Woman disputes ticket for insulting students
Silke Schulze apologized for her racist insults outside Oliver school, but is now challenging the $2,300 fine she received
A woman who was fined earlier this year after getting into a verbal confrontation with students outside an Oliver high school now intends to dispute the ticket.
Silke Schulze was fined $2,300 under the provincial Access to Services Act for the
Feb. 11 incident near Southern Okanagan Secondary School.
A video clip in which she is seen directing profanity and racial slurs at a student went viral and drew widespread condemnation. The student and others had been counterprotesting against a nearby rally staged to denounce COVID-19 restrictions.
Schulze, who later apologized publicly for her actions, maintained she was at the school to pick up her daughter when the confrontation ensued.
Her apology notwithstanding, Schulze told a Penticton judge on Monday she now intends to dispute the ticket but didn’t offer any details of her defence. Schulze had the matter adjourned to June 15 to schedule a date for a hearing.
Schulze was 15 minutes late arriving at court Monday, which resulted in her initially being convicted of the offence due to her non-appearance.
She claimed she only learned of the hearing Sunday night.
After confirming the notice of hearing went to Schulze’s old address, Judge Greg Koturbash took what he described as the “extraordinary” step of reversing the conviction to spare the court system and everyone involved from a possible appeal.
Just days after the incident, Schulze penned an open letter of apology to the student at the centre of the dispute and the community at large.
“I can not take back the mean and awful things I said to the minors at the school,” she wrote. “I am sick about the whole situation, more sorry than can ever be expressed and the awful impression I gave to the children.”
Schulze, who was born in Germany and moved to Canada at age 6, insists she’s not a racist.
“My intent was never to cause anyone any harm,” she concluded.
Passed into law in November 2021, the Access to Services Act was created in response to anti-vax protests outside schools and health facilities. The act establishes 20metre buffer zones around such sites to ensure public access. The act expires July 1, 2023.