Reinstate Dr. Jerzy Cichocki as Principal Conductor of St. Michael's Choir School

Why are they afraid? Comment without disclosing his or her last name?

Reinstate this excellent teacher

And for those wondering why I won't sign my last name, I am an uncle of a kid. The parents are afraid to comment.

My son is quite upset about not having Doc in the new year. My son respects Doc a lot and is dragging about the rest of the Choir School year.

Do you know that Dr. Jerzy Cichocki is also a teacher employed by the Toronto Catholic District School Board? He teaches choral at SMCS (academic side). SMCS (Music Office) may have terminated him as the Conductor of the SMCS Senior Choir. Does the Senior Administration of SMCS (Music Office) have jurisdiction over Dr. Cichocki pertaining to his duties and relationship with the TCDSB, or would that be the TCDSB (as represented by the Principal, Mr. Barry White) who would have to deal with Dr. Cichocki on the academic side? What will happen regarding choral duties on Jan 7 and Jan 8, 2017? What will happen when school re-open on Jan 9, 2017.

Regardless of where one works and for whom, some form of "due process" applies to all employee-employer relationships in Canada. The Diocese of Toronto is not exempt from this practice.

Reinstate him.

It appears that there are anonymous writers who may or may not be affiliated with SMCS, but may have intentions to criticize and discredit other who have posted comments at this Petition.

Help this man

@Anonymous Anonymous. We understand why you disagree and appreciate your eagerness to sweep this issue under the rug; however, this petition is not a "love fest" for doc but a testament to his skill and dedication to the original choir school vision. Doc is an exemplar, role model and mentor for our students. We are angry at how unprofessionally this issue has been handled by the bully of a director you claim to be 'reasonable'. Ever since our director was brought into our school he has maliciously alienated doc. Perhaps this could be because of his own failure to motivate and inspire students through sacred music. Tour involvement has been at its lowest ever--around 95 students are going to Germany compared to the 200 students who went to Italy 4 years ago . Doc has been stripped of his title "artistic director", was not included in any publicized photos of Massey hall, his dismissal letter is two sentences long and to top this all off, all the countless comments from other members of the community serve as a testament to Handrigan's arrogant character. As members of the community we feel as though we deserve an input. This is why we created this petition. We are in quite an agreement that Dr. Cichocki is highly competent, that the choir school vision has strayed away from its original mission of providing sacred music, and encourage others to sign this petition because Doctor Cichocki is a valuable member of our community and we refuse to let him be removed silently. PS. Maybe the choir sounded weak and tired when you came to the epiphany mass because it was a MIDNIGHT mass and the kids are used to sleeping at this time.

Can't the boys just protest outside the church on Sunday? They shouldn't show up this is unfair to them. If the media gets involved this will be an issue that the whole city will be aware of and we could get support from those outside of the SMCS school community. We all believe strongly in this topic and I think we should use our voices to end the unfairness of this issue. At the end of the day, we will hit the 1000 supporters and nothing will change. I should not have to send my son to sing on Sunday. All parents deserve answers. And if it is true that the discussion was made by the archdiocese then shame on them! Our boys work hard at this school and the archdiocese knows that. This is causing them stress and they should be resting on their well deserved break. Very disappointed. How could anyone do this to these kids?

Bring back doc!

Reinstate dr Jerzy Cichocki

Supporters and non-supporters of the cause: I have made several comments about remaining on topic here. I am a strong supporter of allowing people to express themselves here, as this is a rather charged issue, and have not censored any comments so far, regardless of whether or not I personally agree with or condone them. There will naturally be a range of opinions on a topic such as this, and affecting such a wide-ranging community. Regardless, I do not feel that this petition should be a soapbox for people openly demeaning its supporters to write lengthy comments on how we are "blindly petitioning action" or "claiming to know everything", while hiding behind anonymity (unlike most of us) Such comments are not constructive and, frankly, insulting to many of us. I have been asked to stay out of the public eye, so I will do so, but please be advised that further attacks against petition supporters themselves are also not something I can condone. As I stated before, there are a range of views one can take on this subject that are all acceptable here, but if your entire reason for being on this petition website is to insult its supporters (and, as some have done, to insult the choir directly), you will not be welcomed.

I guess you do not know the personality and character of the Director.

I fully understand the writer's position - we have no real information regarding an emotional issue, and so we fill that vacuum with conjecture. Better to wait until we have a full picture. But when will that be, really? S/He's saying - and I agree - that It's not helpful to guess what is going on behind the scenes. For instance, if there are matters of discretion or scandal then a deafening silence is all we will get for now, and perhaps that is appropriate. On the other hand, if this is a clash of personalities, well - we already know some of that exists anyway... but why fan the flames? Why guess? Deal with what we know. And, when we know more, we will deal with that too. JP C (SMCS Parent, Scale-Up Donor, Occasional Parishioner)

I understand the surprise and uproar by students, parents, alumni, and colleagues. I love the energy and enthusiasm demonstrated by a young man, cut from SMCS cloth. This is a wonderful love-fest for Doc, deservedly so. However, none of us are privy to the going-ons in the Music Office. The 'Vision' of the Choir School probably has not changed much over the decades since Msgr. Ronan, and will not change, but it does involve continual action, and implementation of ideas, and probably some good ones by this fairly new Director. There is no secular movement going on, because the Vatican won't let that happen. St Michael's is now a Cathedral Basilica (minor, it cannot get any bigger than this, except the 4 major Basilicas in Rome). There are encyclicals of Catholic sacred music, in a nutshell: Gregorian Chant, Polyphony, and the Organ. The Director is not a dictator, he is a reasonable man, and I feel many fault him here automatically because he is not an Alumnus. There was a priest director who was steam-rolled out of office by the students (and parents), why?, because he wanted them to learn organ (how is this a bad thing?). If the students had their way, piano would be optional, how would this be a good thing? (Students/Adolescents claim to know everything). Then there was an Alumnus Director who was brought in, and (regrettably) he did not last, again none of us are privy to the going-ons in the Music Office. I felt the students had a hand in playing the tensions of the Music Office, resulting in that Director's departure. Why should there be this tension?, not an atmosphere for the students to thrive. I was waiting for an Alumnus who is also a fair judge.... perhaps he could be judge and jury all at once, but he has not surfaced, and he does not know the going-ons in the Music Office. For the students, my advice is that your opinion has been stated, but do not get yourself in any deeper. On Mon Jan 9th, you need to go back to school, and concentr

Please do not sign this Petition. Have a pleasant week.

To: JP C, You posted a good response to the individual who is referred to as [anon member]. I believe that it appears easier to remain anonymous and write and post. If such an individual is associated or affiliated with SMCS, I believe that he may feel or write that way. However, we cannot rule that out, because two days ago, one of the parents of a SMCS student, wrote to me in similar style but less hostile.

Anonymous, you raise some interesting problems regarding the legality of replacing Dr. Cichocki with a non-qualified member. I'm a friend of Jerzy and am potentially in a position to help him. If you're willing, I'd like to meet with you to discuss a few of these legal problems as well as the existence of this document. Please drop me a line at [email protected] if you'd like - I would like to help if I can.