Halifax Regional School Board’s (HRSB) regular monthly meeting was packed with high school and junior high students last week, in attendance to support fellow students Grace (grade 12) and Jay (grade 9), who were on the agenda presenting a proposal to ban bottled water in schools across HRM. The presentation was developed by members of the newly formed Engaged Youth for Environmental Sustainability, or EYES, which also recently joined the NS-based “Turn on the Taps and Ditch the Bottle Coalition”, made up of several organizations including CUPE, Canadian Federation of Students, Ecology Action Centre, Polaris Institute, and the Council of Canadians. They gave a short and succinct presentation outlining the reasons HRSB should ban the bottle, topping it off with a student-created video (with Grace delivering spoken word): School board members were interested in the proposal, and many had supportive words for the students. A staff report has been requested, and will be on the agenda for discussion at the next meeting on March 28th. This student-driven initiative could see one of the first school boards in Canada decide to phase out the sale and procurement of bottled water in all HRSB facilities.
