By: Nicole M.
No one can deny it has been an eventful year. It can even be argued one of the most eventful years in the school’s history. As a school community, we’ve been through it all. However the most amazing thing that has happened this year is our survival as a school community. Through thick and thin, we’ve proved to everyone that we are more than just a school of 2000 kids, but we are family.Let’s take a look at our year in review.
The beginning of the school year seemed as casual and similar to the next. The new grade 10 students arrived, clogging the hallways and seemingly clueless about the law of the schools. The grade 12s seemed to have it all figured out, with the tunes of the last year of high school playing in their heads. They simply hoped for an end to the school year. Between emotions and adjusting to school work, September came and left as did October. Nevertheless, November carried the same anxiety close to the end of the month; the autumn season blew in a heap of change.
It was on November 29th during 3rd period, Western Canada went into a lockdown. Most students didn’t panic; they thought it was a routine drill except it wasn’t. An actual threat threatened the school, not something simple though. It was a bomb threat, someone had called the school. Student had no idea about this conclusion, but they refused to remain clueless. It was later mentioned that approximately 200 students were tweeting during the lockdown. Twitter was also a great source of information for the media outlet. Later that evening, Western Canada was beaming throughout news.
However that would not be our last encounter with the media, in fact we would hold at least a couple segments throughout the year. As the students arrived back from Christmas break, we were followed by the media. It had nothing to do with the students or the bomb threat, but with our mascot. The CBE was questioning our school’s mascot wondering whether it was offensive in nature, Western Canada High School was on the brink of losing ‘Redmen’. The entire city was engaged in the conversation, even students rallied together to write about their connection to the name. Through it all, our principle Mr. Hackman kept his head held high and ensured the dignity and protection of his students was never put at risk.
The media’s swarm was not quite over. There was one more outbreak that led the media to surround our school. Within the Western Canada walls, there were 2 cases of the measles outbreak. Not only, was the potential of the virus spreading alarming but it was also alarming the number of students that had yet to receive their vaccination shots. In the end the school had to send home around 200 students for around 14 days, many grade 12s feared the impact this would have on their education. However, Western’s administration provided great service and ensured students were able to not miss too much class and if they did they were provided with great options regarding how to manage.
Even with all these crazy things, the students at Western didn’t forget who they were, when it came to events they are still the best. Raising over 21,000 dollars for cancer research through our annual Head Shave event as well as raising countless cans for non-profit organizations.
Through thick and thin, we’ve proved to everyone that we are more than just a school of 2000 kids, but we are family. We were more than the name Redmen and a couple cases of measles couldn’t keep us down. What next year holds is unknown but it’s guaranteed that we can handle it.
