' MONTAGUE REGIONAL HIGH s'cnooI IN "cums"

by Jim Homby“ ’ -

The situation at.‘,'Montague High School has. deteriorated from one of discontent to one that a student. leader des~ cribes as “complete chaos.”

As is'stands principal John Hughes resigned the second week in December after hold- ing the position since the opening of the school in 1960. Students say he found it im- possible to work any longer with the present school board,

SOUDARWY

many of whom had wanted to

fire him‘. in January ‘of last

year and who blamed him for

what they considered a defin- ite drop in the standard of education at MRHS in the last several years.

Vice-principal John Martin had to resign for reasons of health, and the school board appointed four teachers to act assupervisors and control the day-to-day operations of the school, as well as teach- ing. At present it is believed

THE CA

that three vacancies in these roles have been created, with only John Yeo remaining.

Yeo had been fired as vice- principal in 1966 for “incom- petence”.

Students asked the teach- ers if they were happy under this situation and 13 out of 45 teachers —* many from grade 12 — said they would not return next year. Ten of these related their 'decision directly to the administration

and ' policies

of the school board. »

Their objective now is to get a new principal and vice- principal administrative, and to get the ten-member school board —— one student called it a “family compact” — re- placed. This could be done by having the approximately 70 district trustees elect a different board.

More action sh o u l d) be forth-coming as the students have a lot of support among the teachers, and in the com- munity and districts.

The students, c h a r gin g that they were being kept in the dark and that no leader- ship was being given by the Students‘ Council under its president Tim Ardenne, held a meeting in the gymnasium. Five hundred out of roughly eight hundred students were present. Classes were boy- cotted for an afternoon, for the purpose of publicity.

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VOL 1, No. 11

Students

THE GREAT CADRE‘ CONTEST!

ma|<

CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. l.

demands

To the person who submits to our office by next Wednesday the best 500 word essay dealing with the resemblance between this picture and your average Board of Gov- ernors meeting, we will give an autographed picture of Jim for limited'time only, so be the first on your block.

~ . V by Dennis.- MacKay

“As far as content is cen- cerned the Teach-in: was :very good. waeel thatrwe .really got down to. the real issue on Saturday nigh t ' when we discussed what-we :were doing at university,” said Reg Phale‘n, chairman

at UPEI.

The teach-in which was held last weekend attracted ; people from Fredericton and 1 Halifax, but very few people

from UPEI. At times there

, were more people from off 5 the Island than there were " people from the Island.

Barb Cameron," astud‘ent

meeting on Friday night. She dealt with the develop- f ment of universitygcurricu- ; lum. The next topic on the agenda Was a discussion of the present role of‘ the uni- iversity, with particular re- ference to the problems fac- ed on PEI. Acting were: Qsource people in this were: \Dave Black, Economics lec-

of the Education Committee

erom Ontario, addressed the ‘

: Inc... My »

turer at Brock; Peter War- rian, past president of the Canadian Union of Stud- ents; Sister Catherine Wal- lace, President of ,Mt., St. Vincent University and Gor- don Bennett, Minister of Education, for PEI.

On Saturday m o rn i n g Gene Chatterton, from the Dept . of Development and Roy Atkinson, President of the National Farmers Union Iled a discussion on the‘Uni- versity and the development of the Island. Atkinson was asked, how to stop compan- ies from bringing in pota- toes from Ioutside the prov- ince, thus undercutting the

price determined-by a “strong . farmers union. He replied: —-

that if they are taking them across by boat then what you do isIsink the boat.

| " Saturday night could per-

haps be called the high-lite of the conference. Ron Bak- er, president of UPEII and Cyril Levitt, a student from Waterloo Un‘iverSity started

who has the Power.

by discussing the Ideology

Hornbyl This offer good

of the University; Levitt ~ was half way through his discussion when he said he could not go on in this “aca— demic bullshit” manner that T he was criticizing. Dave ' Black then got up and put f a quarter in the Juke Box. A very heated argument fol- lowed with :Reshard Gool of the Political Science Dept. at UPEI, at one time chal- lenging Levitt to a fist fight. Bob D’amatteo in a rebuttal to a statement ' made by G001 said that those present should start discussing in concrete terms . the power wielded by Baker, “That --- up there,”. D’am— atteo then went on to say, “You first have to deal with You students have token repre- ‘* sentation on the Senate, but _ what do your reps do? they suck ass.”

The teach-in ended on Sunday afternoon With John Smith discussing the new = curriculum he has drawn up and presented to the Com- mittee on Curriculum.

‘RCMP Officers and a

FEBRUARY 3, 1970

.. . .almost

MONDAY . . . . . told that:

(a) tuition increase can not reasonably be recalled. (b) that the quality of education at UPEI is quite good.

(c) that some aid system shuold be instituted for needy studs ents.

(d)..that the UPEISU will have Secondary Commission. The students present decided to mobilize with a class boy-

cott and demonstration at the Provincial Administrative Build- mg.

TUESDAY . . . . . Meeting in Malpeque Coffee Shoppe did not start until Keaveny arrived about 45 minutes late. Baker, Duffy and Smith stated administration views. Students psyched themselves into a march on the Administrative Build- ing. Around one the third floor Department of Education offices were packed with students and a smaller group were camped outside Campbells office on the 5th floor. Some stud- ents met in Bennetts office with Campbell and Bennett. At 3:05 p.m. Bennett asked (again) that students leave his office so things could get back to “normal”. Students refused so Corporal Edward Furey of the RCMP informed those in Bennetts office that “all necessary action” would be taken to

remove anyone who did not leave voluntarily. The 25 students decided finally to leave.

Students at Board of Governors meeting are

to work through the Post-

A body of about 100 students gathered in the secretarial pool. Again Furey informed that charges would be laid and students jailed if they did not leave. About (7 plain clothes couple of Charlottetown policemen were present. Students debated the issue internally but in front of cameraman and reporters from the Guardian, the Journal Pioneer, CFCY, CBC and CBCT. A hard core of 10-15 who wanted to stay was reduced to 4 or 5 although maybe 50 cur- ious were also present. At about 4:35 it was decided that it was worthless to martyr themselves for such an uncommitted group and the exodus from the building began. Some papers were disarranged and some debris was left although students leaving Bennetts office carefully picked up their debris (con- trary to the report in the next mornings “Guardian”).

_ A meeting of the activists in Duffy Amphitheatre that night resulted in students deciding to boycott another day. Students displayed the aimless pliability for which they are becoming famous —- many were not sure whether the boycott should be for the bursary or the bursary and a freeze on tui- tion. Among the dissenters (who seemed inhibited from. ex- pressing concrete opposition) was Ombudsman J. Alan Dou- cette who took this opportunity to resign his position because he didn’t agree with the “student structure”.

WEDNESDAY . . . . . Students picketed both campuses with varying degrees of success. Approximately 35% attendance at classes on the average, although the majority who did not go were not interested in active involvement (e.g. picketing).

There was little or no dialogue between those who boycotted and those who didn’t.

At 2:30 President R. J. Baker hosted local news media in his office for a press conference. He said he wanted to com- municate to the people of the Island his feelings. He felt that UPEI was having some of the internal trouble because in a new university “Everyone thinks that everything is up for grabs.” He repeated his opinion that tuition could not remain the same and gave reasons, notably the high cost of ancillary services. He said he thought students would have demonstrat- ed back in October when the raise was first passed, rather than now. His support for a bursary system based on the NB/NS plan was reiterated.

A student meeting of abOut 250 at Duffy that night voted

to end the boycott, feeling that “no more can be done at this time.”