Media shut out of education symposium

Today a diverse group of 100 students from area school boards in grades 9 to 12 gathered at the Davedi Club for the day-long ‘Speak Up ... You are the Student Voice,' regional forum.

The event, which was one of 16 being held throughout the province this year and organised by the Ministry of Education, was designed to help Education Minister Kathleen Wynne understand what students consider best practices when engaging Ontario students in their learning, and BayToday decided to go check it out.

However, upon arrival at the Davedi Club Wednesday morning Ministry officials from Toronto and North Bay refused media entry, and told Baytoday that the tax payer funded event was closed to all members of the public and media.

The Toronto officials offering a number of reasons as to why we were not allowed in the room included 'There was a flow to the day and that the media would disrupt that flow'. While the North Bay officials cited that release forms weren’t signed by students and that they didn’t want the students to be inhibited on sharing their thoughts.

So while BayToday cannot share the thoughts and ideas that were generated by the students Wednesday, Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne will know exactly what the students had to say as everything was recorded and will be reported back to her.