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By Megan O’Toole, National Post

Grade 7 and 8 students at a west-end alternative school took an unusual field trip last week: They headed downtown to a protest hosted by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, a notoriously confrontational activist group.

But to Demitra Zervas, principal of City View Alternative Senior School, there was nothing extraordinary about the outing; in fact, students at her school have been repeatedly exposed to OCAP’s ideology, even participating in volunteer placements with the militant anti-poverty organization.

Friday’s trip gave the school’s approximately five dozen elementary-age students — most of whom attended, but only with parental consent, Ms. Zervas said — a chance to observe first-hand OCAP’s “March on the McGuinty Government.” The protest, which began at Nathan Phillips Square, called upon the province to raise welfare and disability rates.