks. Instead the Board enabled his criminal activities with a well known policy of transferring teachers which became known as "passing the trash". As far as bullying goes, it is our Judicial system which enables the school Board to bully parents. At that time the Waterloo Region District School Board had an annual budget of $350 million, just slightly higher than mine (HA!). They used their financial superiority to beat up on dissenting parents via the ridiculously costly judicial system. Whether civil suits, provincial offences such as Trespass or whatever their gutless little minds could dream up, nothing was too petty or malicious for them. The last thing however they would do is honestly discuss, debate , comprimise or even acknowledge when they had a problem much less admit a mistake. "...the board's culture of hostility to dissent and their intransigence.". Thankyou for this and other writings over the years Luisa D'Amato.