UPDATED: Monday, March 7 at 3 p.m.
One day after R.D. Parker Collegiate principal Ryan Land was removed from his post, more than 200 students showed up outside the Letkemann Theatre to protest the decision.
School District of Mystery Lake superintendent Beverly Hammond, who showed up Thursday morning to address the students, spent nearly an hour repeating that Land's contract would not be renewed and that legally - citing the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act - she was not in a position to explain why.
Hammond's remarks were frequently interrupted by the jeers of students, who also broke into chants of 'We Want Land' on multiple occasions. Other students wrote support for Land on their T-shirts, and some wore hats as a sign of protest.
Janaye Tucker-Titanich, a student at R.D. Parker and the daughter of school trustee Leslie Tucker, said Wednesday night that at "9 a.m. [Thursday] there will [be] a sit in to protest the firing of Mr. Land in the Grade 12 hallway ... I think we as the students who worked with Mr. Land every single day deserve a chance for our side of the story to be heard.
"Mr. Land will not be offered a permanent contract for the next school year," Hammond, who took responsibility for recommending to the board that Land's contract not be renewed, told those students. "I will not be part of innuendo, speculation, or a lack of understanding. If you have questions, be prepared to receive information that you will not like - however, you will receive truthful information."
Hammond repeated that the reason for Land's firing would not be public knowledge for legal reasons relating to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. "I won't tell you why," she said. "You legally can't know why. This decision has been made for reasons that you cannot know and will not know. You have got as straight an answer, relative to the legislation and labour management, as I can give, and I am not prepared to say to you any more than what I have said."
"We do not make staffing decisions based on public popularity," she added. In addition to Land, vice-principal Grant Kreuger - who has been with R.D. Parker for more than 20 years and was instrumental in bringing in the aviation, mining, and technology programs - was removed from his position as vice-principal. Hammond said that Kreuger was given paid administrative leave for the rest of the week, and will return to work Monday as a teacher. Hammond later said that Kreuger was not offered the position of interim principal.
"I respect how you feel, and you are entitled to your opinions," Hammond told the students, continuing on to question whether the students were making the best use of their school day. "If you are so passionate about your education, where you should be right now is in your classrooms where you receive that education," she said.
"How about we go back to class and you bring Mr. Land back?" retorted one student.
"What do we have to do to get him back?" asked another.
"When Mr. Land stepped in, everybody followed the rules and felt safe," stated one student. "You're taking away the only thing that made us feel safe."
"Being here today is a good thing to show support for Mr. Land and Mr. Kreuger, but you have to realize the school board makes these decisions along with Ms. Hammond," Danny Morris, a past president of the R.D. Parker Parents Association, told the students. "Doing this here today, skipping your classes, is helping nobody."
"This school board is a joke," said Ryan Lalonde. "And all the teachers who support this clownish "board" are just as much to blame for the lack of proper education in that school, and there are teachers supporting it," Morris wrote. "I won't name names but you know who you are. Its like this board enjoys seeing failing grades and and numerous absences on their records.
"I myself went to this school and basically failed every year I was there until I moved to Ontario. I almost instantly became a straight A student like I was in elementary and now I'm getting my microbiology degree at the University of Guelph. There is something wrong going on here, there is conflict of interest, there is ignorance and lazyness on this board and hopefully a provincial inquiry will get Pellizzaro and his cronies OUT. And talk about a sad fact when this halfwit Pellizzaro won't even comment on the mess he created. Typical lawyer? I'd say. Good luck Thompson and RDPC."
Morris also said, "You have to go back home today and tell your parents 'we have to contact the school board,' because this is bullshit," he added. "Sitting around here today, you're going to get nothing done." Morris credited the students for caring enough about the issue to organize the event, as well as Hammond for having the courage to come to the school and face the students.
By late morning, the numbers in the pit in front of the theatre remained strong, with more than 100 students involved in the organized chaos which was the sit-in. Some stood on chairs and held signs supporting Land, while others spoke into a microphone. Enough noise was made in the protests that doors were closed virtually throughout the first floor so that the noise would not be a distraction.
Later in the afternoon, a group of approximately 35 students took their protest down the street to the school board office. One of the students, Evan Bercier, explained that the group understood that they would not learn exactly why Land was fired, but that they wanted to know potential reasons why a principal could be fired. The group was not allowed into the building, and at 3:45 - 15 minutes before the end of a normal work day for school district officials - the doors to the office were closed. The students remained on site for another half-hour, but were not permitted entry into the building.
"The facts are this," said Hammond after speaking to the students in the morning. "Mr. Land was on a probationary contract. A probationary contract is exactly that. It is not a tenured contract, and with a probationary contract there are certain contractual terms and certain contractual obligations on the part of the employer. The Public Schools Act of Manitoba has provisions that govern those same issues. We exercised our right, under the terms of the probationary contract as well as the Public Schools Act, to not provide Mr. Land a tenured contract." Under the terms of Land's probationary contract, if it were not to be renewed, written confirmation must have been provided by March 30.
"Right now, it's like any other sort of thing that brings out raw emotion, and they need to have a voice, which is why I attended at the school this morning," Hammond continued, again giving the students credit for being passionate about their education. "I don't expect them to understand all of the things that go on. They have their perspective, and right now they're passionate about that perspective. I am confident that I've made the right recommendation based on the information that I have that I cannot share."
Hammond did note that the decision on anyone in Land's position would normally be carried out by the superintendent as an administrative function of the position, but said that she asked for a board motion in this instance because of linkage to events from last year, when the board voted to extend Land's probation for a second year. Hammond also stated that the vote was not unanimous.
"I do understand that parents will have questions and the community will have questions," she continued. "I certainly understand that and I understand their perspectives, however, my perspective is from a different place with different information, and legally I cannot disclose that information."
Along those lines, Hammond also noted that the district is currently undertaking an organizational review. "That will provide opportunity for broad-based consultation - parents, staff, students, community members, and the public at large, as well as key partners relative to involvement in our schools," she said. "I encourage everyone to get involved in that process."
"There were a lot of good things going on here at R.D. Parker," noted Hammond in response to a question about areas where Land had been doing well. "I've been at R.D. Parker a number of times - I understand that the students don't know who I am, that is not atypical once one moves into the district office and the superintendency. We have seen strategies to look at lates, to look at attendance. We're working on graduation rates. Are they where we want them to be at this particular juncture? No. It's an area that we continue to look at and improve."
"Nobody needs to be worried about their jobs if they are doing their job in the manner that it needs to be done, relative to all of the variables," she continued. "This is not about 'oh, we're getting rid of staff here, we're getting rid of staff there.' I understand only too well that coming into the School District of Mystery Lake, that there had been some significant turnover in some significant key positions. What I also know, though, is that the public has the information that the public can have, and they cannot have all of the information. This isn't about termination and firing in a haphazard manner."
Another student, Cody Dawson, commented on the Thompson Citizen website early Thursday, "This is bogus, tomorrow morning we are fighting for our LAND!"
Ten comments posted in the first few hours after the firing on a Thompson Citizen story on Land's getting the axe, mainly by R.D. Parker students, all support Land and want the board to reinstate him. Another 10 comments or more, in a similar vein, have been posted on the Thompson Citizen's Facebook page. Not a single comment as of 9 a.m. Thursday had been posted on either of our sites in support of the board firing Land.
Former trustee Kelly Hause, who did not seek re-election last October, wrote on our Facebook page: "It's a testament to our students passion when they fight for what they believe in." Hause stressed in a brief conversation she was speaking as a parent supporting the right of student protest and not commenting on the board's actions.
"Awesome to see the students standing up for what the believe is right! I am an RDPC Graduate, and I would do the same thing!" wrote Michelle Johnson-Carroll.
"This really needs to stop. Go Students Go!" wrote Cheryce Onook-Pilling.
Student Sarah MacDonald wrote: "Something needs to change here; the students love Mr. Land. Isn't that the important thing? Having trust and confidence in an authority figure isn't something teenagers do a lot of. Clearly something fishy is going on in this district, and I hope the students stand up for themselves in any way they can think of."
Said student Saraj Thethy: "This is nonsense. Mr. Land was probably one of the greatest principals we have had at RDPC. As a student I know half the school are against this. The school board is just throwing away our education."
But it wasn't just students supporting Land. Ken Pittman, 51, who studied civil engineering at Red River Community College wrote: "We, the citizens of Thompson, must not let our school board do what they want when they want. Any decision they make is NOT a private issue but a public issue. These are our students and our schools and we HAVE a right to know. Only when our school trustees become open about everything will we have a school board citizens can trust. Most Thompsonites agree; something is wrong at SDML. It appears it's their way or the highway, too many times already! I thought we had an anti-bully policy. HA!"
Teachers were also expected to call in sick yesterday as well in response to Land's firing.
Student Tevin Wong wrote: "I've never seen a principal as involved with the students as Mr. Land. As an athlete who plays school sports every single day, I think I can speak for most of the athletes in the school. Mr. Land always came out to our basketball tournament and ran up and down that court all day for us ... Mini hoops for the younger elementary kid's which took place on Sunday's earlier in the year how many principals can you say would show up every opportunity they had like he did? There's a junior zone basketball tournament being held starting tomorrow at R.D. Parker and the weekend after that is also our senior basketball zone, also held at R.D. Parker ... bet you any money if he [Land] had the chance he'd be right out there for us."
School board chair Rob Pellizzaro, a local lawyer, declined to comment on the personnel matter.
Vice-principal Wally Itson, originally from National City in San Diego County, California, has been named acting principal. Interim assistant superintendent Lorie Henderson was also at the school Thursday, assisting with administrative duties.
Land was a probationary employee in the second year at the helm of R.D. Parker Collegiate, as the school board voted last April in favour of extending his one-year probation in a rare "public rebuke."
In September, the board apologized to Land for dealing with his employment status during a public meeting, with Pellizzaro apologizing for delivering the public rebuke. While the board apologized to Land for the process - dealing with a personnel issue in public - they did not apologize for the content of the decision itself and the action of maintaining his probationary period for a second academic year, which stood.
At the time of the rebuke, the reason given for dealing with the matter in public was that it had been the source of constant public speculation, with citizens contacting Mayor Tim Johnston and asking him to take action reviewing the school board.
Pellizzaro also noted in April that another option the board had at the time was to terminate Land's employment, an option they ultimately decided against. When discussing the fact that Land will have to prove himself to the board to keep his job, Pellizzaro added that Land "should not count on it," continuing on to denounce employees who try to "manipulate the board by influence," and adding that many employees at R.D. Parker knew more than they should have about certain incidents.
Before coming to Thompson, Land had worked at schools in many locations around the world, including stops in England, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, and Ghana, where he was the founding principal of the first Canadian international school in West Africa.
"I do not think it would be prudent or appropriate for me to comment other than to say that my family thanks everyone who has offered their support to us," said Land in an e-mail Wednesday.
The firing would have needed the approval of a majority vote of the board of trustees, which in addition to Pellizzaro includes vice-chairperson Guido Oliveira and trustees Valerie Wilson, Vince Nowlin, Leslie Tucker, Alexander Ashton and Sya Gregovski. Nowlin, Tucker, Ashton and Gregovski were all elected to the board last Oct. 27, while Pellizzaro, Oliveira and Wilson are all veteran trustees.
Pellizzaro was first elected in 1998, while Oliveira, and Wilson became trustees in 2006.
