The Rocky Mountain School District (SD5) welcomes the B.C. Government’s Safe Access to Schools Act but hopes it never needs to be used.
The act gives the provincial government the power to stop people from interfering with safe access to school grounds.
This could include actions such as yelling that disrupts school activities or “holding signs with slogans that cause concern for the safety of students and staff.”
Jason Tichauer, SD5 Director of Student Learning hopes the school does not have to make use of this law.
“We fully acknowledge and support freedom of expression and people’s rights to peaceful assembly, but we hope our schools will not be the sites of those protests,” said Tichauer.
The B.C. government passed the legislation in response to 20 schools across the province being targeted by protestors since the start of the school year.
Tichauer said it has not been an issue for SD5 yet.
“I can’t recall an incident at any of our school sites that would have made us need this access zone legislation,” said Tichauer.
“We had one peaceful protest outside of our school district office, but it was across the road so it would fall outside of the 20-metre boundary.”
The safe zones will be in place at K-12 schools, and police can arrest or give tickets to anyone found impeding access, disrupting or interfering with school activities, or attempting to intimidate someone within 20 metres (66 feet) of school property.
The legislation will apply from 7 a.m. until 6 p.m. on school days and during extracurricular activities.
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