STUDENTS HAVE HAD to line up at lunchtime to get into their own school library, says a student a York Mills Collegiate Institute because the hours have been reduced at the secondary school.
“I’m forced to go into the cafeteria and the hallways to do homework and study,” said Tarah Bleier, a Grade 12 student at the school. “You can’t possibly focus in the cafeteria when everyone’s talking, you know?”
The library doesn’t open until 10 a.m. and closes immediately after last period at 3:30 p.m. Students line up during their lunch break to get into the library, with limited numbers allowed in at a time, Bleier said. She’s accumulated 400 signatures on a petition she started in an effort to get regular hours reinstated.
The hours were cut last fall as the result of a need for another Grade 12 math teacher, said Gerri Gershon, the school trustee for the ward. She said that, had the library’s hours not been reduced, the time students have to see guidance counsellors would have also been affected.
“It’s a complicated issue to staff a school, and the principal did not want to remove more guidance time from the kids as well,” Gershon said. “This is a decision they have made.”