Cancelling school sports teams, scuttling entire leagues and calling off provincial championships is a last-resort, work-to-rule move for many teachers fed up with classroom conditions, stripped bargaining rights and what they say is punitive, detrimental legislation.
The action is one David Thompson secondary school athletic director Frank Leong felt was necessary although it means forgoing the rewards of coaching.
He said its his only stand. Ive been doing athletics for 36 years and unfortunately there was nothing left for teachers to do to put any type of pressure on the government. There is nothing left, we have no pull in any other area, he said Wednesday after B.C. School Sports announced the cancellation of the provincial golf championships.
It hurts me every time this happens. Every strike that weve ever had, its always come down to the withdrawal of extracurriculars, and, unfortunately, there may be a bigger picture. The B.C. [Teachers Federation] has to find some other ways to put pressure on the government rather than pulling extracurriculars.
Leong said he spoke with all of his schools coaches and by Monday each one said they would not coach this spring. This included Leong, who coaches the schools golf team. I respect their decision and, basically, its sad that it had to happen.
A librarian teacher at Prince of Wales, Virginia Lam was among a number of Vancouver teachers who each independently withdrew their sponsorship of their schools golf team this week. A retired teacher who volunteered with the Walesmen did the same and the program folded with news the B.C. championship was called off.
Weve been around this circle many times and the fight has nothing to do with athletics, said Lam, pointing instead to class size and composition. She said its unfortunate that extracurriculars such as teams and clubs are cancelled, but she reasoned, They get pulled into it because it seems to be an issue that brings attention to the volunteer nature of the job that we do and the other goods that we do that people do not seem to value until its withdrawn.
Following job action earlier in the decade, Leong said a small number of Vancouver schools never recovered and couldnt rebuild the vibrant sports culture that existed previously. Moreover, teachers were divided amongst themselves.
Every school is different. At some schools, theyve had meetings and theyve decided if the vote goes this way, theyre going to decide if they pull out together. Some schools have decided theyll keep it as a personal decision.
If politics pollute professional and personal relationships within the school workplace, the consequences can be dire. Leongs forecast was grim.
In past years, the year after a strike, you see the bitching and the snide remarks and people who wont get involved next year. Some schools have never recovered. Theyve never come back, teachers did not come back and their schools are dying. I call it a dying school, he said.
You know probably as well as I do that what makes the schools is the extracurriculars: the band, the music, the trips, the kids all remember that. Thats when the staff gets to know the kids, and the kids see another side of that teacher who is their coach.
Through the years that Ive taught, I can see it changing. I predict, this is my prediction, that high school athletics will die. Its going to go the way of the United States where they have to hire coaches and its going to be the community that will have to supply all the coaching and schools are just going to be a place of education where the students come and learn and they leave at three oclock.
Along with DT, Windermere and U-Hill secondary schools have cancelled all school sports teams.
Twitter: @MHStewart
