Principal Connections

I will admit that it took me a bit of time to wrap my head around the idea of harm reduction at school. Eventually, I realized that I was making the same mistake that a lot people around me were making in that I was not allowing myself to imagine running a school differently than I had prior to my current assignment. In my previous schools, if a student came to school under the influence there was no question what would happen: search was conducted to ensure that he/she was not in possession of illegal substances, parents were called to inform them of a suspension and the student was sent home immediately. The thinking behind this standard three-step process is that the entire student body had to be sent "a message" that being at school under the influence would not be tolerated. Essentially, this practice is for everyone else BUT the kid who is being sent home! I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that these situations are often the exception, not the rule. The long...

I am typing from my office, three weeks prior to the re-opening of the school ot staff and students. It's not the same old back-to-school excitement that I have felt every year since I started teaching in 2003... There is no air conditioning, making mask wearing more uncomfortable than usual. My table is covered in signage and bright orange tape in preparation for the  the implementation of the various safety protocols. My printer is whirring from the sound of endless pages of instructions and documentation from the Ministry of Education, York Region Public Health and the system in which I work. While I love paperless practices, these are the sort of documents that need to be highlighted with margin notes so that not a single detail goes unnoticed. I'll be honest... for the first time, I'm super nervous. It's not the same the accompanies the first day on the job as an Administrator. It's stemming from the fact that I'm alone. There is no other Administrator look...