Dozens of Brooklin High School students walked out of class last week in protest against the school\u2019s decision to cancel prom. <\/p>\n
Students in Whitby, Ont., walked out of class Monday to protest a recent decision by administrators at three schools in Durham Region to cancel prom.<\/p>\n
In a letter to Grade 12 families of Brooklin, Brock, and Uxbridge high schools dated Oct. 3, the principals wrote that the choice to axe the event was made due to the \u201cgrowing expectations, liabilities, and risks\u201d connected to hosting it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeginning this year, our school will be moving away from organizing a formal prom,\u201d the letter, which surfaced online, reads in part.<\/p>\n
The decision blindsided Brooklin High School students Amelia Gatti and Lauren Robertson, who organized the walkout and spoke to CTV\u2019s Your Morning on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole thing came very unexpectedly on a Friday at four (p.m.) with no real reasoning behind it,\u201d Gatti said. \u201cI mean, we haven\u2019t really had an incident that could suggest this outcome for our prom event to be paused or cancelled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t much like explanation to it,\u201d added Robertson, who noted that her family has since launched a petition to reverse the schools\u2019 decision, which she said has amassed 2,700 signatures at time of writing.<\/p>\n
\u201cProm was taken away from us, right? At some point, it was gone, and we thought that it wasn\u2019t going to happen again, until people stepped up. I feel like we deserve to be compensated for that, and in return, have a prom that we\u2019ll never forget,\u201d Gatti said.<\/p>\n
The schools said that while their \u201creimagining\u201d of end-of-year celebrations may be \u201cdisappointing for some and welcomed by others,\u201d they underscored that communities are free to organize their own celebrations.<\/p>\n
Board asks schools to \u2018pause\u2019 prom cancellation decision<\/p>\n
In a statement to CTV News Toronto, the Durham District School Board, of which Brooklin, Brock, and Uxbridge high schools are a part, said it has asked the schools to \u201cpause\u201d the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support change but have asked these schools to pause and to schedule opportunities to sit down with students and staff to understand the concerns and to explore meaningful alternatives or adjustments that reflect our shared values and priorities,\u201d a spokesperson said in an email.<\/p>\n
The board went on to say that it wants to \u201censure\u201d that student voices are heard and that the \u201cspirit of celebration and recognition remains at the heart of these occasions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board did not say whether or not the schools had responded to its request.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear when exactly students will have an opportunity to voice their concerns directly with their school administrators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of Brooklin High School students walked out of class last week in protest against the school\u2019s decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-195534","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}