To: Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education and Jimmy Markovski, Superintendent of the Durham District School Board, and Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario

Background

I am a citizen of Ontario and reside in Pickering, Ontario.  I am also a concerned father of a kindergarten aged daughter, that attends a public school in Pickering, Ontario.  

Since before March break, our schools have been closed due to the state of emergency in Ontario.  The continuation of the closures of schools, and the requirement to stay at home due to the Coronavirus, means our kids have not been able to physically attend class, or see their classmates in person.  

UPDATE:  On May 18, 2020: Stephen Lecce announced that the schools would continue to be closed until September, 2020.  Hence, this cause is even more important now.

The Cause

The reason for my concern is that within a 2 week period of the school's closure in March, my wife and I have started to see a drastic mood change in our daughter, as well as her behaviour from not being able to go to school or see her classmates. She repeatedly requested wanting to go to school, and see her classmates and teachers; she missed being in school, seeing her classmates, and learning directly from her teachers.   

I sent several emails to the school and the head of DDSB (Durham District School Board), to request that they start live online teaching classes where the kids can interact and see one another.  

The main reason for my request was that beside the educational need, there was a social element (of kids being able to see one another) that was missing, and undoubtedly negatively impacting my daughter. I told the schools this, as well as suggested that the schools should try and replicate both the educational, and social, elements of teaching/learning, as best as possible, in place of live in person instruction.

In the meantime, our daughter got increasingly frustrated. With no physical access to my daughter's paediatrician, let alone to mental health doctors or professionals, that require a referral and months of waiting before you can be seen any way, we were very concerned for our daughter's social, emotional, and mental, health.

I did not receive a reply from DDSB, however, when the school itself finally replied that they were going to start online instruction, we were very happy because we thought that our daughter would finally be able to see the teachers and classmates live online, and be able learn directly from the teachers and interact with the class by camera.  

Unfortunately, the school instead just sent us a link to a website platform that had some reading exercises to do, and asked us to teach our daughter!  There is absolutely no social element, no live camera interaction with the teachers or co-students. We were completely shocked!  

We have nephews that are receiving live instruction in virtual classrooms on line in our home country (much less developed than Canada), as well as in the United States, with which we are equal with in internet technology.  In our nephews' models of live online classes, the sessions of live classrooms are recorded and then sent to kids that may not have been able to participate for their review. So, no one is left out.  Very similar to the picture for this petition, that shows a teacher teaching a bunch of her students online; you are able to see all of the faces and the students can see and interact with the teacher, and with their classmates.  

So, I asked: why can't we have live interactive online instruction?

When we emailed the school about this and specifically asked about online live instruction, after receiving initial responses about what a great idea it was to do this, they eventually stated they were not going to do this.

We emailed Stephen Lecce's office, and to the date of writing this Petition, we have not received a response as yet.

UPDATE:  To date, May 18, 2020, Stephen Lecce has not directly responded to our emails.  One of his un-related office members responded and advised to speak to the DDSB and the School. Again, more red tape and circles.

DDSB's had already responded, more or less, it was to speak to the school's principle.  

The school principle's response was, more or less, that there were complications because not everyone has the technology, and flat out refused our request to do some live online classes. 

Petition Launch

So, I launched this Petition on or about April 10, 2020.

The school's retaliatory and high-handed behaviour post Petition launch

After I launched this Petition, while I was waiting for the school to respond, I decided to organize Zoom meetings with the co-parents of the other students to help my daughter and raise her spirits.  To organize this, we were using the "Remind" Application on our phones to communicate and organize Zoom chats. We had had about 3 Zoom sessions up until that point, which the Teachers and Principle were aware of.  The kids were happy to see each other, and my daughter's mood had improved after seeing her peers.

A few days later, around April 13, 2020, the school cut off our abilities to inter-communicate by disabling the feature of parents to communicate within the Remind App.  

The school basically cut off our right to communicate with one another, and to organize Zoom sessions.  

In sum, not only did the school refuse to do live online (Zoom type) classes, they basically cut off the parents' intercommunications to organize our Zoom sessions, and thus any form of social relief our children were enjoying.

Unfortunately, we had not had a chance to exchange emails/telephone numbers with the other parents.  We were never told that the school would cut off the communication feature on the App.

The principle admitted to having disabled this feature, and refused to turn it back on.

UPDATE:  During the week of April 13, 2020, the Principle of school involved in this Petition admittedly disabled the feature of the Remind App knowing that parents are using this to communicate with one another (during COVID 19 stay at home rules) to organize Zoom meetings with their kids.

The impact on the children

The importance of our children's social, emotional and psychological well-being cannot be taken for granted. This is un-intended impact of the curtailing of our children's Constitutional rights, such as the freedom to movement and assembly. As the government has it now, our kids aren't able to interact live with the teacher (while learning) or with other students, which is the social element of learning in a school environment.  As parents and professionals, we know that the social element of learning is also very important to a child's well being.  We do not need a medial professional to tell us that this is impacting our child.  

Our children's social and emotional well being are inextricably connected to their mental health, and their lives mostly revolve around the connections they have built through their school and friends.  All this was taken away from them in one day; the proverbial carpet ripped out underneath their legs.

With the uncertainty of this virus pandemic, our children do not know when they will go back to school.  We are suggesting that providing them with an outlet that provides some type of norm back to them, so they can at least continue some experience of their former school life may be something that can help curb their pain.

The Petition

This is a Petition to request that our schools start interactive online live teaching where students can see each other, and interact with both the teachers and other students.  There are a number of platforms that can be used, and the Schools are aware of this.

The Statute

Under the Education Act of Ontario (as amended by the Education Amendment Act, 2006), it is the school’s responsibility to teach and instruct in a classroom, and if it cannot be done in person, equivalent learning (means a learning situation that falls outside the instruction traditionally provided...) under the Act must be offered.

Also, under subsection 8 (1) of the Act, the Minister of Education, has wide powers to approve any methods of instruction, this includes online live interactive learning.

Under section 171 of the Act, the School Board also has the power (and duty) to provide instruction (by teachers) by electronic or other means, to pupils who are not present in the classroom.

Under the same Act, only registered Teachers with the College of Teachers and ECE qualified to teach can do the teaching (not us parents).

Unfortunately, the current method teaching by the school, which is just a link that we as parents have to use to do readings with our children is not teaching by the school or teachers. It is the school's responsibility to teach not only the proper curriculum, but more importantly, to also replicate, as much as possible, the live teaching method (as required under the language of the Act).  

The Call to Action

You have the technology to offer live and interactive instruction online, this is what the Petition is asking you to do.

Some jurisdictions, such as Hamilton, and also Toronto, are doing this. Yet, DDSB is refusing to do this.  We are asking you to make this type of instruction mandatory on all jurisdictions. At the time of writing this Petition, there are still 2 plus months left in the school year

Live online instruction is the next best thing to having our children attend an in-person classroom, which will now not be possible at least until September 2020. 

Our children have the right to this type of learning method.  There is still time to make this change happen.

Mr. Lecce and all, please get this done, for the benefit of the children - please cut out the red tape, there is no time for this.   

Thank you