Civil Rights in Public Education www.CRIPEweb.org

FORCED  TO  ATTEND

            At 4:00 p.m. on Friday, after the children returned from school, the Sharpes found out that: “...they were indeed forced to attend Catholic mass at the church.”

            At 4:09 p.m., Dr. Cecile Sommes, Director of Education for the Huron Superior Roman Catholic School Board, phoned the house to tell Mrs. Sharpe that her children must comply with the school curriculum.  Mr. Sharpe recounts that his wife: “told her ‘no’, we are not Catholic, my girls have been attending this same school since Jr. Kindergarten and have never been forced to attend mass before and will not attend mass now.  Again Dr. Sommes told my wife that Catholicism was practiced throughout the day and that mass is part of the curriculum.  My wife again insisted that my children are not allowed to attend mass to which Dr. Sommes replied that if our children did not attend mass, then they were not taking part in the curriculum and by refusing to take part in the curriculum they should not be allowed to attend this school.  My wife then said: ‘Are you telling me that my children are no longer allowed to attend St. Basil?’  Dr. Sommes said; ‘That’s right’”.

            Mrs. Sharpe “...was very upset about this conversation.  She then called on many other parents and members of the community to get some kind of feedback as to how others feel about this development.  We have just been informed that our kids are kicked out of school and the only alternative we have is to send our kids to Wawa to go to school.  This is 100 km away (200 km return).  There is no busing available to them, and if the kids did take the high-school bus, there was no busing to go from the high school to the elementary school.”

            At this point the Sharpes began to call their MPP, Mike Brown; MP, Brent St. Denis; Brian Kelley at the Sault Star, and Elizabeth Witmer, Minister of Education.  Being Friday evening, most calls were either faxes or messages, but they did speak to Mike Brown who seemed quite concerned about the events.

            The Sharpes put it in writing to the school with a letter, dated October 25^th, with a “(Copy to Mr. Jack Stadnyk Huron superior catholic school board)” as follows:

“To whom it may concern (St. Basils Roman Catholic School White River)

            “This letter is to confirm that I/we do not allow our daughters …… or ……..to participate in your roman catholic program during school hours.

            “My taxes support the public school program and my children will attend public school.  As per our phone conversation, you have no right to remove my children from the school property to send them to a roman catholic church against our will.  This practice was supposed to have stopped with native Canadians almost a century ago.  The privilege of being a Canadian citizen includes the right to choose our own beliefs; furthermore we will be watching carefully to see that our children are not discriminated against because of our beliefs.”

Monday, October 28, 2002

            “Monday morning; my girls are home today awaiting a decision by the Catholic school board and others.”

            “Over the weekend”, said Mr. Sharpe, “we have spoken to Mike Brown again.  Also Jack Stadnyk called us Sunday night and said he will be holding an emergency meeting on Monday with Mrs. Rebek and others to discuss events on Friday and to try to resolve this situation.  We are supposed to hear from them by the end of the day.”

9:10 a.m.  “Mike Brown’s office called, asked us about events over the weekend and current situation.  I told him I was very concerned about my kids being out of school, and that Mr. Stadnyk called Sunday night to inform me that they will be holding an emergency meeting regarding this issue.  Mr. Brown’s assistant told us that he will also be looking into this issue as well and we will keep in contact.”

9:15 a.m.  “Brent St. Denis office called, referred us to Mike Brown’s office.” 

9:36 a.m.  “St Basil school called to see why my daughters are not in school.  I replied:  ‘Because the school board kicked them out.’” 

9:41 p.m.  Mr. Sharpe received a phone call from St. Basil school and was told that the School Olympics program was cancelled along with the Family Values program, and mass, required only of Roman Catholic students, was to be held at the school instead of the church. 

          The Sharpes’ proposed resolutions to the problems were:

“-- Students be given a lesson on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  This will hopefully prevent other students from harassing the non catholics by informing all children of their rights.

“—Note be sent to all parents stating that

“—All students have the right to opt out of the catholic program.  Students who choose to opt out are to remain in the school to do homework or receive additional instruction.  Any discrimination* against non-catholics is to be dealt with immediately.” 

(*The discrimination mentioned here means discrimination by the Roman Catholic teachers against the Public students.)

            The situation did not sit lightly with the Sharpes over the weekend.  They wrote a letter to Elizabeth Witmer, the Minister of Education at the time which said, in part:  

            “I thought the idea of the Catholic Church recruiting our children and sending them to facilities was a thing of the past.  Since this time, we as Canadians have fought for the RIGHT to have our own beliefs.  I do not believe that a township with a population of only 1000 people should even have a Catholic school, while there is no public school here.  To now force our children to participate in this religion is unconstitutional.  It is not our youths’ fault that the closest public school is 100 km away with no busing access.  But to now force our youth to participate in the Catholic Church is wrong.”

            “As things have turned out, by giving in to the little things,* our kids are constantly getting pushed further and further into the Catholic program.  Now they have pushed too far and the only resolve I can see is to remove our children completely from ANY Catholic programs.  If I may remind you, we believe that we as Canadians have the right to be educated in the public school and we are now asking you to help us exercise our rights.

            “I look forward to your response regarding this issue.”

(*The “little things” were giving in to Roman Catholic practices in the school such as prayers, etc.)

            The letter resulted in a phone call from Ms. Witmer about two and a half weeks later.  She asked if the Sharpe children were back in school, and when told that everything was settled, that was the end of it.  (Although I give Ms. Witmer credit for responding, it is my view that when a politician responds with a phonecall to a letter of such a serious nature, it is to ensure that nothing from the Ministry is put on paper.)

            In later years the Sharpe children did take part in some religious activity, but only with a phone call or permission note, the decisions being made by the children, “most times they did not attend any mass.”

            The Sharpes wish to emphasize that the “situation” which caused so much trouble was not directly the fault of Mrs. Rebek.  It was her first year as principal and she apparently had no idea of the public/separate school mixture; Dr. Cecile Sommes expressed that “it is most disappointing.”

THE  BLAME

            The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the federal and provincial governments who support a two-tier citizenship in Ontario based on a citizen‘s religious beliefs.

THE  SOLUTION

            We fully agree with Mr. Sharpe when he said: “I do not believe that a township with a population of only 1000 people should even have a Catholic school, while there is no public school here.”

          Until such time as publicly-funded separate schools are totally eliminated, Civil Rights in Public Education, Inc. believes that, if a community can support only one school, then that one school should be a Public school. 

          Such an arrangement would ensure that no student of any faith group would be insulted by having to be immersed in a religious environment of someone else’s choosing.

RE:  Small schools

Dear Mr. Kennedy;

            In many communities across the province, there is an accommodation problem due to declining enrolments.  If the enrolment in a school becomes so low that your Ministry deems the cost per pupil too high to sustain, school closures and / or long bus rides seem to be your Ministry’s answer.

            If a high school is up for closure in a small town in rural Ontario, the prospect can have a devastating effect on the community.  Families, and therefore businesses, may shy away from that locality due to the fact that no local high school exists.  The problem is exacerbated by your Ministry’s decision to continue with dual Public, and publicly-funded Roman Catholic, school systems. 

            There are two situations in Renfrew County where the Public school board is facing the closure of elementary schools in two different communities.  In each case, there is a Roman Catholic separate elementary school which will remain open.  To avoid long bus rides, or to avoid placing young children in vacant high-school classrooms where they would be forced to  mingle with much older high-school students, some have suggested that the public school board rent classroom space in the separate elementary school for public school students, or even that the public school students be integrated into the classrooms of the Roman Catholic separate school, as has been done in at least one other Ontario community. 

            Since all public and separate schools are paid for from the public purse, it is our position that, in any community with one public and one separate school, whether elementary or secondary, if the enrolment drops to the point where one school must close, and it is either impossible or undesirable to bus students to an adjoining school of the same type, then the remaining school must be a Public School.  Such a solution would ensure that, whether the Public or the Separate school had to be closed, no student of any faith group would be insulted by having to be immersed in a religious environment of someone else's choosing, i.e. all students would be guaranteed the same rights to religious freedom as the students in public schools.  Also, such a solution would mean that fewer communities would lose a school and that long bus rides for students, along with busing costs, would be considerably reduced.

            Do you support the solution outlined in the previous paragraph in order to respect the religious rights of public-school students as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights?

            Would your Ministry act to ensure that the charter rights of public-school students are upheld by not allowing local boards to integrate public school students into a Roman Catholic school or Roman Catholic classrooms in order to eliminate the need to, for instance, transport 4-year-old JK students for over an hour to attend the nearest public elementary school?

                        OR

            Does your Ministry allow the school boards involved to introduce any solution they care to come up with as long as they live within the financial restraints imposed upon them by your Ministry?  

            I look forward to receiving the answers to the questions posed above.

            Sincerely,

                        (signed)

            R. H. Patterson, President

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