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Post by Dave on Oct 23, 2018 22:59:57 GMT
How has the Jeremiah Perry drowning impacted on paddling activities in your school board, if you're a teacher.
On the other hand if you're not in the school system, how would you compare your paddling activities this year with former years?
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Post by John Burton on Oct 24, 2018 0:51:40 GMT
Paddling activities in the Bluewater School Board are still allowed and getting approved from the school board. There is more focus on following the OPHEA guidelines. Swimming activities on canoe trips are no longer permitted. However, they are permitted to "wade or bathe" provided they are supervised by an NLS qualified lifeguard, wear their PFDs, can touch the bottom, and there must be daylight. As long as this happens and they have passed their swim test prior to the paddling activity, then students may participate. I am aware of two 5-day canoe trips in Killarney that were permitted to run this fall with more planned in the Spring of 2019. Swim test results must be documented and signed by two teachers and two lifeguards and then presented to the Principal for approval. Parents are then contacted if their son or daughter is deemed a "weak or non-swimmer".
An issue is coming up now as a result of the drowning and the teacher being charged. OSSTF has recommended that retired teachers who still supply teach and offer to go along on paddling trips as volunteers will not be covered by OSSTF if any legal issue arises while on a school paddling trip. They feel that the school board should be paying a retired teacher who is offering their services on a field trip and because they are being paid, then OSSTF obligated to protect them. I was told that unless you are being paid, then no "contract" exists between you and the board and therefore you have no legal protection as a volunteer. The legal costs to represent the TDSB teacher will be considerable and without OSSTF, these costs would be paid by the retired teacher as the school board would not cover them as it would be a conflict of interest. The advice of OSSTF for former teachers is to not put yourself in that situation unless the board pays for your services and then your legal costs would be covered. OSSTF did feel volunteers would be covered for liability through the school board's insurance policy.
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Brad Ellis, Barrie, ON
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Post by Brad Ellis, Barrie, ON on Oct 24, 2018 2:21:31 GMT
Hey y'all, just a quick update from our Canoe Club at Barrie North Collegiate in Barrie ON. We did manage to have our Fall Canoe Trip. We did four days into McCrae Lake in Muskoka. It nearly didn't happen as our board now requires our NLS person to be 18 or older and not currently be enrolled as a student in our board. This person is just to make the trip a go and it would require two such people if we wanted to actually have students swim. As this adult, who holds their NLS, had to take time off work we agreed to pay them for their services. This cost was passed on to students. We raised our trip cost from $130 to $150 per student. This covers food, supply teachers, busing, fuel and now an NLS qualified adult. We don't need to rent any equipment and we only use crown land camping. Our trips routinely sell out at 32 students. This time we even had a wait list so we had some disappointed students not able to attend. This is our 14th year running trips and we always (so far) have a spring and a fall trip. We did a few 3 day trips in the early days but it is just too much effort and work for such a short period of time. Especially if the middle day has bad weather. We have also run a few grade 12 graduates only trips in the spring if there is a very keen dedicated group. We usually also have at least one or 2 day trips for students to try it out or to learn and prove their paddle strokes. One of our favourite places to go is to Big Chute and ride the Marine Railway. We have lots of great paddling opportunities that are less than 90 minutes from us here in Barrie.
I'd love to share (and learn about) some other places with other groups if there is any interest out there.
Thanks for reading,
Brad Ellis
Barrie North Collegiate,
Barrie, ON
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Post by graham on Oct 24, 2018 18:50:11 GMT
reports from discussion with Colin at Town of Petawawa:
"We have had MAJOR issues trying to get our local schools to take part in our FREE paddling programs due to the school drowning occurred in Algonquin Park, therefore making any water based activity a no go".
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