Before a crowd of roughly 300 members of the public in the Williams Lake Jr Secondary Gym last night (Tues Oct 2nd) - Trustees of the Board of Education for School District #27 (Cariboo-Chilcotin) launched their public consultation sessions which could lead to 3 schools in Williams Lake (Kwaleen, Glendale and Wildwood Elementary) and 2 in 100 Mile (100 Mile Jr Secondary and Buffalo Creek Elementary) declared closed in late January
The Rush/Wolf has the full story but I was profoundly disappointed in the City of Williams Lake Trustee, Dr. Doug Neufeld, when he said this in response to potential bullying situations between Grade 7 and Grades 12 students in a proposed Grade 7 - 12 "two campus" school:
Bullying is unacceptable but an unfortunate reality from Kindergarten through grade 12.
Instead of being "defeatist", Dr. Neufeld should have, in my view, said,
"Yes, we all agree bullying is unacceptable in any form and the School Board is committed to enforcing this vision in all of the schools in this district"
Finally - in a poll that the Williams Lake Tribune is running right now, they ask:
Do you support the proposed plan to have a two-campus grades 7 to 12 school in Williams Lake?
The poll result is 43 nays to 23 yeas. It should be noted the Tribune website poll is not scientifically based but based upon volunteer participation by its' website viewers
Story from the Rush/Wolf:
Greg Fry Williams Lake
Residents of Williams Lake voiced strong opposition to School District Number 27’s proposal to create a new, grade 7 to 12 secondary school on two campuses at a special meeting tonight.
One Mother of four told the board, “we have significant bullying in this District, that needs to be addressed. Throwing grade seven students into a high school mix is not the answer.”
Tanner Nichol, a grade ten student at Columneetza agreed, and said grade eight students have it bad enough. “I was eleven when I started grade seven, there’s no way I could have handled the pressures of high school. Grade eight was bad enough, there was punch a grade eight day, kick a grade eight day, if that goes down to grade seven’s and there’s grade twelve’s I’m thinking there’s going to be more dropouts than there are right now.”
Trustee Doug Neufeld responded by saying bullying is unacceptable but an unfortunate reality from Kindergarten through grade 12.
He also told the crowd that grade twelve students could become positive role models for the younger students and argued most senior high school students are “good people.”
The meeting was held before close to 300 people at Williams Lake Secondary School and was the first chance for the public to respond to the board’s Initial Options Report.
Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 100 Mile House Junior Secondary.
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