Vaping suspensions up for teen girls
Glenrosa Middle, once a leader for school suspensions, seems to have cut the number way down
A rising number of teenage girls are being suspended from Central Okanagan schools for vaping, trustees will hear Wednesday.
Seventeen per cent of all suspensions for girls and teens in the 2019-20 school year were for smoking, a category that includes vaping, district records show.
That was the third most common reason for suspensions, after bad behaviour (22%) and truancy (21%).
"The change that is evident in the data for 2019-2020 is the increased number of female students suspended for smoking," reads a report to trustees.
“The increase in vaping amongst school-aged students is a concern for school districts in many areas across the country and is being monitored and addressed both provincially and federally through health authorities,” the report states.
The four most common reasons boys and male teens were suspended were bad behaviour (38%), fighting (17%), drug use (11%) and smoking (10%).
Records show “a notable decrease” in the total number of definite suspensions, those given for a specified number of days, to 945 in the last full school year from 1,161 in the 201819.
However, as the report notes, classes were suspended for all of April and May in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and reopened only on a limited basis in June.
Males accounted for three-quarters of all suspensions in the 2019-20 school year.
Over time, there's been a decline in the number of students suspended from Kelowna-area schools. In 2003-04, 9% of students were suspended; that has fallen to just over 4%.
Reasons for the decline include such things as the “effectiveness of school-based mental health clinicians,” drug and alcohol intervention programs, and better counselling and emotional support programs, the report states.
The most suspensions last year were handed out at KLO Middle School (106), Kelowna Secondary School (103), Mount Boucherie Secondary (99), and Rutland Senior Secondary and Dr. Knox Middle School (both 84).
Glenrosa Middle School, which during the 2018-19 school year had more than twice as many student suspensions as another school (217), saw its number of suspensions drop last year to 78.
Public access to a new winery made to look as if it’s hundreds of years old will be from downtown Westbank rather than a waterfront neighbourhood.
Owners of the Crown and Thieves, a winery designed to resemble an ancient ruin, say legal access to the distinctive property has now been secured off Brown Road.
When West Kelowna city council first considered the proposal in early January, there was concern the new winery would generate too much additional traffic on Harding Road, a cul-de-sac on a ridge overlooking Gellatly Bay. The matter was deferred.
The new winery has joint ownership with Truck 59 Ciderhouse, off Brown Road. An easement has been registered so all public access to the new winery will be from the cidery, though some staff access will still be through Harding Road.
The winery has been open for several weeks, with customers able to buy product on-site. The matter at hand for city council’s consideration at a meeting today is endorsement of a lounge and special event liquor licence that will allow it to function in a way similar to other wineries.
Now that the access issue is resolved, municipal planners recommend council support the licence request, though a final decision is up to the provincial government.
Features of the Crown and Thieves winery include a 35-foot-tall facade, facing toward Okanagan Lake, that is supposed to look like the remains of a wall built in the 1600s. There’s also a 1,200-square-foot tasting room, rooftop deck, and a basement to be used a future speakeasy.
“It’s going to be a really weird winery that looks really old,” project spokesman Jason Parkes says in a Facebook video promoting the offbeat project.
The winery will have capacity for 146 people, including staff, with hours of operation between 10 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.
Osoyoos Mayor Sue McKortoff was re-elected as chairwoman of the Okanagan Basin Water Board.
Peachland Mayor Cindy Fortin will again be the vice-chair.
Both have been in the roles for two years.
Also returning to the board are Victor Cumming, Rick Fairbairn and Bob Fleming from the North Okanagan; mayors James Baker and Colin Basran from the Central Okanagan, and Doug Holmes and Rick Knodel from the South Okanagan.
Westbank First Nation Chief Chris Derickson represents the
Okanagan Nation Alliance on the board.