The apology is one of the terms of a settlement agreement resolving a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of students, which also includes compensation ranging from $10,000 to $1 million.
“The Government of Yukon, and specifically the Department of Education, accepts full responsibility and offers a sincere apology to the affected children and their families,” Education Minister Scott Kent said in a statement delivered in the legislative assembly on April 9.
In 2022, representative plaintiffs commenced a class action against the Yukon government on behalf of students who were subjected to holds and restraints, or were locked in a room or placed in seclusion, between Jan. 1, 2007, and June 30, 2022.
In August 2025, the parties agreed to settle the class proceeding. The agreement allows class members to claim compensation under three tiers, each corresponding to a different level of harm.
The agreement also required the Yukon government to issue a public statement acknowledging the harm suffered by class members.
In the statement, the government said holds and restraints are taught to teachers and staff in Yukon schools and are intended to be used only as a last resort when all other measures have failed to prevent imminent harm to a student or others.
The statement said seclusion is not taught by the department but is also understood to be used only as a last resort in situations involving imminent harm.
The statement acknowledged that between January 2007 and June 2022, teachers and staff at JHES routinely and repeatedly used holds, restraints and seclusion on students when there was no risk of harm.
The province noted that holds, restraints and seclusion were used at JHES and in the Grove Street Program to, among other things, discipline students and modify their behaviour and were used excessively and for longer than necessary.
“This lack of communication and accountability created barriers to healing and recovery, burdening the children and their families for far too long,” the government said, apologizing to the affected children and their families.
“The Government of Yukon asks for their forgiveness for having failed to protect those children from the improper use of holds, restraints and seclusion while in the care of the Government of Yukon at Jack Hulland Elementary School.”
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