“I’ve chaired expulsion and SAL (Supervised Alternative Learning) hearings, and have seen long rap sheets of suspensions, expulsions, missed school days, and poor grades over a lengthy period of time before their case was brought before a Trustee. What if we had a system in place that focused more on physical and mental well-being, and less on grades or discipline or inclusion at all costs? Let’s keep kids in school at their best, AND during their hardest of struggles, and give them the tools to engage in alternatives on their own accord rather than waiting for the hierarchical processes of failed inclusion to throw them an olive branch. That’s when we show them that we truly care and that they matter so much more than rankings on some institutional list, or proving the success of our political ideologies. That’s when we say to them it isn’t about the delivery, but that they want to engage in learning.” Larry Pattison, former HWDSB Trustee and Protector at INSE.