Students continue sit-in for fired principal

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This article was published 26/02/2011 (5584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

High school students in Thompson skipped classes Friday — not to play hooky but to stage a protest with just one demand:

“We want our Land.”

That was the slogan on one of the signs more than 100 R.D. Parker Collegiate students carried in support of their ousted principal, Ryan Land.

“They keep telling us to go back to class but we’re really committed to the cause,” Grade 12 student Hailey Lychuk said by phone from the centre of the protest.

The students began their sit-in Thursday morning at 9 a.m. in the high school’s central forum after learning of Land’s firing Wednesday.

“We believe this was so unfair,” said Lychuk, calling Land the best principal the school had ever seen.

“He personally got to know as many students as he could and made our school finally a safe place to be in.” The students believe Mystery Lake School Division superintendent Beverly Hammond was “absolutely wrong” in firing Land, she said. The school lost a dedicated administrator and there seems to be a pattern, said Lychuk.

“Our principals usually don’t stay longer than their probationary contracts,” she said.

Land was first hired in the fall of 2009 on a probationary basis. Last year, the school board voted to extend the probation period, but the vote was not unanimous, Hammond reportedly said. An assistant superintendent hired recently resigned after an incident involving a statement of complaint against Hammond the school board said was false.

The superintendent met with students Thursday but didn’t give them answers, said Lychuk.

“She kept going around in circles. We didn’t get any information from her whatsoever.”

Hammond said earlier Land’s firing was not “disciplinary” and had more to do with “suitability.”

The students who want Land back are hoping Education Minister Nancy Allan will intervene, Lychuk said.

The students will keep protesting but Lychuk said she and many others hoping to graduate can’t miss too many classes.

“It’s my Grade 12 year.”

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca