ONTARIO GETS TOUGH ON STUDENT BEHAVIOUR

New Rules Require Pupils To Recite Oath, Sing Anthem

Ontario's tough-talking new code of school conduct gives teachers and
principals beefed-up powers to kick kids out of school - rights they
say they do not want.

The code, which is the first detailed provincial code of school
behaviour in Canada, will slap the same stiff penalties on in-school
crimes right across the province.

The long-touted document, unveiled yesterday as a "zero tolerance
policy for bad behaviour," also will let parents decide whether a
school should have a mandatory uniform, and will require Ontario's 2.1
million students to recite a morning "pledge of citizenship" and sing
"O Canada" starting this September.

Under the new rules, students will land immediate suspension and an
"expulsion hearing" for possessing a weapon, dealing drugs or weapons,
robbery, threatening or harming someone with a weapon, sexual assault,
physical assault causing bodily harm requiring professional medical
treatment, or providing alcohol to minors.

Students now will be suspended immediately if they swear at a teacher,
are drunk at school or in possession of alcohol, possess illegal
drugs, utter a threat to inflict serious bodily harm, or cause
extensive vandalism - consequences many local school boards say
already are in place.

While many cheered a consistent set of rules across the province,
critics slammed the code as empty swagger from a government hooked on
law and order, and say what schools really need to be safe is more
government money for violence prevention programs for students at risk.

The 11-page code likely would not have prevented the sort of violence
that broke out last week in a school near Ottawa on the anniversary of
the Columbine massacre, said Earl Manners, president of the Ontario
Secondary School Teachers' Federation.

"That stabbing near Ottawa seems to have been triggered by social
problems caused by teasing, which is the sort of problem that can be
helped by the violence prevention programs now on the chopping block,"
said Manners, whose federation represents 50,000 high school teachers
across the province. "Teachers don't want the right to suspend a kid
from school on their own, because you need that third party - the
principal - to get the full story."

The new code will give the power to expel students to principals,
rather than school boards, as is now the case. That change will start
next February, said education minister Janet Ecker, to allow time for
principals to be trained in these new powers.

Similarly, the power to suspend students (usually from one to 20 days)
will be expanded to Ontario's 144,000 teachers, rather than just
principals, starting in the fall of 2001.

"Principals told us they frequently felt they didn't have the
authority to make the decisions they needed to, and they didn't get
appropriate backup as the issues got bumped upstairs at the school
board," Ecker said yesterday.

But many principals disagree.

"No principal I have ever talked to wants the power to expel a student
without a consulting process with someone else, because that component
ensures it's not just an emotional call," said Joanne Robinson,
president of the Ontario Principals' Council, which represents about
5,000 principals and vice-principals.

The code also requires students who have been suspended or expelled to
attend special "strict-discipline" programs - for which school boards
say they get no government money.

Ecker said yesterday there would be some funding, but offered no
details. Yesterday, she visited a special new Brampton program for
suspended students and called it "a good example of the kind of
alternative schooling for suspended students that is expected to
become a fixture across Ontario by 2001." The Brampton program is paid
for entirely by private fundraising because the Peel District School
Board gets no money from Queen's Park for that sort of program.

School boards were puzzled that the code refers to an "expulsion
hearing" but does not stipulate who would be involved in that hearing.

"The principal will have the authority to call a hearing to expel a
student," said Rob Savage, education ministry spokesperson, "but we're
still developing the process for that."

"However," said Gail Nyberg, chair of the Toronto District School
Board, "the fact the code mentions a hearing at all is reassuring. But
sober second thought allows you to avoid doing something really dumb -
like suspending a 5-year-old for swearing when he might be too young
to know what he means."