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Rainbow Schools Asked to Avoid Cooperation with CAS

March 6, 2012 permalink

Canada Court Watch has addressed a letter to the Rainbow District School Board (Sudbury) to suggest that they avoid adopting a policy of cooperation with the children's aid society.

Canada Court Watch letter to Rainbow District School Board re Children's Aid Society

(March 6, 2012) On Monday March 5, 2012, Canada Court Watch learned that the Rainbow District School Board was looking into strengthening policies which would have school officials "co-operate" with Children's Aid Workers.

In response, Canada Court Watch has sent a letter to the Board outlining some of the reasons why the Board of Directors must exercise due diligence to inform themselves about the risks associated with working cooperatively with CAS agencies.

Source: Canada Court Watch

Here is the letter:

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Canada Court Watch
Box 61027 Maple Grove Post Office, Oakville, Ontario L6J 7P5
Telephone (416) 410-4115
Website: http://www.canadacourtwatch.com
Email: info@canadacourtwatch.com

March 6, 2012

Rainbow District School Board
69 Young Street
Sudbury, Ontario
P3E 3G5
Tel: 705.674.3171
Toll Free: 1.888.421.2661
Fax: 705-674-3167
Email: eganm@rainbowdistrictschools.ca

Attn: Board of Directors

Dear Members of the Board

RE: School Policy OP.2.12 SAFE SCHOOLS

Yesterday, it came to the attention of Canada Court Watch that members of the Board of Directors are scheduled to discuss changes to or the development of a school policy which will require that the Board and its employees “cooperate” with the Children’s Aid Society.

The term, “cooperate” is a very vague and misleading term which if adopted in school policy will likely result in major problems for the Board. Potentially this could cause the Board to be the subject of multiple lawsuits by parents and their children.

The term “cooperate” has in the past been adopted in other school jurisdictions with tragic results. Children have been tragically harmed and criminal laws violated by school officials who believed at the time that they were doing the right thing by “cooperating” with the Children’s Aid Society as outlined in their school policies. In fact, there is currently a multi-million dollar lawsuit against one school board and a principal for working in “cooperation” with unregistered CAS workers who themselves were unlawfully engaged in the regulated practice of social work. Other lawsuits are in the making.

Another fact that many school boards are unaware of is that most Children’s Aid Society workers in the province of Ontario are working unlawfully by engaging in the regulated practice of social work without being registered with the Ontario College of Social workers as required under the Social Work and Social Services Work Act (1998). Most CAS workers in your school are breaking the law. The Board of Education would not hire teachers unless the teachers are properly registered with the Ontario Teacher’s College, so why would the Board of Education consider adopting a policy which would require its employees to “cooperate” with CAS workers who themselves are breaking the law?

Canada Court Watch has been working for years with children and families who have been adversely affected by Children’s Aid Societies in Ontario going into schools and unlawfully interrogating children and unlawfully obtaining information from school officials who were under the belief that they must “cooperate” with the local Children’s Aid Society. One of the many tragic testimonials from children that our organization has videotaped can be viewed on our video website at:

http://vimeo.com/5023797

Members of the public do not support Children’s Aid Societies being involved in schools. In fact, our organization along with other organizations in Ontario have collected thousands of signatures which specifically petition the Ontario government to get CAS agencies out of the schools in Ontario. A small sampling of some of these signatures can be viewed on page 145-148 of the document about schools and the CAS which is can be downloaded on line at:

http://www.canadacourtwatch.com/files/all/Schools_and_CAS_For_School_Officials.pdf

Because Canada Court Watch only found out about this issue yesterday, it was not possible for us to provide members of the Board with all the information which we feel can properly inform the Board members of the significant dangers of “cooperating” with the Children’s Aid Society which is not part of the government and a private not-for-profit corporation which obtains funding from the Ontario government.

At this time we would simply urge the Board to defer any issue involving “cooperating” with the Children’s Aid Society and to not adopt any policy which would involve “cooperation” with Children’s Aid Society workers until full consultation with parents and community groups such as ours has been completed. The Board must exercise due diligence to ensure that it has properly informed itself of the issues.

Our organization has years of experience on this issue and to better inform the Board, our organization would be willing to make a formal presentation to the Board at one of its regularly scheduled meetings or at special meeting. We can arrange to have other community groups and parents with children in your school district to attend as well.

In the meantime, we would ask that member of the Board better inform themselves about this issue by reviewing the attached document, “Questions and answers for school officials” which provides information which school officials should know about CAS. This document has been published on line for over a year now and to date has not been disputed by any CAS agency, school board, law enforcement officials or government agency. This document can be downloaded at the following link:

http://www.canadacourtwatch.com/files/all/Q-A_for_school_officials-CAS.pdf

If any member of the Board has any questions they would like answered immediately, I can be reached personally at 905-829-0407. Canada Court Watch would welcome the opportunity to address the Board of the Whole at some time in the near future.

Yours truly

CANADA COURT WATCH

Vernon Beck
Child and Family Advocate

Source: Canada Court Watch
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