INNISFAIL - Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) has updated its student conduct administrative procedure AP3-09, including the removal of a section regarding measures staff use to manage or subdue out-of-control students.
The 11,000-student CESD is headquartered in Innisfail and includes school across the region.
The section removed read: “For protection of staff and students in the division and to prevent potentially violent behaviours, school staff may, in specific circumstances, be required to use reasonable measures, including restraint, to manage or subdue a student in extreme cases and not on an ongoing basis, who is out of control or unresponsive to direction, or where lack of intervention could expose the student or other in the vicinity to harm.”
Shawn Russell, an associate superintendent with CESD, said removal of the section has to do with new Alberta Education requirements.
“It relates to the new standards for seclusion and physical restrain in Alberta schools that Alberta Education has put out,” Russell told the Albertan. “We need to make sure that everything in our administrative procedures (AP) aligns with that document.
“They put out the standards that required that we have an AP related to it, so it just made sense to move that out of there (the existing procedure) and into the AP we are creating related to that.”
Administrators and staff are providing input into the new procedure, which should be in place this spring, he said.
Procedure AP3-09 covers things such as violent and high risk behaviours, bullying, discrimination and interventions.
Regarding bullying, the updated procedure reads: “Bullying may include, but is not limited to: repeated instances of physical aggression and assault; extortion; verbal or written threats; social alienation, including degrading comments with regard to race, gender, religion or sexual orientation; teasing, put downs and humiliation; threatening looks; gestures or actions; hurtful rumours; false accusation; or use of technology to disseminate hurtful intentions.”
Failure to meet the requirements of the procedure can results in various interventions, including parental involvement, temporary exclusion of student from class, in-school or out-of-school suspension, involvement of police, and/or expulsion from school by the board of trustees.
The division has also updated the Right of Access and Right to Provide Permission administrative procedure AP3-19.
Applying to all employees of Chinook’s Edge, the updated procedure states, in part, that, “Division staff are not permitted to provide letter of opinion or support or to be interviewed by lawyers, parents or other professionals pertaining to a custody dispute; nor are they permitted to voluntarily testify for, or against, one parent or the other, or in fact as a neutral party.”
All CESD administrative procedures are posted on the division’s website.
