Twenty suspended in second W.K. walkout

BY SARA KEDDY

editor@berwickregister.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Twenty West Kings students were suspended after a one-minute warning to get back to class Oct. 10 was ignored.

The students were following up on a walkout Oct. 3 at the school when about 70 students left school after the morning bell and stood across Hwy. 1 for several hours.

Both protests are related to the high school’s no-backpacks-in-class rule. “The students had been warned disciplinary action would be taken,” said school board superintendent Norm Dray after the second protest and round of suspensions. “Certainly I can support this as superintendent.”

The no-backpack rule was enforced Oct. 1, after past suggestions from the fire marshal led administrators to limit the bags students were carrying to and from class in congested hallways, which were then left laying in aisles and other access and exit areas.

Dray said there are further valid reasons at West Kings: “You never know what’s in one - there could be any kind of substance. A bag can conceal many things and they clutter the place up.”

The no-backpack rule is not board-wide. “Each school decides on its own rules: some might allow chewing gum, some don’t. The administration has a right to have a rule if they have good reason.”

Dray said he wouldn’t necessarily impose a similar rule board-wide.

One-minute to return to class

Two students were suspended for a week following the Oct. 3 walkout. One was standing across Hwy. 1 from the school as students left classes Oct. 10. “They said we were being defiant,” Grade 12 student Cory Swinamer said. “I just thought I’d come and stand here.”

As students congregated at the end of a dirt road across from the school, RCMP Constable Richard Langille, the school safety officer, pulled up in his cruiser to get them back onto school property. Once there, he got out and spoke with students.

An outdoor PA announcement advised students they had one minute to return to class. Shortly afterwards, a vice principal came outside. Five girls made as if to return to class, but were stopped by principal Mike Ouellette as he appeared with a notepad. He and another vice-principal began writing down names of the 20 students in the group.

On Oct. 7, Ouellette sent home a letter to students and parents and also posted it on the school website talking about the no-backpack rule, the reasoning behind the measure and accommodations the school is willing to make.

An extra set of bells will sound between classes to urge students stopping to change books at their lockers to get moving; bus schedules will be padded to give students a chance to get to their lockers at the beginning and end of the day; students can change locker locations if they like; and gym clothes, class supplies and personal items can be carried in lightweight totes, similar to reusable grocery bags.

The letter also warned that a follow-up protest - “even with parent permission or consent” - would be met with suspensions, and students providing any type of leadership in such an action would be more seriously punished.