'We want to be heard': Northern Sask. students protest loss of extracurriculars

Students in Cumberland House Cree Nation held a rally on April 10 to bring awareness to how the dis‐ pute between teachers and the provincial government has been affecting them.

The Saskatchewan Teach‐ ers' Federation (STF) and the provincial government have been at a bargaining impasse on a new teachers' contract for months. The main stick‐ ing point is whether issues of class size and complexity should be included in the contract. Teachers say they should, while the province is adamant those things should be dealt with by school divi‐ sions.

This week, teachers provincewide started workto-rule job action, meaning they're not volunteering their time for lunchtime or recess supervision, or to facilitate any extracurricular activities.

Raven Chaboyer, a Grade 11 student at Ministik Com‐ munity School in Cumber‐ land House, said they have been without extracurricular activities for a month and that extras like sports have been removed from the daily agenda.

"Extracurricular was basi‐ cally all there really was," she said. "Now, without the ex‐ tracurriculars, kids are stay‐ ing home, they aren't running around as much as they used to."

Chaboyer said the com‐ munity has a basketball court and a football field where youth used to go meet and play.

The school would allow the youth to borrow basket‐ balls and footballs, but since the job action kids haven't been able to get that sports equipment.

"Our school has always been a very athletic school," she said.

Chaboyer said some stu‐ dents use school and sports as a way to escape from their home life, and feel hopeless without the extracurricular activities.

"I'm hoping that they see that we are serious about this and that we want change," she said. "We want to be noticed, we want to be heard, and we want our [ex‐ tra]curricular's back."

Chaboyer said she feels that voices from the north of‐ ten go unheard.

"I figured if I was able to even make one person listen,

that would be enough for me."

An independent school division

Timothy Biggins, vice-princi‐ pal of Chief Napew Memorial

School in Big Island Cree na‐ tion, said he is thankful his school operates indepen‐ dently.

Chief Napew's teachers are not part of the STF. Be‐ cause of this, they are still of‐ fering extracurricular activi‐ ties, sports and recreational events for students.

"The school is kind of the hub for those," said Biggins.

He said extracurricular ac‐ tivities are important to stu‐ dents in northern communi‐ ties, because there's not much for young people to do outside of school hours.

"It's that physical outlet that allows them to have good sleep, to get good rou‐ tines, to have the discipline that's required for sports and the chance to explore out‐ side of the community which often sports leads to."

Biggins said if his students did not have access to extra activities and sports, it would be catastrophic.

"You would see youth en‐ rolment in school decline. You would see the mental health of our students de‐ cline," he said. "When stu‐ dents have sports they learn to work as a team, and it builds self-esteem and gives youth the confidence they need."