Temporary Success…Now Let’s Try to Make It Permanent!

The School Board decided to submit a Student Success budget until June 15th, when they will submit the so-called “Balanced” budget, which will cut $3.1 millon from School District 79.

Here are several things that you can do to support a Student Success budget:

1. Form a group of students who would be willing to do publicly promote and rally for the Student Success budget.

2. Present to your class about the Student Success budget  and it’s counterpart, the Cut-Backs (‘Balanced’) budget. Talk with your Social Studies teacher about the content and timing of your presentation. *BONUS: EXTRA PROJECTS=EXTRA MARKS*

3. Public appeals to the Board. This would include group or individual letters to the newspapers/school board and speaking to the board. If you send your letters to the paper, they will be posted in the opinion section.

Tell us about your experience with the protests/any ideas of activism by posting comments or contacting us at kidsagainstcuts@shaw.ca. Please keep responses polite. Any innappropriate comments will be deleted.

From the Kids Against Cuts Team

Suspending Us is Against the Law!

We just found out that in the Canadian Charter of Humans Rights and Freedoms, it states that anyone in Canada has the right to protest as long as it is non-violent. This Charter is part of the Candian Constitution, which is the highest law in the land so it is highly unlikely that a school policy would override it. 

So, although it would be a minor offence, IT IS AGAINST THE LAW!!!

Great Job!

The walkout went very well with over 200 kids. The principal and vice principal at Prevost were trying very hard to stop us, but we still got there! Thanks to everyone who came and supported us!

Check out the protest on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRk0mNK6FN4

Watch the blog to keep posted about future activities!

Kids Agaist Cuts!

Media Attention!

News media on Vancouver Island have been informed and are interested! We should see them at the Board Office

Take your own videos and pictures of the events today to upload on youtube and our site!

Chek News: http://www.youtube.com/v/-CgZ7MuWaac&hl=en_US&fs=1&”></param><param

Prepare for the Weather

In case it begins to rain, it is recommended that you bring a raincoat/umbrella.

See you all Tomorrow!

PRINT UP POSTERS

kidsAgainstCuts

FundOurFuture

school hell

education right

cut$cut future

Date for the Walkout

The date for the walkout is Wednesday April 28th. Here are the different times for students from other schools:

Prevost students: Meet outside the front doors at 11:30. We will leave at 11:35.

Quam/Cow High students: Meet outside the school board office at 12:20.

For students too far from the school board office: Rally on your school grounds.

Here is the School Walkout Flyer (It has 2 seperate sides.) They will be handed out at Prevost. Show your friends!

We released the date just before the walkout so that principals know as little as possible.

Ignore the 3 “F’s”

We have had several (somewhat rude) comments about the walkout on our Facebook page and this blog, all of which fall into one of the 3 F’s. The 3 F’s stand for:

Futility; the feeling that the walkout will achieve nothing.

Fear; being afraid of getting in trouble.

Fake Knowledge; the idea that we are “skipping school to save school” and how it doesn’t make sense.

Let’s start with futility. Several comments have said that the walkout won’t change anything. But in reality, we only need to change the mind of one School Board trustee to stop the cuts. Currently, 4 trustees are against the cuts vs 5 who are for them. If one decides to go against them, we have achieved our mission goal.

Now let’s go to fear. Many students are afraid that they will get suspended or their parents will be contacted by the school. But if there are hundreds of kids, they won`t have the time or the effort to call/suspend everybody. Also, explain to your parents why you did it-to support your education- and they will probably be happy that you are getting involved in productive and useful events. Plus, we talked to the vice-principal and she said that anyone involved in the walkout might have a detention. Detention? Please, I think that we can handle that. It beats sitting in a crappy, 50-year-old desk that is falling apart because they can’t even afford a repair man.

Finally, we have Fake Knowledge. This has been the most common comment topic on Facebook and our blog; “how can we support school by skipping it?”. We are not skipping. As it says in the school rules, skipping is when someone misses or leaves school for no reason, emphasis on ‘NO REASON.” We have the right to protest to save our education. Another reason that we are doing the protest during school is that the budget meeting is during school (9:00-2:00). We want them to hear our voices, so protesting when nobody is there is true futility.

See you at the walkout!

Follow us on Facebook!

KidsAgainstCuts has set up a Facebook page about the protest. Go to: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=852724642&ref=pymk#!/event.php?eid=115452711816652&ref=ts or type in the search “School Distict 79 Walkout”

Dates will be released within the next few days.

Ways to Help

Every few days during the ‘Walkout Season’, a new idea of what you can do to help schools will be posted.

This weekends idea is to write to the trustees at trustees@sd79.bc.ca to tell them not to cuts money from the district. A rush of persuasive emails will catch the Board off guard and show them that people are against the proposed budget. Unlike other Boards in the past, School District 79′s School Board desperately wants to be loved by the community. Tell the Board to lay off our right to education!