COLUMN: Viewpoint – Activism in schools

A recent Carillon article reported that Hanover School Division trustees have decided to address establishing a policy to regulate activism in schools. The board will determine what kind of activism by students and teachers is appropriate or inappropriate.

Trustee Jeff Friesen said a teacher’s beliefs might cause kids to engage in activism which “goes against the beliefs of the family.” Sometimes however, the reverse is true. The beliefs of families can cause students to engage in activism that is inappropriate according to school and legal guidelines.

That happened at the Steinbach Regional Secondary School in February of 2022 when over 100 students whose families were against pandemic restrictions, left classes to stage a protest. Parents, not teachers, came out to support the protest. Some protestors became disruptive and tried to enter the school, which made it necessary to lock down the building and have all exterior doors monitored by teachers and the RCMP.

A Winnipeg Free Press article said the student protesters were supported by parents who knew ahead of time about the event and helped supply signs, heaters, food, mittens and flatbed trucks. Learning was disrupted as the students inside the SRSS were forced to shelter in place. The school had to close for one day after the protest as staff and administrators assessed how best to respond to the troubling event.

A report published in April of 2022 revealed that 20 incidents of verbal abuse towards administrators, teachers, and educational assistants that included threats, provocation and physical assault had stemmed from the protest and subsequent lockdown.

The 2022 activism at the SRSS was publicly denounced as inappropriate by Conservative Premier Heather Stephanson, Education Minister Wayne Ewasko and the local Conservative Member of the Legislature Kelvin Goertzen. Clearly there were some guidelines in place that allowed senior government officials to quickly ascertain that a certain kind of activism was definitely inappropriate.

Of course, as trustee Ron Falk pointed out at the meeting where the school board decided they needed to address activism, there are many good, positive kinds of activism happening in Hanover schools. The very same Carillon issue that carried the report about the trustees’ new motion featured two heart-warming stories about student activists.

We learned students at Clearspring Middle School have for several years raised funds for the Steinbach Family Resource Centre’s preschool program. The centre provides help to families who need extra support in order to prepare their young children for starting kindergarten on a solid footing. There was also a story about students from the Bothwell School painting kindness rocks and placing them at various sites as a way to help create a friendly, caring ethos in their community.

It would be too bad if a restrictive activism policy made teachers, like those in Steinbach and New Bothwell, think twice about engaging in any kind of activism out of fear it might not meet exacting standards of appropriateness or worry they could face a few emboldened parents who would take exception to the activism they initiated with students.

A quick look at the Manitoba social studies curriculum reveals students in various grades are encouraged to think about how to take action to support democracy, protect the environment and respect diverse groups of people. How will the board’s policy deal with these academic directives?

Ron Falk admitted at the recent trustee meeting, that creating a definitive list of appropriate and inappropriate student activism will be a tall order. Since the board must consider established curricular outcomes, the wide variety of beliefs held by Hanover families and the multiple school activism initiatives already in place, he’s probably right.