morning picture a group of students
going out in blizzard conditions because
of regardless of the weather they’re
gonna go out and they’re gonna collect
donations for a Christmas morning event
then they’re gonna bring them back to
the school and they’re going to
carefully wrap them mark them from Santa
Claus and have them ready for Christmas
morning not all of them will be there on
Christmas morning but those that can be
will also be in a hotel on Christmas Eve
because they have to be up at 6 a.m. and
on their way to the Legion to create
Christmas for seniors of the community
seniors for whom Christmas is often a
time of loss loved ones far away and
long lost loved ones as well these youth
would be amazing no matter where they
were but now picture that their
alternate school youth they are ones
that wear stereotypes of being bad kids
drug addicts those unable to complete
school nothing could be further from the
truth because there they are giving up
their Christmas morning to make sure the
seniors are looked after one grad who
has been with us for a number of years
and never misses an event once told me
that her Christmases were awful because
of her parents addiction these were the
only good Christmases she had and now
she wants her children to grow up with
that as well hard to imagine but when I
arrived at the school these were the
outcasts of the community the community
had put up a fight about the alternate
school coming into town so that the
alternate school would be in front of
the high school they called trustees
they tried to set up public meetings
they didn’t want those kids anywhere
near their kids but I came and I had a
different idea I believe there’s no such
thing as problem youth just youth with
problems and if we can
teach them to cope with those problems
they can soar so we had to bring them in
and we had to change a community
perception first thing we did was we
renamed the school we called it ace
Agassiz Center for education and we
changed it to a school of choice prior
to that across BC I don’t know how many
of you would know this but to get into
an alternate program you had to be sent
by a high school and you’d have had to
have done something pretty drastic to be
sent there but I thought about this and
what message does that send it says to
them you’re broken so we’re gonna send
you over there and if they fix you you
can come back to the real school the
real school is something that I hear a
lot that alternate schools are not real
schools I was lucky I had a high school
willing to work with me and we created a
self referral process so as soon as
things started going a little bit off
kilter
ace would be suggested or the students
could come in on their own with their
parents and we would have an intake
meeting we would determine whether they
needed an alternate program and if they
did they were welcome to come into it
this was the first step in changing
perceptions we had to change perceptions
in the community I had to convince the
community that these kids were worth it
and that we could do it but sadly
because of the way they were sent
sometimes I had to convince the kids
themselves another misperception out
there is that alternate schools are not
real schools as I said I hear that quite
often and it’s sad we are public schools
there’s a belief that you can’t graduate
from an alternate school nothing could
be further from the truth
alternate students received the exact
same credentials as any other school but
they also graduate with a perspective
and a strength they wouldn’t get in
other schools Frances for example came
to us she had been an honor roll student
but she’d had to miss two years because
her mother was very ill
her grandpa decided it was time to go
back to school and he dragged her in
pretty much kicking and screaming she
had her own perception of alternate
students and she believed that she
wouldn’t be able to go to university and
become the marine biologist that she
wanted fast forward to now the loss of
Francis’s mother was something we could
help her deal with in an alternate
program she is now on track she will be
going to university and now she has no
intention of leaving recently we had an
interview four of our students Francis
Ivy Leslie and Emma all spoke of coming
to the alternate program and how they
didn’t want to really come they had
their perceptions based on these
stereotypes that we fight every day and
they didn’t want to be there but if you
asked them now why they’re there they
will tell you it’s because it’s safe
it’s caring they’ll mention the supports
but my personal favorite they’re there
because they want to be in order to
overcome a lot of the stigma of the
alternate I decided that we needed to
create partnerships in the community
partnerships were going to be very
important these kids had to be
integrated back into the community so
you will see the first one was the
Legion Jim Johnson was a retired teacher
he was the president at the time and he
understood alternate students and what I
was trying to accomplish so we created a
partnership and he came in and you’ll
see he brought artifacts and he let them
try on the gas masks and he let them ask
questions and he would teach them and
sometimes he would stop by the school
just to visit and if he wasn’t there for
a few days the students would notice and
comment on that the partnership grew we
started using their Hall for a variety
of vents which was really amazing
because at the time we did not have a
formal graduation but with the legion
partnership there was a hole and it had
a commercial kitchen so now we had a
at the first grad am
named Frank approached me Frank had two
grandchildren and my program so he
understood what I was trying to
accomplish and what alternate youth were
capable of so he approached me but sadly
the message was the seniors in the
community are afraid of your students
I found that sad and actually a little
humorous because there was nothing to be
afraid of but I talked to Frank and we
created senior teen events and the
vision was that they were going to have
lunch together and the youth would serve
the seniors and then they would spend
the afternoon together in a variety of
activities we tried a few different
activities bingo ended up being the
favorite by far the dance lessons not so
much but in looking around the first day
I realized seniors have a lot of love to
give but not always people to give it to
alternate youth need a lotta love and
they haven’t always received what they
needed so when we put them together
magic happened and they started off
small but pretty soon the hall was at
capacity pretty soon I was having to go
to the elementary school to bring
students from there to help us out
because we couldn’t keep up with the
demand the seniors were talking and
sharing their life stories and the
students were excited about it and I was
hearing that they were holding doors in
the community and helping seniors with
groceries and these great friendships
came out of that gone were the days that
the seniors saw those kids as scary
because they now had names gone were the
days that the you saw the seniors is
while we were doing the senior teen we
also were doing fundraising because that
also integrated the kids into the
community because we sell publicly you
will see up here our famous ace burger
which I’m sure will make some of you
hungry but thankfully its before lunch
so it’s on its way
so the ACE burger barbeque was to get
them in the community get them working
with the community
it went from selling 40 in about a two
hour period to over
people went crazy for the sauce we even
had to start bottling and I’m working it
and yes the students actually make and
bottle the sauce but what was
interesting about the barbecues wasn’t
just that they were a success but they
brought seniors out the seniors
I guess partly they love the burgers I
mean what’s not to love right so partly
they love the burgers but they also came
to support the students to see their
friends they told their senior friends
about it and pretty soon our barbecues
became almost like a senior teen event
with the two groups interacting yet
again so from all of this exposure to
seniors that I had I heard many times
that they were sad that they didn’t
complete their diplomas so being the
somewhat unique individual that I can be
I thought why not bring them back to
school with the alternate youth I was
capable of doing that thank you
I was capable of doing that because I
have adult and alternate coming out of
the same school so I created and I had
to come up with a funny name cuz that’s
just how I roll high school seniors and
the first year I brought in 89 and 80
and a 76 year old in and they studied
alongside the youth and they were
terrified because after that many years
out of school there was no way they were
gonna be able to do it especially math
they complained bitterly about math but
they did and all of them graduated and
[Applause]
kay was 89 years old she was the oldest
person in Canadian history to graduate
and I think to this day we are the
school that has graduated the oldest
person I don’t think that’s changed but
it was amazing there was there were
reporters and cameras and I can’t even
describe just a barrage of press
everywhere and people said to me but
it’s all about the seniors and I said
but it’s not because the students are in
the background of every picture they
were interviewed they were on the news
they went international as well so they
still benefited how many alternate
schools get that kind of coverage on
their grad ever in class these are two
others in a in a later program would now
graduate at eight seniors to date so
these were two others and you’ll see
them interacting with the students the
students have gifts that they can give
the seniors like knowledge of technology
that kind of thing that’s quite obvious
and the seniors have an interesting
perspective from their life stories
their history their wisdom and the two
interacting is amazing to watch it’s
also interesting to watch when they’ve
actually lived something as kay once
told me she was so good at history
because she was actually there so in
addition to that they socialized they
became friends it was like watching
youth banter with each other we don’t
allow swearing in the school and one day
one of the seniors led the b-word slip
so Austin started laughing and he looked
at me to see if I was going to do
anything about it so I looked at her and
I said he’s laughing because he wants to
know if I’m gonna discipline you so she
was trying to convince me that the B
word was not indeed swearing and then
the play argument between the two of
them began and at one point Austin even
threatened to call the home and tell on
and it was amazing to watch it was funny
and I enjoyed it but it also were my
heart because they were so comfortable
with each other that they could have
this kind of conversation it was like
friends talking and I was amazing
after that we created a big Buddy
Program with Kent Elementary the
principal approached me and wanted my
students to kind of become the seniors
and the role models for the youth so we
go over there variety of activities
sports crafts that kind of thing and
sometimes just playing on the playground
but my students take what they’ve
learned from everything they’ve gone
through and pass it on to the younger
ones with behavior issues so that they
can avoid the same pitfalls that my kids
had to go through it is amusing because
sometimes the behavior of the younger
ones isn’t exemplary and my students
will lose patience and come to me
griping about what the younger ones are
doing when I point out to them that that
was them a few years ago I see the light
bulb goes on and that’s quite amusing to
watch a couple of them have said over
the years that it’s the best birth
control they ever had but what I like
about it is it’s an excellent gauge for
those kids those kids to see how far
they have come another event we do as an
intergenerational day not many people
know it but June 1st is national
intergenerational day so now we create
an event and it can change from your
deer depending on the business is
involved but we have two constants and
one is the wheelchair walk and the other
is the ace burger BBQ of course
so can’t elementary sends students to
the home to pick up seniors who don’t
normally make it to our barbecues and
they push them several blocks in
wheelchairs to the event so that they
can participate it’s open to the
community plus we have our regular so
you can imagine when the wheelchair walk
arrives the high volume and high stress
of serving that many burgers because
people are hungry and they want it now
but my kids pull it off beautifully
every year back to our Christmas event
of all the events we do this one is
probably the most endearing to the
community it all began when I was not
going to Alberta one year and that was
where my family was and I was thinking
about my invitations and everything I
had to do but then I got me to thinking
about the seniors the seniors would be
alone unwrapped their gifts alone have
breakfast alone and this is after years
of looking after others and making
spectacular Christmases for their own
families so I thought this was wrong and
I went into school and I proposed to the
kids why don’t we do this event and we
will cook them breakfast and we will
give them gifts and the kids rallied
because we only had just over a week to
get it together but we did and it has
become a tradition every year and then
on Christmas Eve I take them to a hotel
many of them haven’t been in a nice
hotel they love the pool I have a hard
time getting them out of the pool but
one of my favorite memories is two girls
coming down looking like they hadn’t
slept at all so I asked him about it and
they said what they couldn’t sleep
because the electric fireplace was too
hot
knowing they would have been the ones to
turn it on I said why didn’t you just
turn it off and they said because we’ve
never had one before and I was so nice
and I thought wow they’ve never had or
seen an electric fireplace and they’re
giving up their Christmas to make sure
others are looked after from the
Christmas morning event we won an award
we’ve won many awards actually and we’ve
been featured in a lot of places but the
Betty Urquhart award from the University
of the Fraser Valley for community
service was one of the bigger ones
because the students were allowed to
come with me so we rented a limo and I
bought them all their own champagne
glass we filled it with sparkling apple
juice and we rode in style to the ufv
campus all dressed up in our school
colors which by the way was the students
idea not mine and we piled out of the
limousine and we turned heads and ufv
treated us like VIPs and we went up and
accepted that award in front of hundreds
of people at their convocation and it
was amazing and it had a lasting impact
but for me this showed the community
first of all they clean up really nicely
don’t they okay
showed them what we can do what
alternate youth
can do what overgrown alternate youth
can do so I’m gonna leave you with this
picture these are those kids now this is
an important photo because it’s when I
got my master’s degree and that for me
was monumental for a variety of reasons
but my convocation was a sad time
because my mother was dying and my
family couldn’t make it out from
Edmonton but there’s my ace family
rallying around me and making sure that
day was special for me the outcasts are
now the in casts and those kids are our
kids and our entire community benefits from having them in our lives thank you