Humboldt rally brings education concerns to Harpauer’s doorstep

In the 2022-2023 school year, there was also one social worker per 2,588 students, one psychologist per 2,904 students, and one speech-language pathologist per 1,413 students.

Samantha Becotte, president of STF, told northeastNOW that it’s part of Harpauer’s job description to show up and listen to the concerns of teachers and parents. However, Harpauer did not attend the rally.

“Some of those people (her constituents) are children, and unfortunately, they don’t have a vote in an election, but it doesn’t mean that their voice isn’t any less important.”

Multiple speakers, all of them parents with roles within the Saskatchewan school systems, told about how the needs of their children are not being met within the school system, not through any lack of passion and care on the part of the teachers and staff, but because of a lack of resources available in their child’s schools.

Lyndsay Gabriel spoke about a lack of accessibility for her daughter, including a desk to accommodate her wheelchair. Because of this, she needs to transfer to the desk provided, and has had multiple falls, including one that resulted in a concussion. Visits from the occupational therapist to address her accessibility needs do not happen nearly as often as she needs, Gabriel told the crowd.

“She only has visits from her OT a couple of times a year and often for no more than 10 minutes. Her last OT visit was a full year ago.”

While the focus of the rally was on education spending, the passing of Bill 137 in the legislature on Oct. 20 meant this was also part of the discussion. Parents and teachers want to work together on what’s best for their kids, Becotte told northeastNOW, but the government is focusing on the wrong issues.

“It’s unfortunate to see the government put such an urgent attention on moving this legislation forward when we have a serious crisis or near crisis that’s occurring in our education system and they just continue to ignore those very real challenges that we’ve been talking about over the past decade.”

Beyond the funding concerns, Amy Korver is a STF executive, teacher, vice-principal and new parent and she also questioned Bill 137 and how it will impact her present and future students, including her newborn son that she brought to the rally.

“This bill will trample on and extinguish the fundamental rights of an extremely vulnerable group of children. It is a bill that will force teachers to abandon their professional obligation to protect the safety of their students.”

Nadine Jennison directed her speech to Premier Scott Moe. Being a Saskatchewan teacher herself, she wanted to teach Moe some ABCs, the fundamentals of public education where he is lacking, she told the crowd. These included accountability, belief in professionals, compassion, daring to change, and the excellent educators who are feeling left behind and burnt out due to the government’s funding decisions. As for F, this is the failing grade that she is giving the Saskatchewan government, she said.

“You receive a failing grade for the lack of funding you provide for education in this province…for allowing the Government Trustee Bargaining Committee to bargain in bad faith…for all the years of cuts to education budgets year after year under your government and…for failing the children of Saskatchewan.”

The event was organized by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) and is the second in a series of rallies taking place across the province, the first being in Moose Jaw on Oct. 14. Becotte encourages everyone to get out to the rallies in Saskatoon on Oct. 28 and North Battleford on Nov. 4.

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becky.zimmer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @bex_zim

by Becky Zimmer

Humboldt rally brings education concerns to Harpauer’s doorstep

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