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w at er lo oc hr on ic le .c a W at er lo o C hr on ic le | T hu rs da y, Ju ne 13 ,2 01 9 | 6 CAMBRIDGE 90 Main Street cornerstonefurniture.ca 519.740.9991 /CornerstoneHome /cornerstonehomeinteriors CORNERSTONE'S CURATED STYLE Stunning new inventory is always arriving here at Cornerstone. We stock more chairs and sofas than any store in Ontario. While Main Street is being improved, our rear entrance is open for customers. With recently an- nounced education cuts threatening to further strain resources in schools, the situation is seen as most dire at the primary level, as resources to deal with complex behavioural challenges are stretched be- yond capacity in a system that some say is already failing our youngest pu- pils. Ontario's Ministry of Education knows aggres- sive student behaviour in our classrooms "is a very real issue." But aside from a new document to help educa- tors understand the Occu- pational Health and Safety Act, and some funding for online reporting systems, there was no mention of any additional aid in an emailed response to ques- tions sent its way. Laurie Menard, a re- cently retired special edu- cation teacher and consul- tant of 37 years, said teach- ers' unions are the ones chasing teachers to report violent incidents, not school administration. "Because, quite frank- ly, admin doesn't know what to do with them," she believes. With reported inci- dents of aggression on the rise, Waterloo Region Dis- trict School Board (WRDSB) superintendent Scott Miller said he's con- tinually working to review procedures to better sup- port classrooms. There's a greater diligence among teachers to report inci- dents of aggression, he said, and the information is informing board prac- tices. Miller said more sup- port resources would cer- tainly be beneficial, but it ultimately falls on the school board to support classrooms with what it has. "As a school board, we believe in an equitable and inclusive learning envi- ronment," he said. Ontario Teachers' Fed- eration president Diane Dewing, who advocates on behalf of the province's four main public teachers' unions, said blame should be placed where it truly lies - not on students, par- ents or school boards, but on chronic underfunding. Jeff Pelich, vice-presi- dent of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario's Waterloo region local, agrees, and said placing the onus on teach- ers is akin to victim blam- ing. "I'm afraid of what the next 10 years are going to look like if this is what we have in store," he said, adding that it's difficult for teachers' unions to lobby for resources such as be- havioural specialists and educational assistants NEWS 'WE'RE SETTING OUR KIDS UP TO FAIL': PART 3 BILL JACKSON bjackson@kitchenerpost.ca PART 3 OF A 3-PART SERIES: BEHAVIOURAL RESOURCES DESPERATELY NEEDED, BUT CONSEQUENCES ARE LACKING IN SCHOOLS, STUDY FINDS THE ISSUE: MORE RESOURCES ARE NEEDED TO DEAL WITH BEHAVIOURAL ISSUES AND STUDENT AGGRESSION LOCAL IMPACT: LEARNING IS SUFFERING DUE TO CLASSROOM DISRUPTIONS AND EVACUATIONS See SHORT-TERM, page 7