What law gives you the right to order BCTF teachers to embark upon such a reckless and ultimately costly criminal act, as defined by the civil court, of which you are in contempt?The number of teachers who have thought this out and returned to their classroom grows exponentially the longer you continue your reckless disregard for the Legislature, Laws and civil courts of British Columbia.
As you know crowded classrooms are the direct result of incompetent school boards and the ensuing result in some isolated classrooms. Blaming the province for this municipal situation is the height of blame assessment and hypocrisy.
I find it somewhat hypocritical the BCTF attaching the word 'democracy' with an illegal action committed by teachers at your behest. As you know Bill 12 only extended your contract by a few months, so why would you direct teachers to break the law and ignore the courts when you are not the employer? I find this hard to accept, as does every other government organization involved.
Unfortunately in this case you are on the wrong side of the law, by directing your members to break the law. In the eyes of the government and the courts you are liable to huge fines as a third party intervener. The law of liability is crystal clear, ask the special prosecutor, or your own legal advisors, who would be foolish not to be brutally honest with you.
Your actions have the potential to poison the relationship with the government and parents for a decade. Everything you try do will be so much harder because of the animosity and cynicism your actions are fomenting. Climb down before it's too late, and live to fight another day. Look what happened to General Custer when he tried the same ploy?
It is up to you to have faith that the Minister and Premier will address those 'crowded' classrooms you find so hard to accept. Show a little leadership and respect the law and hold the Premier to his word, get teachers back in class. You can always walk out again when Bill 12 expires in a few months if these two men turn out to be foolhardy enough to not address the 'crowded classroom' conditions that are affecting the quality of the workplace for your members.
Staying the illegal course you are on is pure folly and will do more harm to the students you keep professing to having their bests interests at heart. By the way, you caused the BCTF teachers to take this illegal and unprecedented action and not the conditions you state below.
You ordered teachers to strike because of Bill 12, nothing more, and you know it.
As you also know, the government can only control the amount of the funding in the envelope, not how each individual school board disburses those funds. Any regular classroom with 40 students and 5 disabled kids is an outright fabrication or a isolated incident caused by teachers off sick with no replacements available, I checked three different first-person sources, and have the long distance phone bills to prove it.
But hoisting the 'crowded classroom' petard on the backs of disabled and special needs children integrated into regular classrooms, as the Human Rights Commission makes clear should be the case, in guidelines for public schools in Canada really got me steamed.
You should be ashamed for such underhandedness and manipulation of an isolated incident you know couldn't be avoided, making it sound rampant to the media, who are too lazy to check the information you presented as 'fact' instead of fiction, or spin, which it has proven to be.
Why do militant unions like the BCTF always use these kids as political pawns, I for one, and my less abled son Logan, are getting pretty sick of it, as do most parents who have exceptional children presently feel?
Respectfully,
Mark-Alan Whittle
Chief Executive Officer
Logan's Pony Club
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From: Jinny Sims
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 5:07 PM
To: Mark-Alan Whittle
Subject: Response to your e-mail
Thank you for taking the time to contact the BCTF to share your concerns about the current situation. Like you, we would rather see our students and teachers back in schools. However, teachers across B.C. see no other option at this point in time but to take a stand in order to ensure that the learning conditions of students are improved and to ensure adequate working conditions and compensation for teachers. The imposition of a legislated settlement through Bill 12 did nothing to resolve this dispute.
I encourage you to contact your MLA to urge the government to negotiate with the BCTF in order to resolve this dispute. Information about the legislation, teachers' concerns and messages from supporters may be found at www.bctf.ca. You may also find it informative to visit some teachers on picket lines to speak directly with them about the issues that have caused them to take this unprecedented action.
Jinny Sims
President
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