Restricted access to sport: Drainville asks a Charlevoix school to step back

The Minister of Education asks the Plateau secondary school, in La Malbaie, to review its decision to prohibit access to a sports or artistic concentration for students in 4^e et 5^e secondary school students enrolled in a science course.

The minister’s exit comes a few hours after parents of students filed complaints at the Charlevoix School Service Center to contest this decision approved the day before by the governing board.

Concerning the situation at the Plateau school, as soon as we learned of this decision, the minister immediately requested clarification in order to understand the decision of the school and the governing boardexplains his attaché, Antoine de la Durantaye.

The management would cite in particular difficult logistics in the timetables and an increase in the number of students registered to justify the change. She did not respond to our interview requests at the time of writing.

The news was first reported last week in local media, including The Charlevoisian and CIHO FM Charlevoix.

The minister therefore formally asks the Charlevoix CSS and the governing board to review the decision and make a proposal that will achieve greater consensus.

Despite the decision taken by the governing board yesterday, in light of the dissatisfaction that it raises, it is their responsibility to question this proposal and redo their work. The minister will continue to monitor the situation closelyhe adds.

Misunderstanding and frustration

This decision has sowed incomprehension among many young people and their parents. The mother of two students who study at the Plateau school, Isabelle Théroux, filed two complaints with the Charlevoix School Service Center in connection with the decision.

According to her, these children were challenged by the decision of the governing board. At first [mes enfants] were rather indignant. Following the meeting yesterday, after all the argument they heard, it proved to them that he was not the only one to think that. I would tell you that last night, it was more rage that I had at homeexplains the mother.

The kids weren’t happy and almost forced me to push more, and I understand them. We will try to mix this up as much as possible to hope that the council reverses their decision and returns to working on other solutions.

The School Service Center has 15 working days to examine the complaint.

Parents also challenged the CAQ MP for Charlevoix-Côte-de-Beaupré, Karianne Bourassa, with the aim of overturning the decision, assures Ms. Théroux.

The president resigns

The president of the governing board, Isabelle Bolduc, resigned following a close vote of 9 to 8 Monday evening. She describes the decision as harmful for the success of young people starting next year.

For me, it’s a conflict of values. For me, the students’ interest, that they can surpass themselves in their sport, is motivation. It’s a balance and it’s students who do well in school.

According to her, students are too young to make a choice between sports and concentration programs. At 14, 15, 16 years old, they are not ready to make their choice for their future. They want to open several doors for themselves, especially if they do well in schoolshe explains. We tell them: if you want to go to programs with strong science and math, you can no longer do your sport.she laments.

Logistics challenge

In a letter sent to parents, management explains that The proposal is the result of work carried out by a committee made up of staff and management, which met every two weeks throughout the fall. It was presented to all teaching staff last December. A majority of them expressed themselves in favor of this proposal.

A petition against this proposal has collected more than 1,000 signatures so far.

Plateau Secondary School has approximately 650 students. It offers different sports and artistic concentrations, including volleyball, hockey, soccer, ski-golf, music, visual arts and cheerleading.