Constant Lake First Nation school responds to student arrest and subsequent protest

Mamawmatawa Holistic Education Centre (MHEC) of Constance Lake First Nation has addressed some of the concerns made by local organization, Parental Involvement Committee (PIC), regarding the arrest of a student on school grounds.
Following a lock-down at the school resulting from threats made against a teacher by a 14-year-old student at MHEC, PIC held a protest of the school’s actions on May 7.
The protest was followed by a meeting at the Constance Lake community hall instigated by Chief Roger Wesley. School representatives and other community members attended the meeting.
According to Constance Lake education administrator Ken Neegan, Principal Zandra Bear-Lowen and other staff members have been trained to handle almost any situation, including lock-down scenarios, as best as possible, and were merely following standard procedure when authorities were contacted.
“It’s not as if we don’t care about our students,” Neegan said. “Safety of everybody is always top priority. In this particular situation, the student had threatened to shoot a teacher and police were consequently informed. If we erred, we erred on the side of safety.
Any alternatives to a lock-down could have potentially worsened an already bad situation.”
On May 1 at about 1:15 p.m., police were contacted by MHEC in Constance Lake regarding a threat complaint. Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service being unavailable at the time, the Ontario Provincial Police were first to respond. With the school in lock-down, police investigation resulted in a 14-year-old student being arrested and brought to bail-court in Cochrane on May 2. The student was bailed out by family and released on May 3.
In a press release sent out after the incident, “Residential School Operating in Constance Lake First Nation,” the PIC stated that “Too many unanswered letters, emails, telephone messages, and promises plague the relationship between parents and the school administration.
The most recent incident of a school lock-down is testament to the poor planning, and a one-sided sensationalist reaction involving a special education student in a time of crisis.”
The PIC-led protest involving parents and students took place early in the morning of May 7 at the junction of Highway 663 and Roger’s Road, with the intention of preventing any non-Aboriginal school staff members from entering the First Nation.
“It’s not about prejudice,” stated Michelle Frost of the PIC. “The protest was there to serve as a medium for what our organization ultimately stands for, one of the many issues (other than communication problems between parents and the school) being the hiring of non-Aboriginal teachers over similarly qualified Native ones who can potentially better relate to First Nation students.”
Chief Roger Wesley and other band office staff members also attended and viewed the protest from a distance. In an effort to lessen tension and instigate a potential discussion, Wesley spoke with Frost after the first hour and arranged the community hall meeting for later that evening, where both sides of the argument could communicate in a structured manner.
Frost took the opportunity at the protest to present the chief with highlighted sections of Ontario’s School Lock-Down Procedure, claiming that a crisis coordinator or mental health specialist should have been contacted first and foremost due to the student’s known history.
Neegan noted that threats made by students at school can not be tolerated.
“As with many students, it’s impossible to know what threats to take seriously,” Neegan said. “Obviously, none can be tolerated. After the incident it was out of our hands and had become mainly a police matter. Honestly, the situation is quite straightforward.”
And though the PIC agreed to attend the community hall at the chief’s request, they left many of their protest signs intact and still hanging at Roger’s Road.
The signs were torn down shortly after.
Any progress made as a result of that meeting will likely be newsworthy, but for now, it would seem the matter is not yet settled.