New School Year Means New Focus For C.W. Jefferys Collegiate
Posted September 4, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In May of 2007, just as another school year wound down and the weather began to warm up, C.W. Jefferys Collegiate was the site of a shooting that not only claimed the life of 15-year-old Jordan Manners, but stigmatized the school as one of the most dangerous, infamous public institutions in the GTA.
And on Tuesday, as hundreds of thousands of students headed back to school across the province, C.W. Jefferys students and staff began a new chapter, with a new focus on safety and an overwhelming desire to put the past behind them.
“There’s a heightened awareness at that school, and the board is being very vigilant,” said Ontario Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.
“We’ve put more resources over the last four years … more teachers, more support workers … specifically last month we made an investment that allow boards to hire more psychologists, more social workers.”
The Toronto District School Board is also keeping a close eye on C.W. Jefferys, and Director of Education Gerry Connelly spoke Tuesday about where the emphasis should lie.
“The number one condition for learning is a safe and caring environment,” Connelly said. “We’re going to do whatever we can to ensure that our students feel safe, our staff feel safe and that they feel welcome in our schools.”
Of course dangers exist in GTA schools far beyond the walls of C.W. Jefferys. The new school year comes less than a week after a panel released a long-awaited interim report into Manners’ shooting death, suggesting a similar tragedy could take place at just about any educational institute.
