featured-image

, In the article, an honest principal confesses that an emergency replacement staff person could face “massive chaos, behavioural issues, kids hurting each other or themselves, massive vandalism.” As a recently retired elementary school teacher with the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), I was on sick leave for more than three months after a grade three student pushed me down on the floor and smashed my head into the terrazzo tiles injuring my rotator cuff, causing a massive head concussion and trauma. The principal never did anything.

My daughter, who is now an educational assistant with the York District School Board, is off sick for three months after being beaten up by a student. The anonymous principal in your article is right when he says “the kids are unwell.” Many do not agree with Minister of Education Stephen Lecce when he says his government is paying more for education than anytime in history.



Former premier Mike Harris decimated Ontario’s education system with the funding formula and no government since, including Premier Doug Ford’s, has ever addressed that. Our students and our education staff are suffering as a result. TDSB teachers are taking an average of 20 sick days a year? Others take an average of 16? When I taught, five days was considered iffy! Whether justified by job stress or not, it indicates we have a huge problem in our schools.

The rudeness, fractious behaviour, chaos and violence that are found today, even in early elementary gra.

Back to Beauty Page