Toronto High School Student Suspended For Criticizing Staff
Posted December 1, 2010 6:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Grade 12 student’s suspension from a Toronto school has sparked a debate about freedom of speech.
Emil Cohen, a student at Northern Secondary on Mount Pleasant Road, was punished for apparently criticizing the school’s athletic program, which he claims favours the football team over the soccer squad.
Cohen voiced his opinion on the topic at an athletic assembly last week, after which he was slapped with a suspension and had some athletic priveleges revoked, like attending sports games and using the gym.
“Nothing in that speech warranted a suspension or anything close to it,” he contends. “This assembly was a time for us to express how we felt about how everything is run.”
The speech including the following statement:
“We now have it instilled into us that soccer (at Northern) is synonymous with the word unnecessary. We had a team this year, due to the tenacity and perseverance of several players, who took it upon themselves to do the phys. ed. department’s job and find a coach.”
Emil’s supporters say the issue has nothing to do with sports, but rather a student’s right to freedom of speech.
They are organizing a rally supporting Emil and his rights.
The Toronto District School Board says it wasn’t the right forum for the speech.
“Students are to exercise self-discipline,” said Ian Allison, Superintendent, TDSB. “Certainly they are supposed to be respectful towards staff, and part of the process was he was to go through this process of vetting and then he went and did it his own way, and that really wasn’t in the spirit of what this was about and that was the crux of this suspension.”
