Yukon government says it's implemented plan for safer schools

The Yukon government says it has checked every box on its 23-point plan to make the territory's schools safer places for kids.

Advocates say the government's work isn't finished.

The government launched the Safer Schools Action Plan in February 2022. It consists of 23 changes, most of which apply to the education department, but also to the justice department, Public Service Commission and Executive Council Office.

'What was really important to me going through this [was] that we make sure that this isn't just a exercise that doesn't get put into action," said Education Minister Jeanie McLean. 

Many action items in the plan involve improving communications within and between government departments, particularly during serious incidents. Others involve training for school principals or senior civil servants.

Given that botched communication between and within government departments, not to mention with parents and the wider public, was a major problem identified in two separate reports about the handling of sexual abuse allegations at Whitehorse's Hidden Valley Elementary school, it's perhaps no surprise that changes to communication protocols top the list of changes.

"The document provides guidance on who to communicate with, what to include, and how to say it for a range of incidents for minor or critical," McLean said.

Follow-through is key, advocates say

The territory's child and youth advocate, Annette King, and the head of the Yukon's main teachers union, Ted Hupe, both said the plan contains positive steps. But they warned the government cannot consider its job done.

Hupe, president of the Yukon Association of Education Professionals, said the rules around notifying department officials, school staff and parents are already working. And he praised new training programs for staff on how to identify students who may have been harmed at school or predatory behaviour among adults in schools.

But he said the education department needs to ensure it extends that training to other adults who work in schools, such as volunteers and coaches, as well as new staff, who arrive in significant numbers every year, thanks to high turnover among teachers and other school workers.

"Anyone that has contact with students in a school setting needs to have [the training]," Hupe said. "In fact, bottom line, must have it, and we've had a few people last year that I became aware of that didn't take it for a variety of reasons, but there should not be any exceptions."

Hupe and King also said they were concerned about "silos" between government departments listed in the action plan: education, justice, health and social services and the executive council office.

"The silos are part of the harm," King said. Kids who are harmed at school still aren't getting coordinated help from the government in too many cases, she added.

"I'm oscillating between frustrated and optimistic because I do feel like I've said the word 'collaboration' way too many times and I'm still not quite seeing it, but optimistic that I feel like we're being heard now and that and that there is going to be more movement," she said. 

McLean, the education minister, said she does not intend to stop with the Safer Schools Action Plan. For example, more work on inclusive education for students with special needs is coming.

"[We're] really digging deep into our education system to make some very long overdue systemic changes," McLean said.