Bowling for Coquitlam

Kim Meier, David Lam Representative

Gleneagle Secondary School is relatively
young, Only seven years old, Gleneagle
has barely had time to make a name for
itself. Becoming infamous for its relative-
ly high drug use and high parking lot
frequency of BMWs—perhaps the two
are correlated?—events on October 26
have helped to raise Gleneagle’s profile on
the Lower Mainland map of messed-up
high schools.

According to Corporal Jane Baptista,
police received an “incomplete” 9-1-1 call
from a flustered Gleneagle student at
around 10:30am on Tuesday morning.
Within a half-hour, students were told to
assemble in the gym for an indeterminate
amount of time.

The Coquitlam RCMP assembled
around the school, with about three offi-
cers stationed at each entrance and cars
blocking the exits of the parking lot. No
one was allowed to go in or out of the
property except authorized, armed RCMP
officers in bulletproof vests.

At around noon, the Emergency
Response Team (ERT) showed up in
armoured trucks, accompanied by a dog
squad. The ERT made a sweep of the
school grounds, including an inspection

 

of the roof, with weapons drawn,
prompting about 40 distraught parents
gathered across the street to question the
validity of the RCMP’s promise that stu-
dents inside were safe.

Around 1:30pm, the ERT pulled out
of Gleneagle without removing any evi-

 

dence or making an arrest. Baptista
reported that an arrest had been made in
East Vancouver at around the same time,
and that this “person of interest” was

being held in connection with the 9-1-1-
phone call.

Students were finally released at
2:30pm, and were eager to speak with the
swarming media crews about the incident.
Students were given a notice to take home
detailing the events of the day.

What had prompted the 9-1-1 call and
the swift and heavy response only became
clear Tuesday evening after the RCMP
finally released details.

 

A ninth grader, who was new to
Gleneagle and had recently been expelled,
has been charged with two counts of
uttering threats to cause death or bodily
harm under section 264.1(1)(a) and
appeared in court the following morning,
Media reports indicate the youth made a
threat against an individual teacher—
though Gleneagle reported to parents that
a threat was made to the school commu-
nity and “not to any person or persons in
particular.” The student was released on
the condition that he stay away from the
Gleneagle area, and will return to court in
November.

Complaints were filed by parents
regarding the lack of information flow
during the incident, but often details of an
investigation cannot be released until the
investigation is complete, especially in a
case such as this where the suspect in
question was not at the school location.
“The primary focus of the entire investi-
gation was to ensure the safety of the
children staff of Gleneagle
Secondary School,” explains Baptista,

and

who is a parent herself and understands
the anxiety that parents must have been
feeling.

 

Have Money, Will Freeze

Brandon Ferguson, News Editor

 

On October 26th, Carole James, leader of
the BC New Democrats, chose the New
Westminster campus of Douglas College
to announce her party’s plans to freeze
tuition fees for 2005/06 should they win
May’s provincial election. The promise
comes in light of the nearly $1-billion
announced surplus in BC—nearly half of
that coming from students’ pockets.
“With a billion-dollar surplus in our
province, we can afford to put the brakes
on and freeze tuition fees next year,”
James said to the applause of a pub-night
sized crowd in the main concourse. In

order to facilitate the freeze and combat
inflation, the NDP would add $24 million
in funding to universities and colleges.

James told the assembled crowd of
students and media that fees have
increased 180 percent at Douglas since
the tuition freeze was thawed and inciner-
ated by Gordon Campbell’s Liberals in
2001. Capilano College has faced a 247-
percent increase in that same time, and
the Okanagan University College has
endured a nearly 300-percent rise.

Prior to the press conference, James
sat down with some Douglas College stu-
dents for an hour-long talk about student
experiences and the trying times faced by
so many.

During that hour, James heard first-
hand the toll that tuition fee hikes have
taken on students. Some students are
working three jobs while taking part-time
classes in order to make ends meet while
achieving their educational goals. Family
and friendly relationships are suffering,
and new parents are left wondering which
of their children will get to go to college.
The four-year degree has become a mis-
nomer, and education has become a
source of lottery-like revenue for the cur-

rent government, where suckers (read:
you and me) pay through the nose for the
chance at a better life.

Rather than looking at education as an
economic windfall for the government,
James promised the students that she
would treat education as “an economic
tool—not just because it’s the right thing
to do, but also because it’s the right eco-
nomic thing to do.”

Jessica Gojevic told James: “I have
several friends that I watch struggle every-
day to get groceries and to get their
homework done because they’re working
two jobs.”

Joel Koette, who splits his time
between Douglas and SFU, also expressed
the difficulties involved in the life of a
student. “I have a day job and I also have
an evening job and I take part-time cours-
es,” he said. “It’s quite a balancing act.”

James reflected the woeful state of
student life in her announcement.

“The Liberal government has shifted
the cost of higher education on to the
backs of students and their families,”
James said. “Some students are working
2-3 jobs while taking part-time classes.
BC can do better and must do better.”

Advanced Education Minister and
Deputy Premier, Shirley Bond, found it
odd that James would make the
announcement two days before a key by-
election in Surrey.

“The tuition fees in British Columbia
are actually at or about the national aver-
age,” Bond said. “While the rest of the
country was raising tuition, we had an arti-
ficial political tuition freeze. This is
nothing more than the same old, same
old.”

Also odd was the use of revenue from
increased tuition fees to create more over-
priced seats that will be funded by future
tuition fee increases. Or the sudden
reappearance of previously cut funding
for women’s programs in an election year.
Or the taxpayer-funded ads that announce
(in a manner as tacky as Big Gay Al’s
cabana wear), “Everything’s super!
Thanks for asking.” Or Premier
Campbell’s absence for the passing of a
bill in October that introduced stiffer
penalties for those caught driving drunk.
But hey, I’m just saying—politics is some-
times an odd business. Same old, same
old.

ROVEMbEr § 8/2008