MHCBE OKs violence and risk questionnaire

By Tim Kalinowski on December 14, 2017.

tkalinowski@medicinehatnews.com @MHNTimKal

The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education voted Tuesday evening to approve a new violence and risk assessment questionnaire to be distributed to teachers and other staff in the district. The motion, first introduced by Trustee David Leahy at the Nov. 14 meeting, will help the school district gather information and develop an overall strategy for enhanced staff safety.

“I am excited the majority of our trustees decided to back my effort to survey staff about the violence and verbal abuse they are seeing in the classroom,” said Leahy after the motion had passed. “This is an attempt by me to have our staff give some input so the senior administration and board can get an accurate picture, and a baseline, of what’s going on in the classrooms. And if there are some concerns we can address them.”

Stressing his motion was not prompted by any specific incident in Medicine Hat Catholic he was aware of, Leahy said it was just a matter of being proactive.

“This is an issue that’s developing in a lot of professions across the country,” Leahy explained. “You see nurses expressing concern about the level of violence they are exposed to. It’s not just an education thing. We just have a legal and moral obligation about their experiences because sometimes people in administration and governance don’t get the whole picture.”

Leahy also had two other motions of his pass at Tuesday’s public board meeting: Having “Catholic Education” given its own standing agenda item at regular board meetings and to have trustees submit their written reports about committee meetings prior to the release of the public agenda.

Leahy did not however, get his way on all his proposed motions. His attempt to have a $65 monthly cellphone subsidy eliminated for trustees, besides the chair, did not garner a majority of board votes. Leahy also raised a point of privilege with board chair Dick Mastel because at the Nov. 14 meeting Mastel had ruled Leahy’s motion to reverse a superintendent of schools decision on minimum assignable time for teachers out of order. Leahy challenged Mastel’s decision to seek legal council on the matter from the Alberta School Boards’ Association without getting proper authorization from the rest of the board first.

“You may have violated my privilege by not informing me of the fact you were seeking legal advice,” Leahy told Mastel. “Furthermore, you may have violated my privilege by not only refraining from informing me what you were doing, by I suspect Mr. Chair, and I hope it is not the case, that you may have already discussed this matter with other trustees, and not with me.”

Mastel said he would take the matter under advisement and seek further consultation on Leahy’s concerns before making a final ruling on the matter.