Student walkout Tuesday
By Robert Mangelsdorf – Maple Ridge News [British Columbia] – February 23, 2008
Students across Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows plan to walk out of school on Tuesday, March 4 to protest the district’s switch to a co-ordinated linear timetable, but the organizer of an earlier rally wants nothing to do with it.
A group on the social networking website Facebook, titled “SD42 District Kids Protest For Scedule [sic] Changes!” calls for students to protest the switch to a coordinated linear timetable across the district by staging a sit-in at the school district office, 22295 Brown Ave. in Maple Ridge, at 8:30 a.m. March 4.
School board chair Cheryl Ashlie said, while the district supports the students right to protest, it is also responsible for their safety, and wishes the students would protest on their own time.
“These situations create a no-win situation for school administrators,” she said. “If they allow events like this to take place, then they’re endangering the students, and if they don’t allow the events, they’re crushing their democratic rights.”
Ashlie said given the reaction to the timetable changes, a second public consultation might be held to address some of the students concerns.
“If you’re going to ask a bunch of people to follow you, you’d better know what you’re talking about,” she said.
The group is organized by a pair of Garibaldi students, Genaya Grasby and Kandace Turmel, and already has more than 200 members.
On the website, the group states that, “[N]ext year every school in our district is going to be on the same scedule [sic]. Recently, SRT had a protest because of wanting to keep their [sic] semester system. Baldi wants to do the same, because we like our block orders…If you don’t agree with all of SD42 being the same, take a stand with us and protest!”
But the organizer of the protest at Samuel Robertson Technical says, while she supports the cause, she wants nothing to do with the event and won’t be attending.
“They are basically saying to everyone that it’s OK to skip school, and I don’t support that,” said Teesha Sharma, a 16-year-old student at SRT. “I respect what they are trying to do, but they really need to rethink their approach.”
Sharma was recently removed from her school’s student council, as well as the district student advisory council, and barred from planning any school events for her part in organizing a lunchtime protest that got out of control on Feb. 8. The protest was over the district’s timetable change.
However, shortly after the rally started, a number of unruly students led the group of about 250 Grade 11 and 12s off of school grounds, despite Sharma’s efforts to stop them. The students then disrupted traffic and pelted vehicles with fruit while marching down 104th Avenue.
Sharma failed to enter the school when told to do so by an administrator.
She believes the school administration was heavy handed in punishing her.
“They basically took away everything that I love,” she said. “I take full responsibility for my actions and I’m empathetic with [the administration’s] position, but I think they just handled this whole situation poorly.”
On Thursday, Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows MLA Michael Sather gave a speech in the provincial legislature in support of Sharma’s right to protest, and encouraged the school’s administration to reverse its decision.
“Rather than suspending Teesha for a couple of days, the administration chose to take her lifeblood connection to the school from her,” he told the legislative assembly.
“Our schools function to train students to be leaders. We must do everything to encourage these qualities in our youth. We must not crush them, but must nourish them in contributing to their community. I hope that the school will reinstate Teesha, that she can finish her Grade 12 on the high note that it should be ending on and that she will go on to be a great leader in our society.”
Confrontation 
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