EDMONTON/630 CHED
6/12/2012
A Ross Sheppard High School student is coming to the defence of former teacher Lynden Dorval on the heels of his suspension.
Almost a month after Dorval was suspended for breaking Ross Sheppard High School's no zero policy, Jacob Garber has started a petition.
Garber, a grade 11 student, says the driving force behind the petition is the fact he thinks it's unfair.
"Our petition has two purposes, to get rid of the no zero policy, and to reinstate Mr. Dorval as a teacher. And we are doing it for two main reasons, the first one that this no zero policy does not encourage student accountability. As if you do not do an assignment you don't get get a zero, you get a behaviour code, it doesn't really affect your grade at all. Instead of having a zero, students think, 'well I can hand it in late, whatever, it doesn't really make a difference.' It is unfair to the rest of us who work our butts off and get it done when it's supposed to be done. The second reason why we had the petition was the way the school board treated Mr Dorval."
He says after watching students in his CALM class take advantage of the no zero policy he felt that he had to do something.
"About 75 percent of the students have incomplete assignments. My teacher is constantly nagging and hassling them to hand it in so she can give them a mark. The thing is, they don't have any incentive to hand it in, if a teacher would just say to students I'm going to give you a zero if you don't hand it in, they would have a lot more incentive to get it done."
Garber says about 100 people had signed the petition as of Tuesday morning. He hopes to get about 500 signatures.
He says the petition was originally only for current Ross Shephard High School students, but is now expanding to parents, former students, and members of the community.
He will be launching both Facbook and Twitter accounts Wednesday morning, so those who want to sign the petition can get in touch with him. (pb)
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