Halifax principal wrestles student to ground, escapes dismissal
Oliver Moore Halifax — From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Video of a Halifax-area principal wrestling one of his students to the ground and manhandling him through the halls has sparked a furious debate here on school discipline and raised the always-fraught issue of race relations. The leaked surveillance tape shows Ken Fells, a black man with a military background, grappling with 14-year-old Josh Boutilier. The 74-second video on YouTube shows the white student trying to push past the principal before he is hurled to the floor and frog-marched to the office in a full-nelson. “Everything just went blank and I didn’t know what do,” Josh said on Friday. “I wasn’t hurt at the time because I was in really bad shock, but after a couple of hours I started to hurt real bad.” But Mr. Fells’s vocal supporters say surveillance videos rarely show the whole picture and school staff need the discretion to deal with students who pose a danger. The Black Educators Association rallied to his defence. . What threat the principal believed Mr. Boutilier posed that day in March has not been revealed. Mr. Fells is not speaking and the Halifax Regional School Board will not discuss the specifics of the incident. The student, who acknowledges getting into trouble in the past, admits he was breaking the rules by using a cellphone. He said he refused to surrender it to staff and that Mr. Fells was “stalking” him through the school immediately before the incident on the video. After an eight-hour meeting last month, with supporters of Mr. Fells demonstrating outside, the board opted to remove him from Graham Creighton Junior High School in Cherry Brook. But contrary to the recommendation of its own staff, it decided not to fire him. He will get a new assignment in the fall. That decision has proved hugely controversial. “A friend was saying, had the situation been in reverse, had that been a white principal who took the same action against a black student, would the outcome have been the same?” said Wayne Coady, a father of three grown children. “There could have been a riot.” It was learned Friday that the incident’s fallout had reached even into the marriage of board superintendent Carole Olsen, who admitted it was her husband who leaked the video. “My husband has apologized to me and to the elected board,” she said. “… I had no prior knowledge of the release of this video.” Ms. Olsen had been criticized for seeking Mr. Fells’s dismissal, and her husband, apparently hoping to support her position, sent the video to Frank magazine. It wound up at YouTube, where it has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. “I’ve never seen anything quite like what Ken Fells did with that student,” said Paul Bennett, a career educator who was vice-principal at Toronto’s Upper Canada College, headmaster at Halifax Grammar School and now runs Schoolhouse Consulting. He said school staff dealing with stubborn pupils have two options: phoning the student’s parents or calling the police. “No … use of force other than self-defence is permitted,” he said. Corporal punishment is specifically banned under the Halifax board’s code of conduct, but physical contact is not. Chairman Irvine Carvery said staff need discretion to act in dangerous situations. “You take every measure allowed to eliminate that threat,” he said. Mr. Carvery said the elected board members who opted to retain Mr. Fells heard more evidence than was available to the staff who recommended he be fired. He added that neither Mr. Fells’s vocal supporters nor his prominence in the black community were factors considered by the board.
June 5, 2010 at 2:05 PM
I was very shocked. How could a principal do something like that? Behaviour like that is unacceptable. Teachers are supposed to be role models and set a good example for kids. They're supposed to show kids how to act in a difficult situation, which is to act calm and talk things out, instead of using your fists. This lesson is especially important for teens and pre-teens because they're just getting used to the changes and they really don't know what to do with their feelings etc. During a stage like that, calmness and patience should be enforced and kids learn the most at school, in a environment that's similar to real life. What upset me even more is the fact that he didn't get fired. According to the article, he's just going to get relocated. I think this is a bad decision. If he does it once, what's the guarantee that he won't do it again? This action was done out of anger and if the principal wasn't able to control himself, he will probably do it again. What I don't understand is why it took so long for such violent behaviour to be noticed. This incident took place because of a cellphone and he probably exhibited his type of behaviour before. I think the staff should have been more perceptive and called on this behaviour before. Also, there are talks of racism but I don't really believe that. In our day, people won't risk their jobs,life etc. just because of the colour of someone's skin. So, what does the government have to do with this? Obviously, the province-run school board hired that principal and I think they made a grave danger in doing so. I don't know the details behind the hiring of principals but I think they should incorporate the opinions of colleagues to determine the hiring of the principal. They know the person more than anyone does and most teachers care for the well-being of children and won't refer a person who will abuse them. Again, I'm not sure if this already happens but I think that the superintendent should visit each school more frequently, to ensure that everything is running properly. This should happen unexpectantly, of course so that the principals won't expect it and make different arrangements to make the school look good. School boards should incorporate themselves more in the school scene.
I chose this article because we have to let kids know that adults can't treat you like that. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable and just because someone's older than you doesn't mean they own and control you. Many teens are strugging to find their own personalities and we don't need adults to interfere in our discovery of ourselves. We need freedom and patience from adults because we can be tough sometimes. We don't want dictatorship. At times, we might look and sound like 5 year olds but trust me. We're much more than that and if you give us the chance, we can show you.
June 6, 2010 at 12:40 PM
Principals are usually highly-regarded as role-models for students and staff. They are people whose actions impact the school and everyone within it. As a result, I believe that it is important that they set strong and positive examples for others. For this reason, I think that this principal’s, Ken Fells, actions should not be dismissed.
I believe that any of sort of this behaviour for a principal is unacceptable and should not be tolerated regardless of their race. Ken Fells had misused his power. Instead of using his power as an authority to solve the problem calmly, he used his power for violence. He abused the student in order to try to resolve the conflict. This shows that he does not respect the power he has and uses it in any way that he likes. Furthermore, he violated the rules of school board. The school board only permits physical contact with students for self-defence. However, Josh Boutilier, the student, did not pose any threat to him as the only rule he broke was using a cell phone during school hours. This proves that the principal’s actions were not justified since the student was not a danger to both the principal and other students. As a result of Ken Fells’ misuse of power and his violation of school policy, I believe that he should be punished more severely to prevent any other similar situations.
-Nancy Khuu
June 8, 2010 at 2:35 PM
June 9, 2010 at 3:01 AM
As a principal you have more rights than others, but it has a limit to it. Wrestling with a student is passing the limit. It is really shocking that this act of violence by a principal towards a student has been permitted within the school. When the students fight within the school, the staffs try to break up the fight not join each side of the student and fight with the students.
Paul Bennett stated that if a problem occurs with the students, the teachers either call the parents or the police to solve the problem. However, the principal should not abuse the students. That is considered child abuse and it is against the law.
The limit of knowledge I have about the military, I believe he should keep the violence and training with in the military (to himself) and not with students who haven’t turned eighteen yet. Even eighteen and older people, should not be hurt in that way either. More importantly, no one should be treated that way. What is most surprising is that the principal hasn’t been dismissed / fired for the crime that he did.
June 14, 2010 at 5:29 PM
Principal are supposed to monitor the school, and make sure that there is a save environment for the kids to learn in. But what Ken Fells did to that student was very unacceptable. Abusing the student through the halls is immature and in my opinion also shows a lack of leadership from the principal. My principle is that a man should reason and fight with his hands and not his fist. If I were involved in the discussion of the removal of Ken Fells, I would have already fired him, as soon as I seen the video. I do not think that this is matter of race. Maybe this is a matter of intolerance from the principal. But what Wayne Coady said if a white principal beat up a black kid is a very interesting points. It's like if a white guys does it, it's racist, but if a black guy does it, it isn't. It's a very strange situation, but this is what happens when we do not trust each other.
June 22, 2010 at 9:03 PM
This article has really shocked me in terms of potential racism and obviously because a principal attacked a student. It is unbelievable that an adult who is suppose to be a respected figure to both teachers and students was so foolish to injure a student. If a student is disobedient, they are not supposed to be dealt with physically. School faculty only have the options as stated in the article, phoning the student’s parents or calling the police in a situation like that. The punishment for the principal should also be more severe where they learn that doing such an act is preposterous. The principal have not been able to go back to work in schools at all. This is what I believe, and I am very disappointed to the weak consequences for the principal.