We’re committed to safe schools, IDEA says

Let’s be clear – having safe schools is of paramount importance to the IDEA and violence will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Nothing in the proposed new IDEA policy on school conduct undermines a principal’s ability to respond quickly and strongly to unsafe situations. In fact there is language in the policy that emphasizes this point: “It is not the intention of these guidelines to restrict the professional judgment of principals in dealing with specific students, but rather to provide general direction for all Iqaluit schools.”

When the IDEA talks about more restorative based programs, we are speaking about putting more effort into preventing violent events. One of the most important points in Sara Minogues’s article regarding the IDEA’s work on developing new approaches to school conduct (Nunatsiaq News, June 16) is that there are far too few programs and services in our schools to help kids with behaviour problems – and this compromises our goal of having safe schools.

The IDEA has spent the last 18 months examining what approaches should be taken in our schools with students who threaten the safety of other students or staff. We heard from many teachers who were frustrated that there were so few options available to them to deal with students who were disruptive or violent.

So the IDEA researched the resources available in our schools for kids with behaviour problems or kids who were struggling. There are virtually no diagnostic services readily available to teachers who want to assess students, no follow-up services even if a student is assessed with a behavioural problem, and far too few mental health specialists who can work with students through difficult periods.

We also heard from parents and from a number of teachers that suspensions, as a tool for fixing problems, don’t work. We agree. That’s where the advisory committee on suspensions and expulsions plays a role in identifying the gaps and involving the community in decisions that the IDEA feels impact the community.

Earlier this year, on the recommendation of one of our schools, the IDEA funded a workshop by David Rattray, an aboriginal counselor with 22 years experience working with troubled aboriginal youth and communities. In David’s experience suspensions don’t work because students see it as being a holiday, they don’t receive any educational program while at home, and it creates a feeling of alienation from the school. Suspensions don’t build confidence in our youth or a sense of self-worth. Suspensions create a sense of powerlessness and reinforce with many parents the negative feelings of their own school experiences.

We appreciate that the Nunatsiaq News article captured our frustration that while the Nunavut Education Act gives DEAs the statutory authority to develop alternatives to suspensions and expulsions, no resources have been made available for DEAs to develop these programs.

The IDEA’s draft policy on school conduct is an attempt to carve out a middle ground between punishment based approaches to discipline in our schools and a restorative approach focusing on healing and restoring peace which is more consistent with traditional Inuit approaches to discipline.

We have one more workshop planned for our draft policy. In September the IDEA will meet with community elders to get their perspective on traditional restorative practices and ask for their views on the policy and in particular, what prevention and intervention measures should be taken with disruptive or violent students.

In that workshop the IDEA hopes to capture the essence of a quote from Renee Fossett’s book (In Order to Live Untroubled – Inuit of the Central Arctic, 1550 to 1940. The University of Manitoba Press, 2001, p. 208) “Crime and punishment were not relevant ideas in the Inuit justice system. The maintenance of an orderly society was. The Inuit attitude towards law and order was… in essence… not to execute law and justice, but exclusively to restore peace.”

The IDEA appreciates the publicity the Nunatsiaq News article has created about drafting the policy and welcomes all comments as we prepare to finalize it.

In the meantime, Draft # 6 of the IDEA Student Conduct Policy will soon be available on our website www.Iqaluitdea.net.

Christa Kunuk
Chair
Iqaluit District Education Authority
Iqaluit