The Ben Mulroney Show - Ben asks how does this principal still have a job after duct-taping an elementary student to a chair?

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

Guests and Topics on Today's Show -B.C. principal suspended for duct-taping elementary school student to chair -Noise cameras needed to crack down on late-night revving and racing in Toronto streets, advocates say with Guest: Ingrid Buday, founder of the group No More Noise Toronto If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! https://globalnews.ca/national/program/the-ben-mulroney-show Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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say to get one child to focus on their work, duct taped that student to their chair, duct tape them. And then apparently when the work was done, rewarded them with a prize. Now, that to me is a fireable offense. But instead of being fired, that person got 20 days of suspension without pay and then was reassigned to another school. If duct taping a child to their chair is not enough to get somebody fired. What the heck is?

And I'll put it to you. If you found out your kid comes home from school and you find out that a principal duct tape your kid to a chair, what would you do? I know what I would do. I would begin. It would be Sherman's march to the sea. I would burn everything to the ground on my way to getting that guy fired. You don't lay hands on my kid.

You do not duct tape my kid. You do not dehumanize my kid. If I found out that something like this had happened to my kid, I entrust you with my child, with the education of my child, and you believe that the best way to achieve those goals is to confine my child to, why not put him in a closet until he behaves? Like this is madness. Like this is madness. You do not have the temperament. You do not have the temperament to be in education.

You should not be around children. You should be working in some bureaucracy in a cubicle somewhere far away from any interaction with children. Kerry, welcome to the show. Hey, how are you? I'm good. I think you're absolutely right. I think that they should not only be fired, there should be criminal charges. They should be charged. This is abuse.

Yeah, I agree. It is abuse. We got rid of corporal punishment in schools years ago. You can't use the ruler to wrap them on the knuckles. There's no spanking. There's no paddling. There's no dunce cap anymore There's no dunce cap anymore, because that's dehumanizing. What is this? Yeah, I feel strongly about this. Because I went through this kind of thing when I was in school, I was bullied and physically abused by teachers.

Oh, I'm sorry that happened to you. Yeah, this should not be tolerated at all. Well, I've said, Carrie, I've said before, the two places where a child should absolutely feel safe is inside their own home and inside their school. And if we can't achieve either one of those, then we are doing a disservice to our children. Thank you very much for your call. And again, I'm sorry that that ever happened to you. Adam, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show.

Yeah, hi. So no, you're right. You should have ducked in. You should have scrapped him like happened in our day. Well, but we listen, we at this point, we don't know what behavior the child was exhibiting. But but don't you think, Adam, that if a child was was was acting acting out, that the first the parents should be called in to alert them that their child is being disruptive? So no. So you No. So you okay, tell me what you think. I know. I think that the problem is you talk to any teacher now. If things thrown at them, if kids punching them, they have everything. Because parents like you who go, oh my god, my poor little baby, never be terrible. Parents like me, you don't know anything about how I parent, sir.

You don't know anything. But you have you have just said. You just said on the air that you would march this guy to the seat. You're damn right I would. I have great kids. Well, there you go. So basically you're saying that whatever discipline was done to your child is wrong because it's only come from you. I'm the person who disciplines my kid.

I'm the person. Well, I don't agree with that. Okay, well, agree to disagree. Thank you I'm the person. Yeah, well I don't agree with that. Okay, well agree to disagree. Thank you very much, sir. Yeah, no. There is a clear, there is a clear definition, a division of labor here. I'm the parent, you're the teacher.

I give you my kid to make, to give me back a smarter kid. I'm in charge of making sure he's a good kid. And if I'm failing at that, give me a call. And by the way, speaking of that, give us a call here. I want to hear from you. 416-870-6400 or 1-888-225-TALK. I'm in charge of building a good kid. You're in charge of building a smart kid.

And the second you confuse those two things is the second you have no business in academia in education If if my child is being disruptive call me I'll come down there I'll march down there and I will shake some sense into my kid. I Will make sure that they don't misbehave if I ever hear that my kid is misbehaving in school I promise you I will deal sure that they don't misbehave. If I ever hear that my kid is misbehaving in school, I promise you I will deal with that.

I promise you. But under no circumstances are you to put hands on my kid, ever. And I think I'm speaking for a lot of parents here. And the fact that this person was simply moved to another school, 20 days, you got 20 days off. I that this this is this is wrong. Dan welcome to the show.

I'm well, I'm well, what do you think about this whole ordeal? I listen, I agree with you a hundred percent. But I think that other gentlemen that was calling was trying to get out the point that most parents nowadays don't, they don't even want to admit when their kid does something wrong. Now, he was jumping to the conclusion that your, your kids were bad kids. Yeah. You can't paint a kid with the same paintbrush. It's not, it just doesn't work that kids. Yeah. You can't paint that kid with the same paintbrush. It just doesn't work that way.

But there are parents that do not want anybody to say anything to their kids, but yet, they don't say anything to their kids. And I agree with you. I agree. There are parents out there who think their kid can do no wrong. These are the kids that want their kids to have their phones

at school. They think that their kids have the right to talk back to people. Look, bad parents are bad parents and and and good teachers are good teachers. This is a common this is I don't know anything about the child. I have no idea what happened with the child here. But if that happened, the first step should be contact the parents. It should not be duct tape the kid to a chair because they can't sit still. Let's welcome john to the show john welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Mr Mulroney, how are you? I am well. I am very well. Happy cold cold Wednesday. Listen, I'm not going to say an old school fart. I'm a common sense fart like yourself. I got an 18 year old daughter

going through school at Brock University to become a teacher and we have these awkward conversations at the dinner table because she's a younger generation and you know they get they get caught up in this wokeness and feelings and all that and I I'm always nudge nudge elbow youudge, elbow, you're there to teach. You're there to educate the kids. And we gotta, it's common sense. Like there's always gonna be good and bad and right and wrong, but at the end of the day,

you're there to teach, you're not there to control, you're not there to change. You're there to change their minds for the better and to educate them. And you're not to change their minds for the better and to educate them. And you're not there to, you're not a parent figure. Like something's going wrong, pull them aside, take them to the office, call the parents, that's their job.

Yeah, I agree. And listen, this is not, I am not attacking the hard work that teachers have to do. If you've ever heard me on the radio, you say I have been a strong advocate for getting cell phones out of schools completely because I think that everything a cell phone does undermines the hard work that a teacher has to do. Everything about a cell phone

is diametrically opposed to what a teacher is trying to do. And and they their jobs are already hard enough. We don't need to make them harder. Let's go to Jason. Jason, welcome to the show. Then first of all, I want to say I really like your show. I appreciate your perspectives. I don't always agree with everything that you have to say. But I do appreciate you giving us the ability to share other perspective. Now, thank you. I

will say this. I agree with you 110% that if I found out that an educator of my at my kids school put their hands on them in any way shape or form You better be damn sure I would be walking through the pits of hell to make sure that they were fired and never worked for the school Board again. Okay, so that's number one. Yep number two I Do agree with your other caller though that I do feel that nowadays though, that I do feel that nowadays parents are a lot more lax when it comes to disciplining their children. Children these days oftentimes get away with much more than you know say they would when you know when we were kids. So I

think if there's any issues with the child it begins at home. Yeah. Right. So definitely the parenting has to be looked at here. It has to be examined. Now, it doesn't give the excuse for any educator to put their hands on your kid whatsoever. And if, as an educator, if that's the field that you're in and you feel that, hey, these kids are too unruly, I don't like things being thrown at me every day, I'm not being supported by my superiors,

then guess what, you can get a new job, find a new career. Now, obviously, it's not that easy to do. But at the same time, you do not have the right to put your hands on a child, no way, shape or form. I don't care what you are. Correct. And I appreciate everything you just said. Thank you so much. I just want to know what course at Teachers College like where when do they teach you how to duct tape a child to a chair? Because something tells me they don't teach that that I think

this person went rogue and took matters into their own hands. Don, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. Hey, good morning. Listen, I I'm agreeing with you. I'm almost 100%. I think you and a couple of other callers have said absolutely zero, put your hands up. I don't know that I believe in the word never. I think if there is a security threat, I think if somebody is getting, you know, a bigger kid is putting the boots to a little kid, yeah, you're going to physically need to restrain

that child momentarily. So that's the caveat of what I'm about to say. Duck taping a kid? Absolutely no reasonable... I mean, how do you get there? Like Don, how do you get there as an educator? How do you go from the kid can't sit still to I think the solution is duct taping him to a chair? Yeah, it been my I literally and truthfully, every single weekday was on the phone with the vice principal of our high school. My son was truly a pain in everybody's ass. Okay. But he just didn't learn in a traditional way. He was bored,

he was zoned out, he needed to learn in a physical or tangible way, not just sitting there listening to a lecture, watching a PowerPoint, reading a book. He was a hands-on learner. And now they got, he's alignment with Hydro One. He's making more money than I am. And thank God. Yeah. As parents, we were invested in our school. We were part of school council. Well, exactly.

There was an open line of communication between you and the school. But I don't know how my child is behaving in the school. I need to be alerted to that from the school. And then it's my job to fix their behavior. God, you know, as we were talking here, I remember when I was in school, we had a teacher who would, if you weren't paying attention,

he would take the eraser from the chalkboard and throw it at your head. Now, fortunately, he was French and he didn't know how to throw. So he missed all the time. But I like French from France, like they don't they play sports with their feet. They don't they don't really throw things, except maybe tennis balls that they throw in the air. Anyway, let's welcome Debbie to the

Ben Mulroney show. Hey, Debbie. Good to speak to you. I have a teacher in the family, let me tell you, they're walking on eggshells. I don't know about BC's Teachers College. They are not taught to put hands on. They're afraid every minute. It comes down to the parents. And when they call the parents, the parent says, what are you doing to help my kid? Well, she is using every tool in the

toolbox, but it has to come from home. It's the parenting, you know, like she does bus duty. She says good morning to all the kids. None of them say good morning back. And I go, well, just don't do it. Yeah. Yeah. No, listen. And it starts at home. And most of the parents are saying, no, listen. Your husband will fall out and it starts at home. And most of the parents are saying, well, it's not my kid. What are you doing? Yeah, no, listen, you're absolutely right. There is a conversation that needs to be had about the dissent, the lack of civility

and the lack of manners that is being taught to kids. And they're feeling that they can get away with behaving in certain ways. But to go from that to duct taping a child is I just don't know how you can I can't trace a line from one to the other. I just can't get there. Debbie, thank you so much for your call. Julia, thank you so much for being patient. Welcome to the show.

Good morning, Ben. I love your show. I listen to you every day. Thank you. Now my other name, just your subscription is Nana. And this happened to my grandson last year when he was in junior kindergarten. There was a gang of boys in the class, believe it or not, at that age. They were little troublemakers. And what happened twice? First time, my grandson had a little braid at the back. One kid grabbed the scissors and cut it off. Nothing was done. That is assault. That is putting your hands on another student, even if it wasn't the teacher. The second crime was this boy, same boy took a pencil and grabbed my grandson around the neck of his t-shirt and started punching holes through.

Apparently the teacher didn't see it, which is shocking number one. The end result was okay, I encouraged the boy's parents to go in. They didn't go in guns blazing and there was no report written. There was no meeting with the other parents. Absolutely nothing was done. I took it upon myself as the grandmother to go down and talk to the police. They said yes you can file a report nothing will be done but it will go on file in case there's another incident. I tried to encourage the parents, but oh, I don't know, they did not want to go.

A kindergarten child, this is his introduction to school. I don't think so. I don't think so. Julia, we're going to have to leave it there, but thank you so much. And I'm glad that you took control of that situation as best you could. Hey Brad, welcome to the show. Good morning, Ben. It's a pleasure to speak with you, love the show. Thank you. I have two children in primary school right now, so I've got skin in the game here. And my thoughts on this is we don't really need

to rewrite what we're doing here. The mechanics are already in place that if a child is not being raised properly and is disruptive in the classroom, schools have the ability to suspend and they're not doing that. And if I'm failing as a parent and my child is being disruptive or bullying other children, I expect that my children would be suspended from school

if it got to that point. And then now the onus is on the parent to correct the behavior. And if they choose not to do so, well, you're gonna have to find someone else to take care of your kid while you try to go to work. Hey, I like that solution, Brad. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Have a great day. Ken, welcome to the show. Yeah, Ben, love your show.

Thank you. Yeah, I agree with you 100 percent. No teacher in this day and age were supposed to be more enlightened. There's no way any teacher should ever put their hand on a child. Yeah, that child and that teacher should be fired. And but but Ken, I can't our previous caller Brad makes a good point to if the kid is disruptive, and and and the parents are doing nothing about it. And and they have been alerted to it. Use every tool in your toolbox to spend the kid.

Yeah, but the problem is, the parents don't want to take any accountability for the bad behavior of their children. My wife has been an early childhood educator for 30 years at the same place. And she'll tell you the behavior of those children from the ages of like two to about four over the last 10 years has gone right in the toilet. Yeah, yeah. She's got two and three year olds telling her to f off, calling her the B word, hitting her spitting her kicking her punching her, telling her to F off, calling her the B word, hitting her, spitting her,

kicking her, punching her, telling her that, you can't tell me what to do, you're not my mother. These are three and four year olds. If I ever found out that my kids were behaving like that in front of anybody's, they would, oh, they would not like what was coming their way. They would experience the wrath of God, because in their lives, I am God. Hey, thank you so much for your calls.

I appreciate everybody for the candid conversation. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney Show. There are so many things to love about living in a big city. When I used to host Toronto this weekend, one of my tasks was to alert people in Toronto and around Toronto about all the great things to do in the city. But they sometimes come at a price and that price can be, you know, city can be a loud place. And the question is, is it getting too loud?

Well, our next guest believes that, yes, in fact, the city of Toronto is becoming too loud. Well, our next guest believes that yes, in fact, the City of Toronto is becoming too loud. And I love that she is using the system to get changes made so that we can live in a quieter city. Welcome to the show, Ingrid Boudet, founder of the group No More Noise Toronto. Ingrid, welcome to the Ben Mulroney Show. Well, thank you so much, Ben, for the invitation. This is an important topic, so I really appreciate the opportunity. Okay, so let's level set with everybody. How loud is Too Loud for No More Noise Toronto?

Well, you know, the thing is that health impacts start at 55 decibels, but we generally talk at about 60 to 70 decibels. Well, 50 to 60. I'm the loud talker but what becomes too loud is when the when the noises are unnecessary and when there's no even thought of mitigating them because of the health impacts that health impacts everybody none of us can close our ears and our bodies never stop listening. So it's getting louder because we haven't done anything to mitigate noise. And so look, a lot of us put up with nuisances. There are things that annoy us.

I mean, if you listen to me on the radio, you know that plenty of things annoy me. But what what was the straw that broke your back that made you say, I need to take action here? When did things cross a line? When it impacted my health and this was even pre pandemic, I started to kind of hear the backfiring of cars and I used to be able to have a nap on my balcony and and it was like, what was that and there were awful sounds. And then during the pandemic and the empty streets and then the racing and suddenly there was more

of this back for bikes. And I was like, what is this? And when I did the research, I found that, you know, a lot of the research was talking about a 24 hour average. We don't live with a 24 hour average of sound. We live with peaks and valleys. And I wanted to understand that more because I wasn't sleeping at night.

I was waking up grumpy and it impacted my health and I was wondering if I was alone and the answer was no, I'm not. So you started a Facebook group which grew into an actual organization and it feels like based on what I've read, you've been walking the city by the hand towards conclusions that they otherwise wouldn't come to. And and and you proposed something I'd never heard of before. Noise cameras. Yes. OK, so tell me what these are. Are they like speed cameras? Well, kind of similar in the sense that they sit on the side of the road. But speed cameras have a different way of measuring like they measure speed, where a noise camera is basically an array of microphones that are triggered

to then, sorry, then trigger a camera that then takes a picture of a license plate and also records the audio. And so you've got decibel level, you've got audio, and you've got video. And this is just a way that some cities are using it to assess how bad the vehicle noise and the modifications are, but cities like New York are actively ticketing. And I'm just finding that, you know, the city is trying to do the best they can, but often they don't have all the resources

to, you know, do the investigation. So I believe it's our job through data process and presenting solutions to help them out. And where are you in your fight to make Toronto a quieter place? Oh, that's a great question, Ben. I feel like I've been lifting a Hercules for about the last two years

because there's a lot of apathy and there's people going, oh, move to the country or oh, you'll get used to it. But now we know that Toronto Public Health knows the impact of noise on people's health. So there's awareness out there now, there's education out there now, but noise is a big issue. So we're starting working groups.

But I'm collaborating with the city by taking a data and process oriented approach we're working with municipal licensing and standards we've had meetings with Toronto police services with Toronto public health and the customer experience division which takes the noise reports into the house so we're getting there but we still have a ways to go for sure. Do you have a background in this sort of work? Because it sounds like you know exactly how to work within the system. Oh, well, thank you. You know, I have done so many different things in my life and I'm kind of bringing this whole skill set.

I used to work in IT and I also used to work with data. And so that's where I bought a sound level meter right away. I knew that you need to collect the data before you need to look at the data. But I also know people. And you know, people generally are of good intention, there's only a very small percentage of noisemakers. But you know, the city and taking a collaborative approach and coming with solutions has generated really good relations that relationships with them. And I'm thankful.

Well, I want to thank you Ingrid for coming onto the show. I think, look, anyone who works within the system, I say more power to you, go do it. And if you can get those changes made, you know, I support you. So thank you so much for coming on the show. Ingrid Boudet, founder of the group No More Noise Toronto. Thanks Ben.

And residents of Mississauga are dealing with noise in a different way because they live in close proximity to Toronto Pearson Airport. And a number of residents are losing sleep, even considering selling their homes because of the noise from low- planes. And I think that some of them are looking to have runway changes at the airport. But none of that seems seems to be happening. And I feel bad for anybody who has to deal with that that noise. I mean, I've I've I've never lived close to an airport, but I've I've been at friends homes who are underneath a flight path. And that can be a terrible thing. But it reminded me of a story I heard a long time ago about Donald Trump. And Donald Trump owns Mar-a-Lago, right, which is in Palm Beach, Florida.

It is, it was underneath the flight path of planes going to West Palm Beach Airport. The planes would come from the north, they'd be flying south, they would loop over to the Atlantic Ocean to then go west. And his club, Mar-a-Lago, was lined up directly with West Palm Beach Airport. And so the planes would come down and then they would pull a right-hand turn,

go over his club and then land. And for years and years and years, he petitioned the city, he petitioned the FAA to do anything he could to get the flight paths changed. Nothing ever worked until he became president. And all of a sudden, for security reasons, they had to change the flight path for every single plane that was landing at West Palm Beach Airport. Then he lost the election and the planes went back over Mar-a-Lago.

And then he became president again, and there was this running joke that the reason he ran for president was so that he could change the flight path. So my suggestion to the people of Mississauga is I think if one of you could become prime minister and make your home the official residence of the prime minister of Canada, maybe then too you might have a shot. But short of that, I don't think that you have a prospect of changing the flight pass at the busiest airport in Canada. That being said, I feel bad for you. Everybody deserves a good night's sleep. She has partial retrograde amnesia. She can't remember the last eight years. Tuesdays. What

are the odds I get my memories back? It's the brain. Nobody knows. A new series coming to global and streaming on StackTV. I don't know who I am now. Inspired by the unforgettable true story. But I will be a doctor again. Emmy nominee Molly Parker. I will do everything I can to get my life back. DOC, new series Tuesdays on global. Stream on StackTV.