Saint John boy goes home in T-shirt after school bolts locker closed
CBC
Molly Burgess knew something had happened to her 11-year-old son as soon as she saw him.
He had just arrived home from school and was visibly upset. His face was red and he burst into tears. She took him into her arms and realized he was very cold and wet.
Mark had left school last Tuesday wearing only a T-shirt and his indoor shoes. His jacket, hat, winter boots and backpack were all left in his locker at Barnhill Memorial School, a middle school on Saint John's west side.
According to Environment Canada records, Saint John was experiencing freezing drizzle at the time, with a wind chill of –5.
Mark, a Grade 6 student at Barnhill, told her that his locker had been bolted shut with everything inside. He thought he was in trouble and was too afraid to ask anyone at school before he went outside to wait for his bus, she said.
Burgess was incensed.
She said she called the school immediately and the principal, Jill Ferguson, called her back the next day. But Burgess wasn't content with what she was told.
She said Ferguson reminded her that parents had previously been warned in a newsletter that students were supposed to keep their lockers locked. Burgess said Ferguson promised to "do better" and said school officials weren't supposed to bolt the lockers of Grade 6 students.
CBC News asked Ferguson and the Anglophone South School District for interviews but neither responded.
Burgess said Ferguson purchased a new lock for Mark — one with a key he could wear on a lanyard around his neck instead of using a combination lock, which he had trouble manipulating.
In a newsletter from the school in September, students were told they were responsible for providing a lock for their locker "to keep their personal belongings safe."
Although Mark was cold, wet and upset, Burgess wonders what could have happened if staff had locked a student's epi-pen or puffer inside their locker, or their house keys, if they were one of those kids who go home to empty houses.
"Realistically, I think Mark's was the best case scenario," she said. "He has a bus stop that's very close to his home."
Burgess would like the school to stop bolting lockers shut at all grade levels, she said.
While the Green Line LRT project feels like a train that may never leave the station, Calgarians who have been forced to make sacrifices for this project are feeling ripped off.
A remote First Nation in northwestern Ontario that has been under a boil water advisory for 19 years has declared a state of emergency over recent contamination within its water supply.
Some downtown Toronto parents say the city's left them high and dry after a new, state-of-the-art pool was closed recently for the second time since mid-October.
Hemat Elgendy says she came to Canada from overseas last June to achieve her dreams.
The chief of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun says a government audit would not only expose shortcomings that might have contributed to the failure of the Eagle mine, but could also potentially prevent future environmental disasters from happening across the Yukon.
The day he took office for his "sunny" first term, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared in front of Ottawa's Rideau Hall to present the first gender-balanced cabinet in Canadian history. He gave his succinct "because it's 2015" explanation — a remark that became integral to his then-favourable political brand.
A wave of misinformation about Canadian institutions is being amplified by suspected bot accounts on social media and by pro-Modi news outlets in India, raising concerns it could imperil relations between Sikhs and Hindus in Canada.
London city councillors have voted to reprimand Coun. Susan Stevenson by docking her pay for 30 days as punishment for what an independent watchdog described as bullying and harassment of a senior city staff in violation of the code of conduct for councillors.
Newfoundland and Labrador has finalized its policy around the use of cellphones in schools, and the education minister says students played a key role in creating the final policy.
The Houston government wants to change the way the salaries and benefits of Nova Scotia MLAs are determined.
New Brunswick's acting chief medical officer of health is encouraging people to mask during holiday gatherings as the province-wide whooping cough outbreak has spiked to more than 800 cases and other viruses, such as COVID-19, the flu and RSV spread.