KAWARTHA LAKES-Trillium Lakelands District School Board (TLDSB) recently announced an $8 million surplus for the 2023-2024 school year yet some workers say extreme underfunding and understaffing has created an “unsafe learning environment plagued with violence for students and staff”.
“The school board is boasting an $8 million surplus, but at what expense?” says William Campbell, president of CUPE 997. “Our staff are struggling with burnout and exhaustion and are afraid to come to work every day for fear of being hurt. With that in mind, why is the TLDSB not spending the funding it has received in order to keep our students and staff safe at school and work? While chronic underfunding by the Ford government leads to extreme understaffing, the TLDSB must spend the funding it does receive. It’s not fair to our students and it’s not fair to workers. Our students deserve to be able to learn in a safe environment.”
A Kawartha 411 News investigation in November found some parents have also been sounding the alarm.
Mike Smith’s (name changed to protect identity of the minor child)eight year old son attends Fenelon Township Public School in Cameron. Smith says in September his son was dragged into a ditch, behind some bushes on the outskirts of school grounds and held against his will by two 10-year-old boys.
“They grabbed my son from behind, and dragged him. These boys had prepared in advance, they had sharp sticks waiting there. They put the sharp stick to my sons neck and wouldn’t let him leave.”
Smith says one of the boys then dragged a little girl into the ditch and tried to force the two of them perform inappropriate acts on each other. Smith’s son and the girl were able to get away after the bell rang and distracted one of the boys.
“It makes me feel sick to my stomach that this is the type of care that parents are entrusting their minors to. It makes me feel unsafe to send our kids into the public school system to the point where we are thinking about pulling him.”
Read the full story here: https://www.kawartha411.ca/2024/11/13/parents-concerned-about-the-safety-of-their-kids-at-some-local-schools/
Sources told Kawartha 411 News that this isn’t the first time one of the same boys has been involved in a similar incident.
Another parent reached out to us after this story was first published and said her son, who was in Junior Kindergarten at the time, was also abused in a similar incident in the washroom at the school a few years ago. She says she told the principal, the board, police and CAS and nothing was done. She has spent years advocating for change and her son has spent years in counselling according to the mom.
We have had unconfirmed reports of similar incidents at other schools.
CUPE 997, which represents workers across all Trillium Lakelands schools, is calling on the school board to heavily invest in hiring more staff across the Kawartha Lakes, Haliburton County and Muskoka areas to combat the long-term understaffing, widespread burnout, job cuts and the decline in student experience and safety due to worsened student-to-worker ratios.
CUPE 997 represents over 800 members across 56 TLDSB schools who work as Educational Assistants, clerical staff, and maintenance, custodial and technical staff.
A survey conducted by CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) revealed that more than three-quarters of TLDSB workers say there is a violent incident at least once a month at their workplace, and one-third of respondents say a violent incident occurs at their workplace every day.
Eighty-four percent of TLDSB workers who responded to the survey believe there must be an increase in staff to meet the needs of students to create a healthy, safe and manageable work environment and provide adequate supports to TLDSB students.
“Our schools face serious challenges today,” says Joe Tigani, president of OSBCU. “Incidents of violence and injuries affecting staff are increasing, highlighting a critical issue: lack of adequate funding in Ontario’s education system. Every worker deserves a safe environment. Educators and school staff should be able to come to work without fear of violence or injury, and students deserve safe learning environments, free from exposure to violence. Schools should be spaces where students feel secure and supported.”
According to the union, the TLDSB has consistently received less funding by the Ontario government year over year, with real-pupil funding (adjusted for inflation and enrolment growth) cut by $1569 between 2012 and 2025 per student. Had this funding kept up with inflation, the school board would have received an additional $27.3 million from the government in the 2024-2025 school year alone and could have hired an additional 365 full-time education workers according to the union.
We reached out to officials at TLDSB with some questions but did not receive a response.
