The outside of the Intersect Youth and Family Services building, where students attend the Intersect School Program. Right beside the main entrance a man was sleeping

By Tommy Osborne

Intersect School Program

Unsafe streets causes school program to be paused

Mar 27, 2024 | 5:01 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Students of the Intersect School Program were in for disappointment when they learned the program would be pausing for the 2024-25 school year. The School District 57’s Alternate Community Programs sent a letter to families involved in the program explaining students won’t be able to attend school next year, and instead will have to move to their catchment school or the John McInnis Centre.

“The school program saved my life, so it definitely feels like the rug has been pulled out from under us. And all of the kids who go to my school, we chose to go there for a reason,” said Avery Savard, a grade 11 student of the Intersect School Program.

The front and back of a letter sent to students of the Intersect School Program

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Tailored for students under the Category H designation, meaning students requiring intensive behaviour intervention or students with serious mental illness like anxiety or depression, pausing this program could cause quite a challenge. While the letter explained Intersect students can go to the John McInnis Centre in a cohort with their fellow students, Avery’s mother Erin explained this may not be a great fit.

“Intersect is more based on mental health, anxiety, depression, that side of it and the John Mcinnis school is more of the behaviour side. So I think as a parent, what I would be most worried about is my child being exposed to more of the things in the school with her peers that I would rather not,” Erin said.

The letter explains the program is being paused due to “actively looking for a larger building, in a safer location.” Both Erin and Avery say safety has been a huge issue, and it’s only been getting worse.

“We had to call the police so many times because we were getting harassed, us kids were getting harassed by the unhoused people. And we witnessed a lot of drug abuse by the school and it’s pretty scary,” Avery said.

“They also use their emergency exit as a washroom. So it’s unsafe, if there was a fire, it’s unsafe for them to use their emergency exit,” Erin added.

SD57’s Superintendent Jameel Aziz has only been the superintendent for three days, so he understandably couldn’t provide specific insight into the situation, but he said the school district will support the Intersect students however it can.

“SD57 will continue to provide support and programing and services to our students. But of course, there’s a very passionate group of students and parents out there who really feel the program has made a huge change for them and are obviously very disappointed to see that the change happening,” Aziz said.

As for the school board, Trustee Sarah Holland and Board Chair Craig Brennan both said they had not heard of this situation prior to being contacted by CKPG. Brennan couldn’t offer a specific reason why he hadn’t heard of this, as he commented that he has frequently been involved with the Intersect School Program. It could have been a communication mishap, or it’s possible that the School Board was going to hear about this after Spring Break in April, but at the moment the School Board could not comment on details beyond what the letter sent out by Alternate Community Programs said.

If you would like to learn more of the situation, Intersect Youth and Family Services Executive Director Shannon Croy says you can contact her for additional details at 250-562-6639 ext 111, or executivedirector@intersect.bc.ca.

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