A Grade 11 student in Mississauga is launching a protest against rising fees by refusing to pay his school’s $65 annual student activity fee.

Ryan Rocca, 16, who attends St. Martin Catholic School, feels the fee charged to him and all his schoolmates is too high. He is also refusing because students who opt to take special enhanced courses such as hospitality or woodshop must pay additional fees.

“I definitely won’t be paying it,” Rocca said Sunday, though he has paid the fee for the past two years.

With about 1,108 students at his school, the activity fee generates about $72,000 a year for St. Martin, so he wonders why that amount, coupled with education funding from the province, isn't enough to cover the other course fees.

Students choosing St. Martin’s hospitality program, for example, pay a $40 fee for a chef’s jacket, which is mandatory for the course.

There’s a $100 fee for an enhanced physical education program at the school, in which students can learn yoga and self-defence.

The enhanced courses aren’t mandatory, so students can simply opt out of them, a spokesperson for the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board points out. And for students who can’t afford the fees, the school will endeavor to cover the costs, says spokesperson Bruce Campbell.

The chef’s jackets are necessary for health and safety reasons, and students can borrow them from each other, Campbell adds.

Other fees for optional courses include $60 for woodshop — $45 of that charged to students for materials if the student builds something to take home, Campbell adds.

Rocca says he doesn’t take any specialized programs at the school, but a lot of his friends do, and there’s “high interest’’ in them.

“It’s not a matter of whether a student can afford the programs and the board covering students who can’t. It’s a matter of should those fees be there in the first place,’’ Rocca says.

The school board says St. Martin’s activity fee — high schools across the board charge activity fees, Campbell says — is intended to pay for things such as student agendas, faith retreats, and “civvies days’’ fundraisers run by the student council, where students are allowed to dress in street clothes rather than their school uniforms.

There’s also a $20 “faith development’’ fee for faith retreat facilitators, rental of facilities, and transportation and meals for students during the retreats. These events are held once a year and are mandatory.

Rocca says that last year in Grade 10, the retreat was held in the school’s gymnasium and students received juice boxes and were served pasta. He doesn’t feel that added up to $20.

“Getting into specialized courses, they want more money, more money for civvies days. It’s ridiculous the way they act and the amount of money they want,’’ Rocca says of the school.

“Education funding is provided to school boards by the Ministry of Education and is substantial, but not absolute in terms of covering all costs. The fees indicated in this instance are all permissible under Ministry guidelines,’’ Campbell said in a statement Sunday.

School fees are a controversial topic. In 2011 the province of Ontario brought in new guidelines for fees schools may charge.

The guidelines say schools couldn’t charge students for items such as instruments, science labs, texts, workbooks, basic flat fees or any core materials necessary to teach the curriculum.

A 2013 survey by the advocacy group People for Education found that 93 per cent of high schools charge “student activity fees” near the beginning of school years, ranging from about $10 to $100.

Specialized courses that schools offer, such as cooking and wood shop, aren't optional because they aren't beyond the core curriculum, says Annie Kidder, executive director of the advocacy group.

“You have to take electives or you can't graduate,'' she added.

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She said students who can't afford enhanced materials and supplies are often loath to ask their parents to foot the bill for them.

She pointed out that fees are a tricky area because they amount to millions of dollars that schools across the province rely on.

Fees for “enhanced materials'' for these specialized courses should be optional, but not a barrier to actually taking the course, Kidder added.