Letter: Children need public Junior high school

To whom it may concern,

We are the parents of two children who currently attend the Morinville Public School. The creation of this school came as a huge relief to us and our family but we are now anxious as our oldest daughter is in Grade 5 and it won’t be long before she’s in junior high with nowhere to go.

In 2007, we moved to Morinville as we wanted our children to grow up in a small, safe community. Two years ago we built our dream home with the intention of growing old and retiring in this lovely town. Never in our wildest dreams did we anticipate that our children may not have a school to attend. As we understand, non-Catholic children are now being turned away from the ONLY junior high school in this town. Apparently, they can make room if you’re Catholic but the rest of us can what? Home school? Be bussed out of town? This is completely absurd!!

dis·crim·i·na·tion
dəˌskriməˈnāSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: discrimination; plural noun: discriminations
1.
the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

How is it that our family … hard working, law abiding, philanthropic, PROUD CANADIANS could potentially be deprived of education for our children in our own town??? I can’t even begin to comprehend this reality.

As mentioned above, we moved to this community in an effort to keep our children as safe as possible. We certainly do not consider putting our girls on a bus, for two hours each day, to commute to and from school on highways and/or back roads to a remote location out of town safe. Our winter roads are often treacherous and we would not feel comfortable with this option at all.

Can you please tell us what the plans entail, including timelines, for access to public education for junior and senior high school children in the Town of Morinville.

If a junior high school is not ready by the time our daughter grows out of the Morinville Public School, we would like to know our options. Please tell us specifically what we are to do. After everything we as a family have been through to get where we are, it would be devastating if we had to move in order to keep our children both safe AND educated!!

Sincerely,

Concerned Parents!!!

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13 Comments

  1. Where in the heck do they come up with 2 hours a day? First off, they deliberately mislead with this article, and secondly they hid behind anonymity. When they moved here, they should have checked out the town. Quit blaming a school system that is already in place for your choices. You are adults, you figure out what your options are. Maybe this time look at the whole picture instead of “me”.

    And I suggest you call the schools, non-catholic children are NOT turned away. Pretty easy to make an inaccurate statement that your child is turned away. One phone call will tell you that accusation is false.

    • Children are being turned away from the catholic schools! I went to enroll my two kids in the catholic board and was told due to the fact that one of both may be a bit behind from switching provinces that they would not get any extra help at the school due to being catholic I said that was wrong and they asked me to go enroll at the public school. Came back a second time after calling head office and was told I had to enroll at the public school…

      • I’m confused. Were they turned away because they were not Catholic (as the original letter states), or because there was not the required capacity at the school to provide the extra help they would require?

  2. Yes “DM”, they are hiding behind anonymity…

    I imagine they came up with the “2 hours number” by taking the approx amount of time their child would be waiting for and riding on a bus each way and then doubled it, but that is just a guess.

    And as for “checking out their options before moving here” I assUme you mean Canada because the Right to a Public Education and the Right to not be discriminated to is a Canadian Right that I believe includes Morinville.

    Perhaps the adults you refer to should check the law and the Constitution regarding the requirement for a community TO FIRST HAVE A PUBLIC SCHOOL before having a Separate school – but that’s just the law that refers to “everybody” not just “you”.

    And yes, non-Catholic children HAVE been turned away from Catholic schools. Further, in other areas Catholics have been turned away from overcrowded Public schools. It’s all part of the ridiculous, unfair, outdated & inefficiently wasteful duplicate school system we run.

    Further “DM”, if you had a single inkling of what these families and others endured last time from the ignorant, poorly informed & bigoted for simply asking for the basic Rights every other Canadian takes for granted you might understand why they post as a group.

    Happily, your laughably simplistic perspective is not only factually incorrect, but demonstrates little understanding of the larger issue which is why beyond this comment you are clearly best ignored.

    • Great post Luke! I have read your posts on several different media sites, and you always have well thought out responses.

      While it’s easy to get angry by the attitudes that some people purvey in their posts, I’ve learned that people with segregationist views such as the poster are above are quickly becoming a very small minority and I almost find it comical now to read their posts.

      Because people have become so connected with what is happening in other parts of the world, the world over becoming much less accepting of intolerance of any kind at a very fast past pace. You are not only seeing this in Moriniville, but in many parts of the world where people have not traditionally had a voice such as Iran. While I am not Muslim, I have a Lebanese background and an Arabic last name. Following 9-11, when fear mongering against Arab’s as a whole became infectious across North America I had co-workers and customers admit to me that until getting to know me on a personal level, they had feelings of fear and hatred towards Arabs (which they mistakenly automatically associated with Muslims). It warmed my heart last week to see the response of the people of Cold Lake following the vandalism that occurred at the Mosque there. This would likely not have happened even 13 years ago. The world is changing and Morinville will too.

      While in Beirut a few years ago (a city that was nearly destroyed by segregationist ideologies), I came across a Beatles quote written on a placard there from the song Within You Without You: “the time will come when you see we’re all one”. While we are not there yet, we are certainly a long way from when this was written in 1967.

  3. Something I always take issue with is the comment that “you should have checked the town out”! Morinville was the ONLY town in ALL of CANADA, that did NOT have two school systems. What would ever make one think, oh! I better check out if this is the only town in Canada that has only one school system.
    That would be the same as checking out if Morinville is the only place that the laws of the land do not apply, or where property taxes are optional, where only two people per residence are allowed…….etc.
    Starting to sound pretty silly ay!!!!!

  4. why do you need two systems, i grew up through the catholic system while not being catholic, i am no worse for it. maybe its a good thing to expose children to different religions. and its not like kids and their parents cant opt out of things like church services if they feel so inclined.

    • Exactly, we don’t need two systems. Take the church out of our educational system, it now longer belongs. Since when is a child getting access to more than one religion in this one horse town? More so, I can guarantee that you wouldn’t be sharing that same opinion if The Catholic School Division were the Muslin School Division.

  5. Schools are for teaching facts. Churches, temples, synagogues and mosques are eminently qualified to teach myths.

  6. All I can say is all this whole introduction of another school in Morinville has done is tear this community APART!!!!. What did the Minister of Education say when he visited us two years ago. I believe he said that it would bring the community together, well it’s done exactly the opposite.

  7. The attacks on others are unnecessary people. There is more than enough room for all of us to be here and coexist peacefully. I do not agree with those who want to do away with religion in school but I am more than willing to accept that they feel that way and respect their feelings. We all need to develop a more open attitude of love, even for those who don’t agree with us. As to the point made about non-catholics being turned away from the local schools.. sorry, it doesn’t wash. I am NOT catholic, never will be. I am openly and honestly not catholic. Have told the schools so on numerous occasions including in much of the paperwork I have signed in the past. None of my children have ever been turned away because of it. Both of my boys who currently attend the catholic school system in Morinville are being treated extremely well at Notre Dame and Primeau.

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