For several months, the media has reported stories of violence in and around schools that send shivers down our spines. School fights have always existed, but the intensity of those reported is unimaginable:
- Attacked a teenager with a hammer;
- A teacher transported by an ambulance, her face bloodied by her attacker… an elementary school student!
- In less than a year, two teenagers, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey and Lucas Gaudet, were stabbed and killed on their school grounds. Both were 16 years old and still had their lives ahead of them.
I have made 72 access information requests to school service centers. The answers I received confirm my fears: violence is clearly increasing. In some places, numbers are increasing from 1 to 2 and even 3 times what they were before the pandemic. Adding to these numbers is violence against school staff. The Journal de Québec revealed that the number of compensation payments to CNESST skyrocketed from 544 to 911 between 2020 and 2021.
What are the causes of this violence?
Pandemic? Isolation? video games? Not having clear answers, I asked a parliamentary commission to look into these crucial issues. On February 23, the CAQ MPs rejected my proposal.
How does the government explain that this important issue is not on the Minister of Education’s priority list?
How is it that, as a member of parliament, I have to submit a request for information in order to receive such important data?
How can we understand that there is no common definition of “act of violence” and that the data – where available – are of variable geometry and assembled in such different ways?
More than a million children attend our schools every day. Thousands of school team members get up every morning to go to work in our schools. We have a duty to protect them and provide them with a non-violent environment.
Terrifying examples
If the numbers don’t speak to you, will the examples speak to you?
In 2021, a teenager asks a friend to bring her parents’ gun. She has a list of people to kill…
In 2022, we find a self-made knife in a student’s backpack, who explains it’s for self-defense…
Also in 2022, a student has his pants pulled down, the suspect takes him from behind as if penetrating him and touches his penis while another films the scene with his cell phone…
The above examples are not fictitious. They all performed in Montérégie schools.
Minister, if you are still not convinced, know that I have also given access to information requests to police forces. I’m starting to get the answers.
In Gatineau, police intervened 121 times between 2018 and 2019 for threats, simple assault, double assault, or assault with a gun. In 2022, this number has risen to 189 interventions.
In Estrie, Memphremagog Police visited schools 69 times in 2019. In 2022, the number of operations rises to 116. The police officers also used one of their many visits to confiscate… a baton!
What are we waiting for to act ?
We all know that a child cannot study on an empty stomach. I repeat to you that no child with fear in the stomach can learn!
Mr. Drainville, violence in our schools is a key issue. And to fully understand it and then deploy the appropriate solutions, a parliamentary commission is urgent and necessary. I stretch out my hand to you. The educational network is reaching out to you. do you accept it
marwah Rizqy, MNA for Saint-Laurent for the Quebec Liberal Party