Former school board chair says gift-giving can put pressure on less fortunate students

Should year-end presents to teachers be expelled from B.C. schools?

At the end of the school year, students sometimes give their teachers a gift to say thank you, but one Lower Mainland resident has sparked a debate on the practice.

It began with a letter to the editor of the Tri-City News from a Coquitlam resident who called on the local school district to disallow the giving of year-end gifts.

"We have refugee/immigrant families, families living in poverty and families struggling to maintain their housing. Having to come up with extra money to purchase an appropriate gift for teacher(s) is too much," the letter writer, credited as E. Foxhill, argued.

"It is not enough to say that it is not expected because kids compare what others are giving to the teacher and feel pressured."

A former chair of the Vancouver School Board, Patti Bacchus, says it's an issue worth discussing.  

"I think we have to be really aware and think through are there ways we could do this differently, so that we aren't really compounding some of the pressures that students have because of their own personal life situations," Bacchus said.

"This kind of concept comes up when we talk even about school field trips or activities where they say, you know, bring in a toonie tomorrow or bring in five dollars.

"When your family's in a financial crisis and you're accessing the food bank and your mother cries when the bills come, you don't what to go home and ask for any money."

Bacchus says gift-giving is not banned in Vancouver schools, but up to the discretion of students and parents.

She said some suggested alternatives include having parents drop off gifts at the school's office and having teachers open them in private.