Many families joined to participate in a meeting held at Father Leo J. Austin on October 18th, 2016. At this time I think many believed they would have the opportunity to ask questions and present ideas, however this was not the case. They were presenting to us, and it was clear they were favoring moving our grade 7 and 8 students from our Elementary Schools to High School, as soon as the next school year (September 2017).

Signing this petition will specifically demonstrate to the board the concerns of the Community and Catholic parents that do not agree nor support this change.

Some of the concerns that families arose are:

• The Drug culture within the high school is present and our children are not developmentally prepared for this. (I’d love to see statistics on drug apprehensions and suspensions for this! We can ask the board for this.)
• Age is a large concern, and despite them reporting there will be a separation in the school premises, it is inevitable there will be interaction and socialization between them.
• In our society as Canadians and Ontarian’s, it is not generally within our culture to integrate our children with older more autonomous Youth, due to the amount of differences in the way they socialize and interact with one another. During these more formative years of 12-14 we hope to develop a stronger sense of good decision making and keep them young for as long as possible to enjoy. Maturity wise, I bet many can agree, our children will not be ready nor will be able to tolerate such a significant change. Adjustment is one of the major and foremost mental health difficulties for our children and youth.
• This may cause many families to find themselves having a separation or divide within their households; including the change of times that may not work for you or your daycare. Or your older child may take care of your younger child and the later start times will make it difficult or impossible. This also includes Bussing may take effect and they will have to ride the bus with the older youth, which we know are not supervised during this time. Very problematic.
• I am sure there are other concerns that arise for families and teachers that I have not addressed here. Please feel free to leave more in the comments section.

*** Please comment if you are also considering if this change occurs will you choose to transfer your children and your taxes to the Public Board. ***