The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

TE | 10 - PORT PERRY STAR - Wednesday, May 26, 1999 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" LETTERS Ignoring bullies now may lead to violent acts later To the Editor: Early last year, a bully came to my school. He picked on me and my friends unmercifully yet no adult but our par- ents would believe my friends and I when we said that the bully's small acts of violence would get bigger and bigger. Last autumn, he began to pick on me in the manner of pushing, shoving and kicking. I complained to teachers many times but nothing was done about him. The teachers always came to the conclu- sion that I had provoked the bully into picking on me. . Later in the year, the bully started to swear at various children including me. When I complained teachers came to the same conclusion - I had provoked him. This year, the bully got worse. Early in the school year, he started to throw greasy pizza papers at me and a friend. We told him to stop but he didn't. Then my friend went to get a teacher who told the bully to stay in after lunch to receive his punishment. When the recess bell rang, the bully got up and headed for the door. My friend and I told him to stop and he said that he was going out- side, that the teacher wouldn't remem- ber anyway. That makes me ask, how can the school system be so blind as to refrain from distributing punishment to such an extent that children think that they can get away with everything? I then told the bully that if he left I would tell the teacher and he would get in even worse trouble. He said to me, "You tell the teacher and I'm going to beat you up." I responded to him that if he laid one finger on me, then I would charge him with assault. To that he said "Doesn't matter - it won't go on my record anyway." That scared me that a child of my age would be that violent and thoughtless. And that he would think that he could get away with anything. Later during that lunch recess, I wit- nessed him beating up my friend. . This January, my friend left th school and the bully gloats over it to this very day. His. punishment for this behaviour was minimal and after he was told his penalty, he bragged to his peers that he had gotten let off easy. That really scares me that he thinks that he can get away with what he did. Also this September, I was reading a book outside, sitting on the pavement of the school yard waiting for the morning bell to ring when my book started to fold in. On instinct, I dodged and luckily too because seconds later, a foot wearing a large work boot came flying to the spot where my nose had been earlier. If I had not moved, my nose wpuld have been broken. Needless to say, it was the bully again. : Also this year, my special Star Wars pencil case disappeared. It is very important to me as it contains a picture of my mother, a Star Wars pen that was a present to me and two special key- chains. After I had gone out to lunch with my mother one day, she went into the school with me to ask permission from my science teacher if I could go to the office and write out an announce- ment about my missing pencil case. The next period, we switched classes and the bully got to class ahead of me. When I got to class I stuck my hand 'into my desk fishing around for a spare pencil. My hand came out with my Star Wars pencil case. I do know though, that it was not through my error that I could not find the pencil case as I lost the pen- cil case in French class and I found it again in English class. This past week I was teamed with the bully for practice for an activity called Think Bowl. At every opportunity, the bully tormented me. When the teacher left the classroom, the bully took my recess snack - one that I really violent sports. To this suggestion the need because of a health condition and he also took my Advil twice. When he took my Advil, he told me that I am not allowed to have drugs in school. Ironically, the problem that we had to solve for practice Think Bowl was the problem of youth violence in today's society. One time, I suggested getting rid of bully answered, "You can't do that 'cause then everyone will be so mad and bored they'll start shooting each other." Everyone has heard about the violent shootings that have been done by chil- dren recently but what they don't know or don't believe is that the beginnings of it are just subtle acts of injustice like the taking of a snack or the stealing of a pen. Another thing that people don't real- ize is that these violent outbursts could be caused by the resentment of teachers being verbally and emotionally abusive by unjustly yelling at the students or likewise. If these small acts of violence contin- ue to be ignored then surely they become worse and worse until there is no looking back. Alexandra Haagaard, Scugog Island Election is our chance to rebuild crisis-torn Ontario To the Editor: I am proud to be able to call myself a citizen of Canada and particularly proud to say that I am a citizen of Ontario. ~ During the past four years I have been concerned and troubled by the actions of the Harris government as it has torn away and destroyed what we as residents of Ontario have spent years establishing. It appears that, in his wisdom, he has followed the idea that "if the only tool you have is a hammer, every- thing looks like a nail." With his hammer Harris has gone about bashing Ontario, bruising and banging almost everyone in the province. Following the statement of the for- mer Education Minister John Snobelen on Sept. 13, 1995, "Yeah we need to invent a crisis ... unless you threaten the survival of an organiza- tion ... then real change ... isn't avail- able," Harris created a crisis never seen before in education, health and in many work places throughout the province. The "record" shows that as a result of his hammering we now have a crip- pled education system, which was ranked as one of the best in the world before his actions. For decades the residents of each municipality viewed education as a serious matter, and the elected trustees made decisions which best suited their individual situation for where they lived. The local taxpay- ers, parents of the students involved, had control of what took place. With the passage of Bill 160, most things changed. Now decisions are made at the provincial level, not locally. In March of 1998 a new funding formula was unveiled. This formula was to simpli- fy funding. The record shows that it junior and senior kindergarten and is much more complex and has schools, trustees and ministry offi- cials confused. The government said the new funding model would result in lower class sizes. The record shows that Grade 1 and 2 classes in Durham changed from a maximum of 20 stu- dents to as many as 27. Maybe this is how a hammer works on calculating figures. The record shows that late in the 1997 to 98 school year, the govern- ment used $100 million learning material enhancement as a media opportunity. Schools were given only days to use the funds, sometimes for materials they didn't need or couldn't use. Some textbooks had to be pur- chased at prices higher than the school would normally pay. Some of the materials couldn't be used until the school purchased the teacher resource materials from their own budgets. The Harris hammer further creat- ed crisis in curriculum areas, assess- ment and in numerous other ways. No matter what area of life you look at, change is possible and important. However, change for the sake of change usually creates just what the Harris government set out to do: to create a crisis. The youth of our province deserve our best efforts to prepare them for the future. They need our hel,. now. Harris has given us a chance on June 3 to begin again and put back in place all the destruction he has caused. You have a choice more destruction or renovation with our youth as our prime concern. K. Lawton, Sunderland : E-mail: port.perry.star@ sympatico.ca that each inci "ance. As time went on, we all recog- nized a major attitude problem with They - have 'become rude when asked to move so we may drive by, vulgar with hand gestures and some- times, just laugh at us while we sit on the street waiting for them to decide if we can proceed. ~~ At 3:30 p.m. when buses are pass- ing through intersections of McDonald and Rosa Streets towards the high school on the "wrong" side of the street with public schools out and young children trying to get home sately, 'total havoc prevails. sisting of one round and one square pipe approximately 10 to 15 feet long with wooden ends, one or two ramps and a platform enters the equation, you can picture the scene. I.am surprised no one has been en skateboard equipment con- 't have to ing youngsters lled yet. Last year a few skate- oarders got really brave and decided b tag onto bus bumpers for a "little ide" COL ere en I'm not saying all the kids are bad, n but it only takes a few with a bad . attitude to spoil it for everyone. © Where do you get off reaching out : 18 to the community for sympathy for t each incident could be handled with a bit of patience and perseyer- these kids? Respect and responsibili- ty are taught in the home at a young age. You are concerned that we are going to lose the respect of these young adults and want to know what they are learning from this about a 'sense of community. They will learn that they are not above the law, and will be held accountable for their actions just like we all are. We all respect others' properties and belongings, and coop- erate in keeping our neighbourhood clean, tidy and safe. | Take an interest in your childs chosen' sport Susan, and do your homework. There are facilities avail- able. Don't ask your community to babysit these youngsters while they break the traffic laws. - Carolyn Hewlett, Port Perry Which party's Ontario do you prefer? To the Editor: So Mr. Harris will borrow $10 billion that the province does not have to bribe me if I vote for him. If Mr. McGuinty were ter for me? Mr. Harris vote for him, which would be better for Ontario? Which would be bet- Mr. McGuinty says he won't borrow this money to bride me, and reckless spendthrift and rowed money should be given to the middle and lower income citizens, as there is more chance of them spending it locally and helping the Port Perry economy. I look at my 11-year- old daughter and 85- year-old father-in-law calls him a to promise to borrow a weak leader because and wonder, which $12 billion or $8 billion he won't. Ontario will be better that the province does Mr. Hampton says for them? not have to bribe me to that more of that bor- Randy Scott, Scugog Island