I’m very excited to introduce two wonderful young people from Scarborough Southwest and graduates of Birchmount Park Collegiate to the House today: Aqib Abbas and Michael Tucker. They have taken on the initiative for road safety in Scarborough; more specifically, in Scarborough Southwest. Please welcome them to the House.

Speaker, over the past few months, we have had numerous tragic and terrifying incidents in high schools, including a number of incidents in schools across Scarborough.

Students are experiencing immense difficulty, especially after the two and half years of virtual learning. With the lack of extracurricular activities, students, families and teachers are all worried. They’re scared. They’re worried about these students’ mental health; I know the minister just spoke about it. These students are dealing with trauma and anxiety.

We’ve even had stabbings and shootings in our schools, resulting in multiple deaths in Scarborough.

These students don’t want to hear about the Roadmap to Wellness or the numbers—those are great, but we need real action in these schools. They want to know what resources are in place for our youth in schools and in our communities to ensure their safety and well-being.