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Times-Advocate, 1999-04-28, Page 1010 Exeter Times -Advocate Opinion4N.Forum Wednesday. April 28, 1999 Remember when... On June 30 to July 1, 2000, South Huron District High School will celebrate its 50th Anniversary. The Exeter Times Advocate would like to join in the celebrations by sharing articles or pictures which have appeared over the years. YEARS 1950-1954 - HI HIGHLIGHTS 55 stranded Exeter H.S. pupils: freed EXETER - .February 8 - About 55 students of Exeter and District High School, marooned in farm homes overnight after two school buses bogged down in heavy snowdrifts, were rest- ing and thawing out at temporary billets here and in the district late today. There was no indication when roads, would be passable enough so the pupils could retul i. to their farm homes. Twenty students and two drivers stayed at the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. George Dunn overnight and were res- cued early this afternoon. About 25 others are still at rural billets. The first group is staying at Exeter resi- dents' homes. Stalled in drifts These pupils and two drivers, Harold Schwartzentruber, of Exeter and Carl Oesch, of Dashwood, were stranded about three miles north of here yesterday afternoon after drifts which collected in the wild, cold snow- storm stopped their bus on its regular run through North Usborne Township. The driver fought vainly to keep the bus moving after it turned off No. 4 highway onto a township road. In four hours they only trav- eled a mile. Finally the motor quit and the bus load, 22 in all, trudged 150 yards in three feet of snow to the farm house of Mr. and Mrs. George Dunn near Hurondale. Two students, Malcolm Kirkland and John Whitehouse, walked back to Exeter around 6 p.m. Their three-mile trip took them two hours with the heavy wind at their backs. They slept in friends' homes dur- ing the night. Notify families Out at the farmhouse there was little sleep as the 20 children phoned their families to assure them of their safety and waited for the snowplow to come so they could leave. It didn't get there until 11 a.m. today. Six boys flocked through the drifts to Hurondale Public School nearby but it was closed. Coming back the driving snow clogged their vision and one of the boys bumped into a hydro pole. Face iced "My face was covered with ice when I got back to the bus," said Murray Dawson, one of the six who make the trip. "Roy Ballantyne bumped into a hydro pole. We were up to our knees in snow." When they arrived back at the farmhouse Mr. and Mrs. Dunn gave them hot drinks and a lunch. It was not until 3 a.m. that the stu- dents tried to sleep. On chairs, couches They huddled on chairs and couches and lay on the floor where they could find room. "We talked most of the time," George Parker said. One boy was so tired he fell asleep leaning against the door. When the snowplow went hack to the farm= house at 11 a.m. Charles MacNaughton a high school board member and Andrew Dixon, a teacher followed in a truck with food supplies: Unable to reach the house by truck, they piled the supplies on a toboggan and walked three- quarters of a mile over the fields to the house. Mrs. Dunn and the girls cooked dinner for the boys. The snowplow and a school bus returned at l' p.m. and took the children to Exeter where they were billeted in homes. FOR MORI•. INFORMATION AWAIT THE SIiDIIS "All -WARS 1{I UNION" CONTACT KI•.NI)R,\ Amin( 235-4006 (II) oIr 235-4587 (W) JI{ I'nI Howl.. 236-7167 OPINIONS & LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Correct those injustices Dear Editor: I'd like to present some interesting information about trade unions. A/ Angus Reid Group collected some date in Feb. 1997 about current attitudes on unions in Canada. Some of the findings were: a) No less than 90 percent of the population believe that a worker should not have to be a member of a union in order to be hired, and 61 percent believe a worker should not be forced to join the union of the majority. b) Approval of unions has decreased from 1961 to 1997. Our laws need to be amended so workers may be free to join or not join a union. B/ Section 52 of the Ontario Labour Relations Act 1995 permits exemption to union membership and payment of union dues because of religious conviction or belief, in certain situations. Many provinces have similar provisions. This section needs to be amended to include all situations, for example, when some one alio is already a member of a union converts to a reli- gion that does not allow union membership. C/ Section 54 of the same act prohibits discrimina- tion. Closed shop policy is discriminatory. For exam- ple, if you can not join a union because of religious rea- sons, in practice you can not get a job where there is a union with security provisions in the collective agree- ment. D/ The Canadian Charter of rights and Freedoms, Section 2 reads, "Everyone has the following funda- mental freedoms a) . a freedom of conscience and reli- gion... d) freedom of association". Most collective agreements between unions and employers take away these freedoms. I hope and pray that the above noted injustices are corrected as soon as possible. With Christian greetings, JERRY TILLEMA Chatham Ontario Teachers give quality education Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the PC plan to test teach- es for re -certification. I disagree with mandatory test- ing for a number of reasons. First, teachers are well trained and well qualified. Most teachers have a university degree, one year of teacher training. and many additional qualifications (AQ) courses. Qualification courses cost over $700. each. AQ courses are taken a our own time and at our own cost. If the Ministry of Education wants teachers to stay current in their practices, then our province should make professional development more financial- ly accessible. Secondly, to stay current, teaches organize work- shops and professional development days to generate new ideas and strategies to address recent curriculum changes. We are already an empowered and self -moti- vated group. Teacher testing is a slap in the face to our profession, especially when we already actively contin- ue the process of lifelong learning. Lastly, teacher performance and professional goal setting are evaluated annually by principals. During evaluations, teachers who have fallen behind current practices and theory are guided by the administration on how to improve their teaching. There is no need for mandatory testing of teaching abilities if the schools already have a system that catches and guides those few educators who struggle. The Conservation plan sends the. message that the government does not trust Ontario educators and that we are incapable for organizing ourselves to meet the - challenges of teaching. By writing this letter, 1 hope Ontario parents will realize how much teachers are striving towards maintaining the quality of education, and perhaps renew their faith and trust in teachers. JODI REGIER A Proud Teacher Zurich, Ontario LETTERS TO THE EDITOR... The Times -Advocate welcomes lettersto the editor as a forum for open discussion of local issues, eoncerna, complaint, and kudos. By mail: P.Q. Box 850, Exeter, Ontario NOM 1S6 ay fax: (519) 23 5=0766 By e-mail: editor@South Huron.com Please include your name and address. Anonymous letters will not be published. The limes -Advocate reserves the right to edit letters for brevity. Principal's message Violence is a barometer of social stress and just how much schools mirror society was certainly realized this week with the horrible news from Colorado. Once again we are reminded of what a major prob- lem violent behaviour continues to be in many homes and commu- nities. Violence directed towards self and toward others has steadi- ly increased in schools all over North America. Statistical studies attribute the violence of young people to four main causes: poor socialization, poor school performance, maltreatment and alienation. (Cole 1995, Offord + Lipman 1996). Such statistics and studies have spawned stu- dent conflict resolution programs, peacemakers on the playground and mandatory Violence - Free Schools Committee. South Huron DHS's own such committee meets once each term in discuss current issues of violent behaviour, our school code of behaviour and proactive mea- sures that we can take to continue to have the Violent -free school that we do have. The vice- principal, Peter Heeney, and I meet with a committee made up of representatives from the School Council: (Donna Shapton), busdrivers: (Jim Chapman), support staff: (Marj Green), teaching staff: (Suzanne Maple, Joe Fulop), stu- dents: (Sarah Vermunt) and our police liaison officer: (Diane McGregor). Our work tends to centre on a actions we can take to prevent or deter violent behaviour. Recent Canadian studies document that nearly half of 15 year-old boys and one quarter of girls took part in bullying activities at school. An Ontario study by Craig and Pepper conclude that bullying occurred regularly on playgrounds an school properties. These kinds of studies shock us into realizing that we cannot and must not dismiss the violent acts in the school of Colorado, Arkansas, Mississippi, Oregon and Florida as being beyond your reality. As our hearts go out to the school community of Littleton this week let us remember the need for adults to be vigilant to bullying behaviour, the right of young people to be safe at school and the necessity of continuing to talk to each other about violence and the causes of violent behaviour. Above all else through, the necessity of taking time to remain interested in the lives of our young people cannot be over-estimated. DEB HOMUTH PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE A Point to Ponder From The Battle Cry comes this quote: "Would you consider abortion in these four situa- tions? 1. There is a preacher end wife who are very,very poor. They already have 14 kids. Now she finds out she is pregnant with her 15th. They are living in tremendous poverty. Considering their poverty and the excessive world population, would you consider recommending abortion? 2. The father is sick with sniffles, the mother has TB. They have 4 children. The first is blind, the second is dead. The third is deaf and the fourth has TB. The mother finds she is pregnant again. Given the extreme situation, would you recommend abortion? 3. A white man raped a 13 -year -old REV black girl and she got pregnant. If you VERNON were her parents, would you consider DEAN recommending abortion? POINT TO 4. A teenage girl is pregnant. She is PONDER not married. tier fiancee is not the father of the baby, and he is very upset. Would you recommend an abortion? If you have answered "yes" to any of these situations: In the first case you would have killed John Wesley, one of the great evangelists of the 19th century. In the second case, you would have killed Beethoven. In the third case you would have killed Ethel Waters, the great black gospel singer. In the fourth case, you would have recommended the murder of ,)esus Christ. With U.S. abortion deaths topping 30 million, only God knows what we have sacrificed in lost human tal- ent and creativity."