Vancouver students call for fired VSB trustees to be reinstated

About half a dozen students rallied outside the Vancouver School Board offices Friday to protest the firing of nine trustees.

But the students say they're representing a lot more people than those who showed up to the rally.

"Students across the district are all united," said Kaitlin Wong, a student council member at Killarney Secondary School. "54,000 students are behind [us]."

Students at the rally presented a joint declaration to the VSB front desk, signed by all 18 student council presidents in the city. It also included signatures from the Vancouver district student council president and the student trustee.

"The document states that the student council presidents stand behind our democratically elected school board," said rally organizer Ronic Parmar.

"The student council presidents have all signed this document on behalf of us," Wong said.

Students want 'voices heard'

Students say they're petitioning against the government-led appointment of the lone trustee, Dianne Turner, who has replaced all the school board trustees.

"The students at my school, we were all appalled at this blatant dismissal of the elected trustees and the disregard for our democratic values in B.C.," Wong said.

"This means no disrespect to the special trustee, Dianne Turner. But we want our voices heard as Vancouverites."

The students say they want Education Minister Mike Bernier to reinstate the school board trustees who were fired, or hold an election for a new set of trustees.

"We want the province and the VSB to work alongside each other and for there to be at least some sort of election or byelection," said Wong.

"Some way that the people of Vancouver can have a say on who gets to control school board."

Mostly student-led initiative

Prince of Wales Secondary School student council president Bryan Buraga says the rally was led by students from Killarney and Gladstone Secondary Schools.

"They approached me and my school and told us about this," said Buraga. "We absolutely wanted to get on board, as well as the other 17 student council presidents."

NDP MLA Adrian Dix led an earlier protest against proposed school closures, by helping deliver petitions to B.C. Liberal cabinet office in Vancouver. Those closures have been stopped for now.

Buraga says the rally was mostly a student-led initiative, although Dix did play a small part in organizing it.

"We did 95 per cent of the work," said Buraga. "He really just helped us get the media out and just get our actual message amplified."