Two years after their kidsā year-end school camping trip was called off due to a teachersā dispute, some local parents werenāt about to let it happen again.
About 100 students in Grade 8 at KVR Middle School in Penticton were set to leave Wednesday for a two-day trip to Camp Boyle, but the outing was cancelled suddenly when teacher sponsors withdrew their support.
Eight parents then took matters into their own hands and set out Thursday with 36 kids for an overnight stay at the camp 20 kilometres northwest of Summerland.
āThis is (the studentsā) last year at KVR, and theyāve been looking forward to this for three years,ā said Sarah Broder, one of the parents who helped reorganize the camp-out. āA lot of these kids have never had an opportunity where theyāve slept in a tent. Theyāve never cooked over an open fire. Theyāve never done a lot of these things, and itās wonderful to be able to make it happen.ā
Mason Heintz, 13, said he and his classmates were crushed when they learned the school-sponsored excursion had been scuttled.
āI was pretty sad that it wasnāt going on, because in Grade 6 they also do a year-end camping trip and we missed that one because of that (2012 teachersā) strike,ā he said.
Broder said parents arenāt assigning blame for this yearās cancellation.
āThis is an apolitical event. Iām not bashing anybody over their politics ā I just donāt like it when my kids get influenced by politics,ā she explained.
Okanagan Skaha School District superintendent Wendy Hyer said the trip is no longer sanctioned by her staff and therefore outside her purview.
āParents have taken their children out of school for a family camping trip, which is no different if they take them out of school to go to Mexico for a week,ā she said in an email.
āThese are parental decisions that do not involve the district.ā
Leslea Woodward, president of the Okanagan Skaha Teachersā Union, applauded the KVR parentsā efforts.
āIf this is something theyāre doing, good, Iām glad,ā she said.Ā āI just hope they understand that it is because weāve been locked out by the employer that we had to cancel.ā
Woodward noted that although the B.C. Public School Employersā Association has said its partial lockout, which limits the hours educators can work, does not apply to volunteer extra-curricular activities, there is still a grey area around teachersā liability and medical coverage.
āLegally, a lockout states that we cannot be working during the lockout times that they defined in the letter, and that is our legal advice,ā she said.
āThatās why trips are cancelled.ā
Meanwhile, the B.C. Teachersā Federation announced this week it will continue with rotating one-day strikes again next week due to a lack of progress at the bargaining table.
Okanagan Skaha schools will be closed Friday, while those in Okanagan Similkameen will be shut Thursday.
Teachers have been without a contract since June 2013.
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