A group of Grade 10 students at Confederation Secondary School have started a petition speaking out against some of the education reforms being introduced in Ontario by the Ford Progressive Conservative government.
The online petition on Change.org, entitled “Cuts hurt kids,” had been signed by more than 3,400 people as of Tuesday morning.
Tyler Audette, a Grade 10 student at the school, said the education reforms won't affect himself and his friends as much, as they're graduating from high school in a few years.
“But it affects people we care about like younger siblings, younger cousins, and possibly in the future our own kids,” he said.
Audette said he's most concerned about changes to the autism therapy system and the impact that will have on schools.
While aimed at eliminating a large wait list, parents say the changes will in effect mean children with autism won't receive as much behavioural intervention therapy, and will be sent to school by default.
“The families of students that have autism won't be getting any money to put towards their children and their education,” Audette said.
“They're not getting the help that they need. So that will put them in danger and their well-being in danger, and possibly even us if they have anger management issues.”
The province has also announced that the cap for high school classes will be raised by six students, from 22 to 28.
Cap sizes for kindergarten and primary grades are not being changed. In Grades 4 to 8, the average will increase by less than one student, from 23.84 to 24.5.
Audette said he likes to get to know his teachers, and that will be less likely to happen in a class of 28 students.
He said it will also be more difficult for teachers to spend time with students who are struggling if their time is divided among more pupils.
As well, the province will also require that all high school students take four e-learning credits out of the 30 required for graduation.
“I believe they're doing this to cut teachers, to obviously make less jobs, which isn't the best thing,” Audette said.
“The e-learning, you wouldn't get as much help. It would be more tough. Some students are more hands-on than just being able to read something and retain all of the information, so it would really affect the education of our peers.”
In terms of the cellphone ban in schools, Audette said his high school is already doing a good job in making sure technology doesn't become a distraction in the classroom.
In most cases, students are asked to put their devices in a box where they can't access it when class starts.
But in some cases, Audette said, cellphones are useful during class because the school doesn't have enough laptops available for every student.
Audette said he hopes the Change.org petition catches the attention of the provincial government.
He said he's pleased with the amount of signatures it has received so far, but wants more.
“We want to get that up to thousands and thousands so they know it's a problem,” Audette said.
You can check out the students' petition here.
