While Parents' Voice is up in arms over a Freedom of Information request to the Burnaby school board, a local FOI expert says the school district is following protocol.
Parents' Voice, the ad hoc group set up to oppose the school board's anti-homophobia policy, issued a press statement on a Freedom of Information request from member Homara Ahmad.
The request focused on the nature and extent of bullying in Burnaby schools.
Ahmad asked for "copies of all reports, incidences recorded, and/or complaints made involving students, staff or any other person related to the operation of the Burnaby school district, that have been party to any form of bullying incident, assault, harassment, verbal abuse or any form of mean-spirited conduct ."
The request went on to ask for emails, written reports, electronic records and files from January 1997 to present.
Parents' Voice members were upset that the district would require a $5,000 fee as a deposit just to start working on the request.
The first three hours of labour filling a Freedom of Information request are free, but groups can charge for anything beyond that. The district would have to charge $30 per hour for labour and 25 cents a page for photocopies.
That's not unforeseen to Mark Weiler, a postdoctoral fellow at Simon Fraser University, who specializes in Freedom of Information requests and legislation.
"It's not terribly surprising that the board gave a notice of fees. Fourteenand-a-half years is a huge period of time," Weiler said. "Just to find the documents would be a full-time job."
Weiler pointed out that the school district offered to meet with Ahmad to talk about narrowing the request and reducing the fees.
"(The) school district seems to be very accommodating in their response to the group. They invited them in to discuss and clarify," Weiler noted.
"I thought the school board's response was very appropriate and very much in the spirit of the legislation. . I don't see the school board as stonewalling. It's the nature of the order, it's very, very large. Fourteen years - it's a lot of documents to look for."
Meanwhile, Parents' Voice is lamenting the lack of information. The group believes the documents will prove bullying incidents in Burnaby schools don't justify the need for a new anti-homophobia policy.
"Our children deserve better than to have policies developed by hyperbolic pin propaganda, masquerading as research, generated by sex activists who want to promulgate their version of diversity politics and practices among our children, via the public education system," the group's press release states.
www.twitter.com/JenniferMoreau
