The School Safety Community Advisory Panel released its findings on Wednesday detailing the state of school safety at the troubled C.W. Jefferys Collegiate Institute in North York.
The three-member panel, headed by human rights lawyer Julian Falconer, delivered its interim report on Tuesday to Toronto District School Board Director Gerry Connelly.
The group was originally formed in response to the shooting death of 15-year-old Jordan Manners who was gunned down at C.W. Jefferys in May.
The report was partly based on discussions with students, teachers and people from the North York community.
Besides theft, bullying and weapons, the panel found three main problem areas at the institution including:
- Students loitering in the hallways;
- Students being transferred to other schools without proper counselling after being expelled;
- Student-teacher relationships are strained
The interim report also stated four key recommendations the panel would like to see implemented as soon as possible which include:
- A building audit to be done at C.W. Jefferys, which school representative say will take place by the end of the week before students return.
- More human resources dedicated in the school area
- Institution of a mediator in what the panel called a "dysfunctional relationship" between the school board trustee and the superintendent
- Extension of the panel's study until November 15 in order to investigate other school's in the area
After Manners' death, teachers at C.W. Jefferys came forward saying the school had appalling safety conditions including alleged beatings and gun sightings that were ignored by the school's administration.
The principal and vice-principals were given other duties after the school safety panel discovered staff didn't follow through on some serious allegations first raised by a teacher.
The panel unearthed evidence that the administration failed to report an alleged sexual assault on a 14-year-old female student.
While some members of the community are pleased with the panel's investigation, one school-board trustee says the nearly $500,000 it took to fund the school-safety panel was a waste of money.
"To spend half a million to a million dollars on yet another report that will give us recommendations where we have no funds to even implement any of these recommendations is lunacy," school board trustee Josh Matlow told CTV News on Wednesday.
With a report from CTV's Chris Eby and files from Naomi Parness