Teachers at some GTA schools have cancelled charity fundraising clubs — no United Way bake sales or movie nights, no Terry Fox runs for cancer, no Free the Children drives for wells in Africa — to show their anger at Ontario’s new wage-freeze law.

The loss of student fundraising at a number of Peel Region elementary schools and at least one York Region high school is the latest casualty of the labour turmoil sweeping Ontario schools, as many teachers opt out of all after-school programs to protest the controversial new law that freezes teachers’ wages while circumventing their bargaining rights.

“It’s unfortunate; our Students In Action Committee has raised money for Free the Children to build a school in Tanzania and our Athletic Council sponsored a bike ride in the gym last year called The Inside Ride to raise money for childhood cancer — but now we’ve been told those groups are cancelled,” said Virginia Yung, 17, a Grade 12 student at Richmond Green Secondary School in Richmond Hill.

“It’s really kind of sad. It’s not fair to use students as weapons; the government should talk to teachers because this new law does not put students first,” said Yung.

A number of elementary schools within the Peel District School Board have cancelled fundraising clubs, from United Way drives and ‘Me to We’ clubs to the Terry Fox runs during the school day for cancer research, said Peel spokesperson Brian Woodland.

“Group activities would include selling food like freezies, holding bake sales, movie nights, etc., and all would involve teachers,” said Woodland, who noted these student drives typically raise $288,000 for Peel’s United Way and $478,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation.

Sherry White, president of United Way Peel, called schools “one of our top fundraising organizations” and encouraged everyone to support the agency’s efforts to fight poverty and make sure neighborhoods are healthy and vibrant.

Wendy Fric, school development officer for the Terry Fox Foundation, said Monday she had not heard of any dropouts from among the nearly 4,000 schools that have signed up this year.

Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged Monday he's virtually powerless to help parents and students frustrated with teachers who had sidelined extracurricular activities like coaching and clubs.

“The only thing I can do is to keep appealing to the better angels of our nature … Let’s find a way forward and keep the kids out of it.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said that the teachers’ unions are asking for too much in a time of financial restraint.

During a visit to St. Jude Catholic School in North York, where teachers are not withdrawing from extra duties, Education Minister Laurel Broten thanked teachers for going “that extra mile to make sure our students succeed.”

Students at a number of public schools held protest rallies Monday against both the loss of extracurricular sports and the provincial government whose law has sparked the backlash.

At Emery Collegiate in northwest Toronto, Ronald Nguyen, 16, said his volleyball season has been cut back and his basketball season has been cancelled outright.

“It sucks, honestly,” he said. “Normally you’d stay after school, hang out with friends and get some exercise out of it. Now you just go home.”

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Nguyen and fellow volleyballer Jana Ratnasabapathy, 15, were determined not to let the lack of sports ruin their day.

“Since there’s nothing else to do, we’re going to play basketball at the park,” he said.