Train supply teachers for lockdowns, union urges
Occasional educators currently left out of emergency drills
Supply teachers in Ontario need to be trained in lockdown procedures and must be given a set of classroom keys when on the job, says the elementary teachers’ union in voting to lobby the government for changes it says will makes the province’s schools safer.
“For years now, school boards — working with local police forces and with fire departments — have come up with protocols for fire drills and lockdown drills so teachers and students are prepared in the event something might happen,” said Dave Wildman, president of the Ottawa Carleton Occasional Teacher union local.
“But occasional teachers have been largely ignored in any of the training,” added Wildman, whose local proposed the motion at the annual meeting of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario held in Toronto this week.
And if they’re not prepared, “then students are not receiving the same level of safety that parents expect and that teachers have.”
He said training would have to be fund- ed by the province and could be provided through workshops that allow supply teachers to learn about emergency procedures and actually experience a lockdown and fire drill.
“You might be an (occasional teacher) who hasn’t been in a school when one of those drills has taken place, and you may never have been involved in one,” Wildman added.
Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said “from the element of student safety, we would certainly support equity of training.”
Given that many school boards experienced higher-than-usual teacher absences in May and June, “there could have been times when there was a fair proportion of supply teachers in the school. . . (such) training would make sense.”
Another motion put forward at this week’s meeting by the Ottawa local, also approved by the 800 delegates, asks that supply teachers be given keys to classrooms when on the job.
Wildman noted there’s no consistency across the province, and the issue came to the forefront after the Sandy Hook school massacre last year in the U.S.
In that tragedy, the gunman was able to barge into a classroom because the occa-
Another issue put forward by the union is whether supply teachers should have keys to the classroom
sional teacher did not have keys to lock the door. That teacher and 16 of her students were killed.
The Ministry of Education says boards must run a minimum of two lockdown drills a year, and provides funding for training.
While it’s up to school boards to conduct and schedule training, a spokesperson for Education Minister Liz Sandals said “we look forward to discussing this issue and any other priorities and innovative ideas the union may have.”
In May, the Ontario College of Teachers held a workshop to consider potential changes to lockdown procedures, including using desks and tables as barricades or evacuating students during an attack. Typically during lockdown drills, doors may be locked and children hide under their desks or huddle in corners away from windows and doors.