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A guardian angel
Heather Blake holds an angel statue given to her by a grate-
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Blake also holds the certificate she received at the Nov. 29
meeting of Huron County council. (David Blaney photo)
Brussels woman saves life
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THE EDITOR,
School closures are in the air again.
Parents and students are justifiably
upset at the idea of their school disap-
By David Blaney
Citizen staff
Heather Blake, of Moncrieff Road,
may not consider herself a guardian
angel but Angela Berard certainly
does. Without Blake and her fellow
Vanastra Recreation Centre life-
guards, Lissa Berard and Andrea
Craig, Angela Berard doesn't think
she would be alive to celebrate
Christmas.
Berard, who has a rare heart condi-
tion, suffered a heart stoppage while
swimming with her children at the
Vanastra pool. Blake and her compa-
triots had to provide nearly eight
minutes of CPR to keep Berard alive
until the arrival of the ambulance
from Seaforth.
Blake was on the phone at the time
of the seizure and placed the 911 call
prior to going to assist the lifeguard
on pool duty. She alternated artificial
respiration with compression as two
lifeguards worked on the uncon-
scious woman at a time. Just prior to
the arrival of the ambulance she went
to the building entrance to guide the
ambulance crew directly to the pool.
Blake, who is the assistant recre-
ation director at the centre, had been
the head lifeguard at the Brussels
pool for three years prior to begin-
ning work at Vanastra, a little over
two years ago. She has been a life-
guard for 10 years and has taken a
CPR course every year.' Her last
refresher course was two weeks prior
to the incident.
Blake commented on her feelings
after the paramedics had taken over.
She said, "When you step back to be
out of the way all these things are
going through your mind. Did I do
pearing. They ask many questions but
the answers are not dear.
Yet there were some questions not
being asked. Here are a few.
everything right? Was there anything
more I could have done?"
In a letter to Blake, Berard pro-
vides her answer to that question.
She wrote, "You are my guardian
angel." To emphasise her feelings
Berard gave each of her rescuers an
angel statue as a token of her appre-
ciation.
The rescuers also received official
recognition as the three lifeguards
were given certificates commemorat-
ing their skill and quick thinking at
the Nov. 29 meeting of the Huron
County council.
Why is Ontario the only province
that funds four separate school sys-
tems: the English public, the English
Catholic, the French public and the
French Catholic.?
Why, despite the greatest North
American economic boom in history,
has there been a dramatic increase in
school closures in Ontario? This year
alone 1 I 1 schools may be closed. Has
there been a,dramatic decline in stu-
dent enrollment? (The answer is no.)
What does square footage have to
do with a child's education? (Under
Bill 160 students are now funded
according to the square footage of
school space they are allowed.)
Does square footage funding allow
for varied programme or location
-costs? Is it a sensible way to fund
education? Can local municipalities
help to bail schools out?
The problem is that Bill 160 ended
the ability of a local municipality to
financially support its schools.
Whereas before Bill 160 about 80 per
cent of the education budget was pro-
vided locally and under local control,
now the costs are split between the
local taxpayer and the province but
the control of the money is in Queen's
Park. In other words, like the location
of our hospitals, we have little local
control over the location of our
schools.
Teachers knew all of this was com-
ing when they held the province-wide
protest against Bill 160. The threat to
both our schools and our democratic
local control was clearly spelled out
in the bill.
And so the real question is what can
we do? As individual- schools are
picked off and. the schools around
them sigh with relief because they
avoided being closed, it is easy to
divide and conquer.
Instead, school councils and par-
nits need to band together across
Ontario to reverse some of this harm-
ful legislation.
The. People for Education at
www.peopleforeducation.com is
probably the most active group work-
ing for the preservation of public edu-
cation. It has been referred to by The
Toronto Star as "the only source of
credible information on what's hap-
pening in schools". It has a report on
small schools on its website. Until
parents across the province band
together, the education system will
continue to suffer under our present
"one-size-fits-all" legislation:
Public schools are the only institu-
tion that nearly every Canadian citi-
zen experiences. They reinforce the
qualities Canadians valued and have a
-high standard of education. Just
recently our 15-year-olds scored sec-
ond in reading and fourth and fifth in
math and science compared to 32
industrialized countries. (By the way,
in the scores of public and private
school students From the same eco-
nomic strata, there was no differ-
ence).
I like small neighbourhood schools.
Their positive effects are well docu-
mented. They are safe and students
learn important qualities like respect
for one another and the importance of
community involvement.
To allow public education to crum-
ble into privatized or charter schools
is to polarize society and undermine
the basic beliefs Canadians hold in
tolerance, sharing and fairness. This
is an institution well worth enriching.
The future of our children and our
country depends on it.
Linda Easton,
Goderich.
PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2001 .
Letters to the editor
Writer speaks out against closures