The Benefits to Schoolchildren of Immigration From Another Culture

"While [my son] was not suspended or in any form of trouble, he needed to be kept at home and to miss a day of education because the school was unsafe for him because he was at risk of violence by a number of students, many of whom are known to the administration for ongoing violent behaviour."

"The violence and chaos no longer affect  him. It used to be upsetting behaviour. Now it's a part of his everyday life."

"But when he gets home [from school], he's destroyed."

"My son will hit me, and he's not even particularly angry. It's just his first reaction, which he's never, ever, ever, been like that."

"He's four years  old! He hadn't heard that [swearing] before he went to school."

"Oh my God, I feel like a bad parent for sending him to school. I feel guilty sending my kid to school. How messed up is that?"

Mother's name withheld to protect her son

February 15, 2023 -- Vimy Ridge Public School portables. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

"Every child deserves to be and feel physically and emotionally safe at school."

"[In future there will be class time devoted to] positive behaviour character traits and a focus on kindness."

"[School staff are] focused on building positive relationships and supporting children to develop strategies to resolve conflict between one another. [Personalized support will be offered to students with] concerning behaviour."

"[In the interim], any incidents of violence or bullying will be taken seriously and enforced following the full extent of the school's progressive discipline policy."

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board

"[The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario is conducting a survey among members about school violence, a concerning , pervasive and growing issue."

"Many school spaces are not safe, especially for those working on the front lines with students whose needs are not being met."

"We hope the data collected will finally convince the . . . government to take action to address the unacceptable and troubling rise of violence in schools."

"[More children are arriving at school with] dysregulated [behaviour]."

Elementary Teachers Federation, union president Karen Brown

Older residents of Ontario must be feeling relieved that they no longer have children in elementary, middle and high school in Ontario. Unfortunately, it's not just Ontario. School Boards and individual school administrations speak of 'progressive values' and 'progressive policies' while issuing boiler-plate statements that they have the best interests of their students at heart in this new kind of schooling experience. In particular the sentence: "Every child deserves to be and feel physically and emotionally safe at school" is meant to reassure parents.

Despite which, it fails to since, on the record, school administrators reproach any teacher who attempts to instill discipline in the classroom and to single out poorly behaving children for reprimands. These are children for whom social discipline is an unknown; it is not taught at home. It is, in short, a parental shortcoming that has been largely imported with the arrival of refugees, haven seekers and immigrants from many Islamic majority countries. Where law-breaking and violence appears to be endemic.

Elementary schools, high schools, and later street gangs echo the influence of Muslim offspring gravitating to lawlessness and disregard for civilized social mores. When crime reports appear in local newspapers, invariably readily-identifiable names linked to Arab or Muslim backgrounds loom disproportionately large. But to make that kind of observation is clearly leaving oneself open to charges of 'racism' and/or 'Islamophobia' and no one likes being labeled. 

 

It is not civilized to be 'intolerant', but apparently, to suffer assaults against civilized society is tolerable.

A mother revealing to her local news media outlet that her three-year-old child, happy to begin junior kindergarten began arriving home daily in tears. "It was to the point that he would get off the bus and he would just cry until he went to bed, like meltdown crying". The little boy pleaded not to be sent back to school where he felt terrorized. "The bad boys" hit him, he told his mother. Other students threw chairs around, stood on bookshelves to toss objects about. And he had become a punching bag.

The name of the elementary school? Vimy Ridge Public School in Ottawa, the nation's capital. In commemoration of an epic battle during World War I, for freedom and democracy. Another mother whose Grade 3 child attends the school spoke of his having been bullied for two years without cease, and instead of the situation improving, it is worsening. "I'm not saying he's an angel on Earth. These are boys, they can play fight."

But her son, she says, comes home with bruises on his nose and scratches on his face. He informed his mother of a recent incident when one student and his cousins ganged up on other children, asking them if they were Muslim. "[My son] came home and he said, 'yeah, mommy, I told them 'I'm Muslim, don't hit me'!" Yet another mother spoke of her son being targeted by groups of students bullying him and committing violence throughout the school year.

As she told it, a group of boys surrounded her son at recess, calling him names and hitting him. She sent an email to the school reportingt the incident, but the very next day her son was swarmed by a group again. The bullying and harassment has never stopped, she said. Raising her concerns with the principal, the vice-principal, superintendent and director has accomplished exactly nothing. Her son was 'jumped' by a student the day after she wrote the school, warning violence had been threatened against her son.

What is happening at this school is not, unfortunately, unique. The school board took the unusual step of closing Riverview Alternative elementary school in January for several days to enable staff to be trained on safety and strategies for instruction. A situation that reflects wider trends combined with aggravating factors like overcrowded classrooms and shortages of teaching staff.

Children's schoolwork is being ripped up by others and their personal supplies stolen. Some of the Vimy Ridge school's parents are actively seeking to transfer their children to another school. Sometimes switching their children's education to the Catholic board, or looking around for a private school to accommodate their child's education. 

Parents protest outside Vimy Ridge Public School to draw attention to their concerns about bullying, which they say is getting out of control. Feb. 13, 2023. (Peter Szperling/CTV News Ottawa)