By Kristin Rushowy and Amy Dempsey

Drug use, vandalism and swearing at a teacher are the kinds of things that can get a student suspended from school.

But Emil Cohen was kicked out of Northern Secondary — for a day and a half — for speaking his mind after being told not to.

Mind you, it was at an assembly meant to celebrate students’ athletic achievements and the 17-year-old had been instructed by his teacher-coach not to mar the upbeat event.

“It’s ridiculous,” Cohen says. “There’s nothing in the speech that was inflammatory, nothing that warrants a suspension.”

“When you’re 17, you’re almost considered an adult . . . but you can’t say what you feel at an assembly?”

Cohen was in the middle of a year-end speech lamenting the school administration’s treatment of his soccer team when staff cued music and cut him off. His suspension has outraged many fellow students and attracted the interest of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

Principal Varla Abrams said Cohen refused to “build bridges” with or apologize to phys. ed. staff for what he said. The soccer team’s teacher-coach told Abrams she’d advised the teen not to give such a critical speech. Cohen was subsequently suspended for defying Northern’s code of conduct.

The code, in part, requires that students be respectful, follow the rules and take responsibility for their actions. Abrams determined Cohen had not done that. She’s not opposed to him voicing his complaints publicly, but says there’s a time and place.

“It’s like at a wedding, where everyone takes a huge gasp and looks at each other and with surprise that such comments were made,” the principal said.

But Cohen says after an email exchange with his teacher the night before the assembly — during which he took her advice and made the speech “more positive” — he thought he was good to go.

Northern student Henry Lee Heinonen and others are organizing a free speech rally on Friday to protest Cohen’s suspension. He says the assembly was the ideal time and place for Cohen to voice his concerns, and it’s not fair that he was punished for it.

“Think about it,” said the Grade 12 student. “It’s all the athletes in the school, all the people with concerns, everyone on the soccer team, the phys. ed. department — they’re all there in one place and he had the opportunity to make a speech. So where else would he say it?”

Saying the punishment was heavy-handed, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association plans to write the school that Cohen “ought not to have been silenced nor suspended . . . particularly as here when the criticism does not threaten order, is not defamatory, malicious or discriminatory.”

John Lombardi, the school’s assistant curriculum leader of athletics, called Cohen’s comments “insulting and hurtful” to a school that has more teacher-coaches than any in the Toronto board.

The school’s soccer teams have had a troubled past. In 2009, the coach forfeited a semifinal game, saying the junior team wasn’t committed or showing up for morning practices. Last year, not a single staff member volunteered to act as a teacher-coach and there was no Northern soccer team.

Among other serious concerns he has about the treatment of his team, Cohen feels the phys. ed. department didn’t try hard enough to get a teacher-coach.

The board says Cohen has been banned from any sports teams because he was penalized with a red card at a soccer game late in the season. He must go before an area athletic committee before he can play again — an issue that has nothing to do with the school.

But Cohen says he has had all of his phys. ed. privileges revoked for the year, including use of the gym. He said the principal told him the phys. ed. department was “angry about my speech and that was why they didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

Northern student Jordan Benjamin, 17, called the suspension “over the line.” He conceded Cohen “could have worded it better, he could have been a little more respectful.”

“But the teachers also could have been a little more lenient in realizing that in a school where they encourage you to find your niche and to say what you think needs to be done, it’s a little hypocritical.”

The free speech rally will take place at 11:30 a.m. Friday across the street from Northern, on Roehampton Ave.

What was said
Text of what Emil Cohen said at a school assembly before his speech was cut short:
This year, the soccer season was one that easily surpassed the expectations of everyone involved with the team. Admittedly, these expectations were extremely low, due to the three years of abject failure that we have been subjected to, through no fault of our own. We now have it in instilled into us that “soccer” (at Northern) is synonymous with the word “unnecessary.” We had this point made clearly to us during the season, when our last two home games, one of which was against NT, were moved to Forest Hill to allow the football team more field time. Nevertheless, we had a team this year, due to the tenacity and perseverance of several players, who took it upon themselves to do the phys. Ed. department’s job and find a coach.

December 1, 2010
Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/mobile/articl...7a366c8e9b%2C0
(Canada)