No surprise to me.  Look at what just happened in Toronto—a student who mentioned during an assembly that he was disappointed that teachers were not interested in coaching etc the school soccer team was suspended for two days; yet sexual assults in hallways, bullying, drug dealing don’t get dealt with.  Why?  because it’s against students, but once the slightest implication against any educrat is uttered the student suspended immediately.  I can’t believe what an unhealthy environment our children are in nowadays.

No surprise to me either. Volunteers within the public education system, are carefully selected to attend to the overall goals of the schools, unions and the education policies such as the equity policies. One could not have a parent, who has not brought the package of equity, and other such policies within the school. Questioning the school, is something a volunteer should never do, because sooner rather than later, the volunteer will be pushed out and replaced with another.

Of course the unions find volunteers as being a threat. In the article, ” “I guess the anger that I feel about it is, even though the union has contractual rights to what goes on, they don’t have the right to abridge my rights as a parent, volunteer, and taxpayer.” Lynn King, another parent and manager of the volunteer program, is more diplomatic: “Schools are losing personnel because of budgetary cutbacks, kids are being underserved by these budgetary cutbacks, so we are trying to do what we can.” Volunteers are continuing to work until the parties in Petaluma can work out an agreement of some kind, though it’s not clear how they will—especially when Kruusmagi says flatly, “They are not going to have volunteers at all.”

The same thing is happening across Canada. It does not matter what the volunteer activity is at the school level, if it crosses over to paid activities, the volunteer can forget about it. So the flapping shingle on a roof can stay flapping, or the furnace that requires a rather easy fix, can stay until union help is on the way, or the school’s Internet is updated whenever the paid staff gets around to it. Schools do not make good use of the abilities, skills and talents of parents who would be willing to volunteer, even if it was repairing the flapping shingle on the roof..

It is not only happening in education, but in other fields where volunteers are present. Here is a short study for hospital libraries and the use of volunteers.
The reasons of not using volunteers are:

“Reasons for not using volunteers
Managers not using volunteers confirmed 7 reasons identified in previous public library studies [3, 4]. The most cited reason for not using volunteers was a limited amount of staff time to devote to supervising volunteers. An objection from unions was the next most common reason. A lack of volunteers and prior difficulties with volunteers were each selected as reasons by 25% of respondents. Twenty-one percent of respondents reported that they did not use volunteers because of a lack of work to perform. Seven percent of respondents indicated they did not use volunteers because of resistance from library staff. An additional 7% of respondents indicated there was no particular reason why volunteers were no longer being used.Twenty-two percent of respondents provided six other reasons for not using volunteers. Three reasons were identified by hospital library managers that were not previously cited in public library studies: that volunteers were computer illiterate, were too sociable, and lacked an understanding of the urgency of clinical requests.”
http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles/PMC1082943;jsessionid=F94337B28E0798D2988E51621E27CD84.jvm4

Other articles and studies, have shown objections from unions as being one of the top two reasons for not using volunteers.

The only volunteer positions at my local area, are positions such as Christmas decorating, field trips, and other positions that are clearly define, and all volunteers must have a criminal check. As a result, there is not many parent volunteers eager to help out, especially in coaching. Not too many parents eager to drive the kids either, because of insurance issues, that will increase the insurance premiums. I might add here, the release of the insurance information to the prying eyes of the school, to prove that the liability is covered, I would love to have the same right, in looking at the insurance of schools, and what is covered or not covered. And there is no volunteer positions for parents in areas of tutoring or reading remediation, unless one has the teacher’s certificate.

Parent Volunteers Resent “SCAB” Label

That was the front page headline that screamed across the page of our local newspaper, the North Shore News, Jan 5, 1983.

I was a parent of a high school student.  Parents had been active volunteers in the school for years.

However, since teacher aides were laid off, the volunteer services of parents were to cease as well.  The story by Bill Bell continues:

“ ‘Union intimidation’ is keeping parents from volunteering their services in West Vancouver’s schools, claim representatives of the Hillside Parents Group.  Co-chairpersons Tunya Audain and Suzanne Latta have told the school board that since the teaching aides were laid off last September, parents have not been allowed to volunteer in areas where they were normally welcomed…..

“Audain later told the News that her group had been sent a letter from the West Vancouver Municipal Employees Association which she said gave her a very quick ‘political lesson’ in how ‘rough’ unions can be…..Audain pointed out that the parents did not want to replace the teaching aides but only wanted to continue in the volunteer positions held before the aides were laid off. She told the News she resented the parents being labeled ‘scabs’ for doing volunteer tasks.

“Our first concern is the students, the union is way down the list,” Latta said….

“Newly elected school board chairman, Norm Alban, refused to comment on the situation, fearing that the confrontation could escalate.”

Furthermore, we as a parents group deplored that school hallways had litter on the floors.  We suggested that students should pick up after themselves, but again we were chastised that this would interfere with the work of janitors.

The usual excuse by the principal was “My hands are tied.”  How many times have we heard that?

O/T - but here’s how Ontario’s “education” Premier is spending our taxdollars.  http://www.onzone.ca/