[Peace-discuss] second ocap report

[Mark Enslin]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2001 14:57:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: OCAP <ocap at tao.ca>
To: announce at ocap.ca
Subject: High School Flying Squad Member Arrested

Sat Oct 20

		   HIGH SCHOOL FLYING SQUAD UPDATE


High School Flying Squads in Toronto marched in a show of strength on
the Ministry of Education and the Toronto School Board on October 15,
in their continued campaign of protest against Harris' destruction of
the education system in Ontario.

Students in the march had walked out from various Toronto schools
including Central Tech, Jarvis, Rosedale, SEED, Inglenook, Student
School, City School, Western Tech, Oakwood, Vaughn Road, Malvern,
Humberside, Danforth Tech, Northern, North Toronto, Etobicoke School
of the Arts, Ursula Franklin Academy and more.

Over 300 students carrying signs demanding the Premier and his 
Minister of Education, Janet Ecker, 'stop foolin' with our schoolin',
the high school students were spirited in their demands for changes
to the current reality in classrooms across the province ... the 
impending privatization of quality education, overcrowded classrooms,
cuts to ESL, extracurricular, and special needs programs, lack of 
health and safety standards ...

The crowd was jubilant when a letter from the desk of Janet Ecker
was handed to a speaker by a Board Trustee and read aloud, announcing
the postponement of Grade 10 Standardized Tests due to a 'leak'.  This
was the first time the vast majority of the crowd had heard anything 
about this.

Shortly following the end of the rally, Karen Silverwomyn was 
arrested under the supposed charge of Mischief Under $5000, for 
reasons not revealed.  She was held overnight at 52 Division for 
refusing to sign conditions of non-association with OCAP.  

At a bail hearing the following day, the charges of Mischief Over
$5000 and Possession of Stolen Goods During a Crime were laid in 
relation to the Grade 10 Standardized Test leak.  The crown produced
little to no evidence, and Karen was released on $5000 surety, and
without the common non-association condition.

The embarrassment being felt by Janet Ecker and the Education Quality
and Accountability Office over the leaked test has meant that police
have begun targeting High School Flying Squad members among the need
to place blame.  This is obviously due to the explicit nature of the
anti-standardized testing campaign that the Flying Squad is engaged
in.  However, the High School Flying Squad had nothing to do with the
test leak.

While the Ministry whines about the money lost through this leak, 
such an amount of money (some reports say as much as $12.5 million was
lost) should not be devoted to standardized tests in the first place. 
The Flying Squad was said that they will not be content until the
tests are abandoned altogether.

Contact fighting_kids at hotmail.com for further info and updates.