Youth Health Centre plans draw fire
MULGRAVE - Pressure is mounting on the Strait Regional School Board to reconsider its approval-in-principle of the Youth Health Centre concept for the region's schools.
Board members and administrative staff have agreed to revisit the proposal and collect more information from all stakeholders in the issue - including students, staff, community members and medical officials - in the wake of a public board meeting that saw board members and concerned citizens speaking out against the SRSB's handling of its Health Centre plans.
More than two dozen of the region's residents crowded the boardroom at the Mulgrave Professional Development Centre on Wednesday to pass on their concerns to the SRSB's latest regular monthly meeting. The great majority of those in attendance were supporting a presentation by Sandy MacDonald, the president of the Antigonish chapter of the Catholic Civil Rights League, which has spearheaded a petition campaign and a grassroots movement demanding more input into the proposed Youth Health Centres and denouncing the potential for such groups as Planned Parenthood to dominate the centres' mandate.
"I don't think it's fair for the onus to be put back on us," MacDonald told the board. "I think it's incumbent on you to clarify what's going in these health centres."
Board members from different areas of the region also told the meeting that they have received several phone calls and letters from many concerned parents and constituents who feel the SRSB hasn't given them a clear picture of the Youth Health Centre model.
West Guysborough representative Kim Horton originally supported the concept as she felt it would be based on a health centre that has existed in the Guysborough Family of Schools for several years. However, Horton is now concerned that a lack of context on this issue may now require her to rethink her decision.
"What I find very frustrating as a board member is that sometimes we don't receive all the information that should be made available to us on some of these issues," Horton told The Journal on Saturday.
"I've been going to meetings about Health Centres for about five years and I just want to prove, in my mind, exactly what's going into our schools."
East Antigonish member Frank Machnik encouraged the board to add the issue to its meeting agenda in light of the visitors' concerns. Machnik suggested that the Health Centre issue was rushed through the board with very little time to dissect the proposal.
"I couldn't believe the speed of the decision - there are issues here that are just too important to have no discussion," Machnik insisted.
"There's absolutely no idea (among local parents) as to what these centres are about...And if there's the potential that the parents aren't knowledgeable about their children's health, then I don't want to be a part of this board."
SRSB superintendent Phonse Gillis reminded the board members that he and his fellow central-office staffers have not put any pressure on the board's elected members to approve the Youth Health Centre concept, in principle or otherwise.
"You were told very specifically by me that you did not have to make a decision that day, and that you did not have to rush a decision," Gillis declared. "It was the board that decided to move forward."
And while board chair George Kehoe told MacDonald and his supporters that their concerns would be taken seriously, he stressed the need for a balanced approach.
"There could be another group organizing a response that's opposing to yours, that could put just as many people in here as you had tonight," Kehoe noted.
