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economist suntribune thursday jan 102002 stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 publisher ian proudfoot general manager alvin brouwer editor in chief brenda larson director of advertising debra weller deputy editor debora kelly classified manager ann campbell editor jim mason retail sales manager stephen mathieu production manager pam nichols inside sales manager stacey allen distribution manager barry black business manager robert lazurko electronic communications manager john futhey office manager vivian oneil editorial dont criticize boards for following tory law york regions school boards have beaten the province to the punch when it comes to back ground checks on employees t both school boards have had policies gov erning background checks on new employees in place for three years as a commitment to the community and their safe schools policies education minister janet ecker announced monday criminal checks a 1999 tory cam paign promise to create safer schools for stu dents and teachers would begin this year not all employees in york region have undergone checks but both boards will com- ply with the new regulation which means 12000 school board employeeswho have not undergone checks will be required to do so employees in york region who have under gone the check in the past three years have paid for it as part of an offer of employment the 12000 employees who must be checked will not be reimbursed for the cost which can be up to 35 while our school boards are to be congrat ulated for having the foresight to undertake this safety initiative without provincial arm- twisting for having the strength to make it a requirement of employment and thus not burden taxpayers with an administrative cost jwe know the provincial regulation will raise concerns for teachers and parents for teachers the questions may be simple and direct why do i have to submit to a back ground check ive been teaching in this board for 15 years and i have an exemplary record the answer too is simple the safety of all students cannot be measured against the ethics and integrity of one teacher one care taker one school secretary one lunch monitor- teachers may also argue they should not pay for the check especially if they have per fect records arid impeccable reviews its understandable some teachers might find this requirement unfair but its not fair to burden taxpayers with an administrative function as both boards have already determined parents fnay ask the most difficult question why did it take the province so long to ensure safety standards such as these were in place its better to have these policies established firmly even if they are late than hot having them in place at all environwentally- threatened species monarch butterfly northern codfish m a q hi wmnm letters to the editor caretakers teachers helped school recover from vandalism re vandals ransack rooms at school economist sun dec 28 as readers might be aware franklin street public school in markham was broken into and vandalized sunday dec 23 it is difficult to get over anger and upset when something like this happens fortunately the task was made easier in this case by the courteous professional response from school board staff who were able to quickly repair the damage and clean up the mess left by the vandals special thanks to caretakers mr lehman mr bodmore mr gardner and mr grove our secretary mrs wong and the dedicated teachers who took time from their holidays to make sure our offices and classrooms were ready for the first day back at school jsassoon principal franklin street public school markham markham stouffville hospital staff showed kindness dedication so often we dwell on the negative things surrounding us but this year througli an unfortunate situation i experienced the true sense of christmas and the spirit of giving on christmas day my 87yearold moth er fell and was taken to markham stouffville hospital with a fractured hip good fortune would have it that dr shirali was the ortho pedic surgeon on call christmas day it could have been an easy decision to sedate mother until the following day and thus not inconvenience his own holiday plans but instead he rallied a team of dedicated nurses and an anesthetist to perform surgery how fortunate we are to have such kind caring people working at markham stouffville hospital we should feel truly blessed to know that this isthetype of care offered to all who live in our community although christmas day was not spent as planned the kindness and dedication shown by everyone left me with the true feeling of the meaning of christmas fred cox unionville join our online discussions atyorkregioncom your opinion is important to us on our let ters to the editor pages and on our website we invite you to join the ongoing discus sions at yorkregioncom and youre welcome to launch your own discussion there too the site serves readers of the york region newspaper group which includes the economist sun stouffville tribune richmond hillthornhill liberal vaughan citizen newmarketaurora erabanner georgina advocate and stouffville sun letters policy stouffville ttibune welcomes yourletters all submissions must be less than 400 words and must include a daytime telephone number name and address the newspaper reserves the right to publish or not publish and to edit for clarity and space write letters to the editor 9 heritage rd markham ont l3p 1m3 email letterseconsuncom stouffville tribune serving the community since 1888 ke dde canadian circulations 1 audit board member ontario press council canadian publications mail product sales agreement 1403419 subscription rates by mail 1 year 6955 thursdays only stouffville tribune published every thursday and saturday is one of the metroland printing publishing and distributing ltd group of newspapers which includes the ajaxpickering news advertiser alliston heraldcourier bame advance barrys bay this week 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pardon the expression across york region last year york regional police raided 82 pot growing operations lastyear they admit there are more out there- this is com pared to only 20 raids in 2000 these incidents arent isolated to one or two bad areas just look at the most recent incidents jan 4 police stumbled across 400 marijuana plants being grown in a markham home while investigating the death of a man found in a richmond hill parking lot jan 2 and 3 more than 400 plants worth 425000 were found in two hous es in aurora nov 22 the granddaddy of all york region hydroponic operations is bust- ed an 85millipn lab in a three- storey industrial building in vaughan nov 22 a 180000 operation is busted in small rural pefferlaw nov 6 and 7 three pot labs are busted in markham two on the same street one of them contained 1350 plants with an estimated street value of 13 million det mike klimm of the drug squad told our reporter part of the reason for this sudden flood of hydroponic pot was a successful campaign to shut down labs in vancouver with the west coast imports cut off dealers in the toronto area started looking for alocal supply there may be other factors that influ enced last years numbers it could be cracking down on marijuana became a higher priority with police last year so there were more investigations and consequently more raids it may have a lot to do with the police helicopter in 1999 the spot the pot pro gram used the chopper just a pilot pro ject to find about 750000 in rnarijuaria in farmers fields across the region once the cops had a fulltime heli copter the growers rnoved their opera tions underground and by using hydroponic tech niques they were able to grow a great deal more dope that 1999 total pales in comparison to several of last years individual raids i think theres another reason york regions subdivisions are such rich soil for illegal drugs isolation youre prob ably less likely to be noticed in a subur ban home than you would be on the back 40 of some farflung farm the usual pattern for most local sub divisions is both parerits leave for work early arid come home late the children spend their time at school and daycare and everyone is on the run all weekend this is whereneighboiirhood watch comes in neighbours must work together to keep these places put because tjieyrnaketke street more dan- gerousr w to t m j ii i a mlhfh n witlfmiiai w k n pav k igmmrtfrtttsvg7aggj mm mm