New passes aimed at improving grade averages
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Feb 14/01) - St. Patrick high school students jammed their school's rock amphitheatre to peacefully protest against hall passes Friday morning.
Teens in baggy jeans and baseball caps milled about the foyer, frustrated by a new attendance monitoring system.
Students caught without the wallet-size card during class hours are subject to brief suspensions.
"It's like being in kindergarten," says Rabina Baksh, grad council co-president.
Teachers loan the passes to students requesting permission to leave a class. Vice-principal Gladys Brown said students are not obligated to say where they're going.
Friday's crowd -- of which Baksh did not join -- dispersed within minutes of teachers and principals ushering students back to class.
The "Focus on Learning" pass scheme is one of several initiatives to correct what school administrators say is an unacceptably high failure rate. Other projects include mandatory one-on-one tutoring, mentoring and literacy exercises for the 156 students on academic probation.
Baksh understands administrators wanting what's best for students. She also understands the new Study Hall system, for Grade 11 and 12 students, which herds the young adults to a study area during spare blocks (unless otherwise arranged with a teacher.)
What she and other students don't understand is why they were not consulted.
"It's a little demeaning when you're in Grade 12 and they don't seem to trust you," Baksh said. Principal John Bowden knows students feel left out of the process. The bottom line, he pointed out, is parents expect their children to be class when they're at school.
"Some students are saying it's an infringement on their freedom. My question is what really has been compromised," Bowden said.
Two half-day suspensions have been handed out in the last two weeks. Bowden hopes the students behind Friday's gathering will step forward and help organize an open-forum about their concerns. The policy will be reviewed in June. Sir John Franklin high school does not have a hall pass system.
