Juno News - Students taught “safe crack smoking”

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the alberta roundup i'm your host rachel emmanuel i hope that you

00:00:14.840 guys are enjoying your christmas break today we are going to be diving deeper into an issue that

00:00:19.780 we discussed last week in medicine hat school handing out pamphlets on how to use illicit drugs

00:00:26.000 today we are joined by jeff park the executive director of the alberta parents union to discuss

00:00:31.480 what the impact was on students and families we're joined by jeff now hi jeff thanks for joining us

00:00:37.000 today so there was an incident at a medicine hat high school recently where students were given

00:00:42.060 pamphlets on how to use illicit drug substances can you explain what happened here well yeah i a lot of

00:00:51.120 schools bring in these outside groups especially for health type education it's been uh unfortunately

00:00:59.200 an all too common uh exception to the kind of oversight that parents get to have into uh into

00:01:06.920 the kind of information that's coming into school and unfortunately when you start to make exceptions

00:01:11.560 to the where parents get to have oversight such as outside groups coming in and talking about

00:01:17.280 health concerns then uh you can have incidents like this where safe link which um used to be called

00:01:26.540 aids calgary and and started as a safe sex education uh organization uh came into the medicine hat high

00:01:36.580 uh career fair and was and was giving uh giving out pamphlets on uh safe

00:01:46.640 crack smoking safe meth smoking safe cocaine uh consumption of course there is no such thing but

00:01:53.980 for a lot of these organizations they came in from the aids epidemic into teaching six-year-olds about

00:02:01.680 safe sex and there's no such thing as that either so it's a logical it's a logical progression uh that

00:02:08.160 uh unfortunately we've we've we've we've cut out this exception for health education um that is is starting

00:02:16.080 to swallow more and more absurdities uh as we allow these things into schools so you obviously work with

00:02:23.600 parents every day what was the response from your membership to this incident outrage dis disbelief frankly and uh

00:02:34.080 especially as it's revealed uh that our taxpayer dollars paid for this medicine hat taxpayer dollars

00:02:42.240 uh municipal taxpayer dollars uh support safe link for this kind of education city of calgary taxpayer

00:02:50.160 dollars support safe link for this kind of education we just learned that the the province just gave safe

00:02:57.120 link uh 835 000 uh to curb uh to try to help curb the syphilis epidemic in alberta and of course as with any of

00:03:08.320 these organizations that come in with uh these crackpot ideas in this case all too literally uh the uh of

00:03:19.920 course the federal government and health canada is also so at every level our tax dollars are are

00:03:26.160 supporting kids being told insane things and unfortunately we're we're in a situation where

00:03:34.720 people are increasingly less surprised uh not less outraged but less surprised because there's been

00:03:41.360 a complete breakdown of the faith that parents have uh where public schools are supposed to be worthy of

00:03:49.680 the public trust we're supposed to be able to understand that we can maybe not agree with everything

00:03:54.800 but that in general we can they can be a trusted source of information for our children that trust

00:04:00.160 has broken down largely absolutely it is very angering when you think about it from the taxpayers

00:04:05.600 perspective we're the ones who were paying for this to happen now after this incident safelink said you

00:04:11.440 know we weren't actively handing out the pamphlets they were just sort of at the booth at the wellness

00:04:15.600 center that was hosted at the high school and they were removed within an hour of facilitators at the

00:04:21.440 school asking us to remove them sort of to say you know the damage maybe wasn't really that bad what's

00:04:26.320 your response to that well of course the uh the the primary damage um isn't in number of pamphlets handed

00:04:38.880 out or anything like that it is uh in the trust that we believed that we could have uh in these

00:04:46.000 organizations you know they i i read the statements from the principal and the superintendent uh and

00:04:54.560 immediately said they don't get it there there's no there's no reason this won't happen again they're

00:05:01.280 uh they haven't learned their lessons they're they're they're basically defending um the process

00:05:07.440 that they used uh at not the in their case not the outcome in safelink's case they've they've learned

00:05:14.640 nothing grown not at all their their their apology was an apology that parents don't realize that

00:05:21.280 their teens are already using drugs basically uh again it was children as young as 14 years old that

00:05:27.680 uh that were at this fair but but that was their apology that parents don't already know that their

00:05:32.560 teens are using drugs so the the concerning thing is is not what it says about how many kids were exposed

00:05:40.080 to information that might lead to an increased risk of normalization of an increased risk of drug use

00:05:47.040 by claiming that there is such a thing as safe consumption of these uh very unsafe drugs but that

00:05:55.040 um but that the organizations responsible for this have learned nothing uh plan on reforming nothing

00:06:02.160 about their own behavior right so in your instance you're saying you know the damage is already done i've

00:06:08.800 seen sort of an increased or rather decrease in trust in schools across the province public systems

00:06:14.560 for parents who are really just tired of these kind of situations happening what do you tell them when

00:06:18.960 they're looking for their solutions when they say i don't feel that my kids are safe at public school

00:06:23.040 anymore what would your response be to a parent with that concern there are a couple couple of levels uh

00:06:30.480 is my my immediate response for the sake of the kids is that often you do want to look at

00:06:35.760 um a different choice in education if the uh if the school that if the school that your kids are going

00:06:42.400 to has lost your trust um then medicine hat has a charter school one of the few places outside of

00:06:49.120 uh calgary and edmonton that that's true obviously there are independent schools everywhere that are

00:06:54.640 very responsive to parent concerns and they have to be because uh because they only exist because parents

00:07:01.920 chose them uh unlike unlike the public system where often failure is rewarded uh by by more money uh

00:07:10.160 they they can only exist because parents choose them um and uh home education is becoming more and

00:07:16.400 more accessible with more and more resource resources available uh every year it's it's becoming easier

00:07:23.280 uh for parents to do and we're working now on uh clarifying the rules around uh learning pods where

00:07:29.680 parents can share uh uh even hiring a teacher or share a lot of the labor of uh of being directly

00:07:39.920 responsible for the education of their kids so those choices in education are are very important but

00:07:45.520 then also uh school boards are extremely important and it's something that uh i think a lot of parents

00:07:52.560 grandparents taxpayers a lot of the normal salt of the earth people here in alberta have ignored to our own

00:07:59.280 detriment that level of government uh and and we've left it to ideologues who uh who see no issue with

00:08:10.160 with so many of the red flags that parents could have called out earlier uh before before we have

00:08:18.160 kids being taught about safe meth consumption uh we we could have told you some of the red flags about

00:08:23.600 organizations like safe link long before that uh but it's it's often ideologues with a very particular

00:08:31.840 ideological agenda that are left for these school board seats uh rather than the uh regular parents

00:08:40.320 grandparents taxpayers that that have uh a the interest in just seeing kids educated and getting back to

00:08:50.480 basics great well for parents who are listening that gives you a lot of options to chew on in case

00:08:55.520 you're wondering what to do about the state of our public school system here in alberta and honestly

00:09:00.240 just across canada if you are looking for more information you can go to alberta parents union

00:09:05.920 their website has lots of information available jeff thanks so much for joining us today thanks rachel

00:09:11.760 and i'm going to close off this episode by responding to some of my insiders

00:09:15.360 if you're on the true north insider list you received an email in early december asking for

00:09:21.840 your comments and questions that i would respond to on the show so we're going to take a look at

00:09:25.280 some of those now mark s from brooks said will alberta finally separate from canada in 2024 we are

00:09:31.840 so sick of true dope mark i have some bad news for you i think it's going to be a while yet before we 0.55

00:09:37.440 see enough sentiment to hold a yes referendum on separation from alberta if ever i know that there is a lot of

00:09:44.800 support for separation within my membership and among the rural parts of the province people that

00:09:49.440 have lived here for a really long time and have seen how the west has time and time again got an

00:09:54.000 unfair deal from the federal government and from the rest of canada and they're simply sick and tired of

00:09:58.400 it and they think that alberta would be better off on its own that being said i believe we might run

00:10:03.200 into some issues with our interprovincial immigration i've covered this extensively on the show alberta is

00:10:08.480 receiving so many newcomers from the rest of canada more people are moving to alberta than to any other

00:10:13.200 province in canada right now and i wonder if these people who are coming here really understand why

00:10:18.560 alberta why the cost of living is lower why we don't have a provincial sales tax and if they will

00:10:22.720 continue to vote conservative or if they'll vote liberal or ndp or even for the green party or something

00:10:27.760 crazy like that because often people move to a new area they know it's better but they don't really

00:10:32.400 understand why they believe it's in texas when you're going into texas they have a sign that says

00:10:36.880 don't california my texas we need one of those signs when you're headed through medicine how on

00:10:42.160 your way into alberta a big sign that says don't ontario my alberta maybe we should get the alberta

00:10:47.440 government on that sooner rather than later phil from toronto says why does calgary always have

00:10:52.400 such lefty loony bin mayors i thought alberta was the most conservative province in the country

00:10:57.920 this is something i really wondered about as well when i moved to alberta we have just some of the

00:11:02.240 worst mayors in all of canada there are definitely really bad municipal governments throughout the

00:11:06.320 country but jody gondek here and and emory sohi in edmonton you know just no good we're seeing some

00:11:13.520 really no good things from these city councils the effort to cancel canada today and not have

00:11:17.760 fireworks just some of the most ludicrous stuff i think the issue is that conservatives are so

00:11:22.880 focused in alberta on provincial politics and canada wide to really focus on federal politics

00:11:27.680 and often people just don't pay as much attention to their municipal politics so we need to once again

00:11:32.640 start really paying attention to our city governments but also actively working in them

00:11:37.200 and organizing effectively that might mean we're going to all decide on one conservative candidate

00:11:42.320 and run one conservative counselor and every ward so that we have you know a bunch of conservative

00:11:47.120 city counselors and maybe just endorse one conservative minded mayoral candidate so that 0.55

00:11:51.760 the votes aren't split and then of course the other and perhaps more obvious issue is that a lot of

00:11:56.800 conservatives don't like to live in the cities they like to live in the rural areas they like to own

00:12:01.280 land they like having their property they like having their privacy these are all conservative

00:12:05.360 values and things that i think are admirable and respected but unfortunately the result of that is

00:12:09.760 that sometimes our cities just go down the drain pretty quickly caitlin m from calgary asked how is

00:12:15.520 your baby doing my baby is doing wonderfully he is a very good boy he's vocal when he needs something

00:12:22.240 but otherwise he's not too fussy and we've been pretty lucky with the sleep training thing uh wasn't too

00:12:27.440 painful so he actually goes to bed at 7 30 most nights which is amazing i have a couple hours to

00:12:31.200 myself so yes i think i'll be having another one this definitely didn't scare me away from having

00:12:35.920 kids and i'm pretty obsessed with him okay everyone that's all i have for you today thank you so much

00:12:40.320 for those of you who wrote in to our insiders and for tuning in i hope that you guys enjoyed my

00:12:44.880 interview with jeff park certainly there's a lot of valuable information on school choice there if this

00:12:49.840 is something that you guys are interested in learning more about please let me know and i will do more

00:12:53.920 coverage on this in future episodes that's all i have for you today thank you so much for tuning

00:12:58.080 in i hope that you guys enjoy your new year's eve and i'll see you next year

Juno News - December 30, 2023

Students taught “safe crack smoking”

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