TORONTO – “Education is a right. Our right. But in our schools, this right is denied to us”. Angry and disappointed, students at York Memorial Collegiate Institute and George Harvey Collegiate Institute (TDSB) protested this morning demanding safer, better equipped, more comfortable schools. School where teachers are present. Schools where the police “who have often terrorized the students” do not intervene. In short, schools where you can study with serenity. 

The “Memostrikes” – this is the title of the students’ initiative – started from the George Harvey on Keele Street, where boys and girls gathered at 11am, displaying placards with their requests: “I just want to be a student”, “If you don’t act like adults we will”, “Make our school even better, TDSB!!”.

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Supported by community representatives and some teachers and parents, the students then moved in procession from the George Harvey to the York Memorial, stopping in front of the TDSB headquarters to present their testimonies. “In our schools there is… nothing: there is no security, there are no teachers, there is not even toilet paper in the bathrooms. And yet we are attacked and treated like criminals. Now that’s enough!”.

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The director of the TDSB, Colleen Russel-Rawlins, decided to intervene in person to reassure the students: “We will listen to you, from Monday we will begin a series of interviews with each of you”. One of the community and student representatives took the mic to ask her if the TDSB would answer “yes” or “no” to the students’ requests: “Conduct an inquiry in systems abuse at York Memorial, allocate more resources to our schools, prevent police presence, implement a publich school – student union, listen to students and act on our needs”. The director answered “yes” and the demonstration ended with her promises and the hope that they’ll be kept.

NEXT MONDAY ON THE ITALIAN NEWSPAPER “CORRIERE CANADESE”
EXTENSIVE ELABORATIONS ABOUT THE STUDENTS EVENT

HERE BELOW, THE PHOTOGALLERY OF THE “MEMOSTRIKES”: CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM

(ALL PICS AND VIDEOS BY MARZIO PELÙ)