www.oocities.org/stfxchickenhawk

“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain’t over now.” - Bluto, Animal House

Editor: Demosthenes

Introduction

Another year of school is finished, another class graduating. That includes all of the article writers for the Chicken Hawk, myself included. We have found editors for next year, and I hope that the Chicken Hawk keeps running. I think that it could become an important tool for the school admin to use in order to improve faults that the students see with the school. I would like to think that I have repaid the school for the 2 years that I spent here by providing a public forum for students to express displeasure and discuss possible solutions to the problems with the school. Hopefully, the admin and staff will take advantage of this. As I leave St. FX, I encourage everybody to try to do something to improve the school. If you have an idea, propose it to Mr. Coccia or join student council. If you have a problem, let people know. Write an article about it. Talk about it online on the Chicken Hawk message board. If you want the school to be an enjoyable place for you to be, then people need to become active. I hope that this happens, and I hope that when it happens, the admin is willing to listen.

Housekeeping

1. Check out the website! All of the articles and letters are up on it. Spread the word - Send the link to your friends whether they go to St. FX or not.

2. While you are at the website, check out the message board. The message board provides us with an area to discuss the articles and what is going on at the school. If you want information while writing an article, you can ask there and people will tell you. Once again, we need participation from as many people as possible.

3. Please, print and distribute the Chicken Hawk to as many people as you possibly can. Downloadable copies can be found online.

- Demosthenes

Chicken Hawk Guild?

Sometime in the last month, the Chicken Hawk has been brought to the attention of Zachary, a highly involved high school senior in Australia. He is a member of his school’s student council, in addition to being the president of the “student guild”. We have sent a few emails back and forth, discussing his student guild and our Chicken Hawk. I’m a big fan of the system that his school has in place. His student guild began as an unofficial group of people, not unlike the Chicken Hawk, who wanted to address the problems with the school. Gradually, the school administration realized that the student guild could be extremely useful and beneficial to the school. When I asked about the responsibilities of the Student Council and Student Guild at his school, he gave the following response: “Our student council, on which I sit is attached to the school, they have a more involved approach with the running of the school, i.e. the school policy, dress (uniform) code and alike. Whereas our guild is more of the social welfare of the students, we make aesthetic changes to our aged school building, hold socials and alike. So one is more in concern with the running of the school (Student Council) and one is more in concern with the student welfare - the student guild. Both have, until recently, been at loggerheads with each other but in my administration, being that I am both a councilor and the Guild President, we've managed to bring the two together. In saying that, we are not all socials and painting, if there is something wrong, the school understands that we will take action on behalf of the students, we are a political animal in every essence of the word, and we have the ability to go against the school if we feel it's an injustice... Whereas the student council has to wait for meeting, after meeting, after meeting to get something done.” It seems to me that his Student council in Australia is more like our School Council, whereas his Student Guild is more like what we all wish the student council was. If the student council were to become more like his student guild, that would be a huge improvement to the school. Currently, the student council is not able to act as a voice of the students. They are limited to fundraising and organizing activities. If a sub-branch of council (or an entirely new entity) was created as a voice of the students, then that would be great. Basically, it would just be an official Chicken Hawk. It could also fundraise. People affiliated with the Chicken Hawk are already working on fundraisers for next year to improve school materials. I would love to hear next year that the school had decided to cooperate with the Chicken Hawk instead of fighting it.

- Demosthenes

Uniforms

Let me start off by saying that I'm not totally against the uniforms as they are now. I fail to see how they help the school, but I never felt the need to fight them tooth and nail. I came to the school despite the uniforms, because I didn’t find them too outrageous.

But a new dress code is being implemented next year. The students will be forced to wear McCarthy pants, with matching socks. Now really… is this honestly necessary? Will students go from barely passing to regularly achieving level 4 grades because they are wearing McCarthy pants? I assume not. If I'm wrong, then find me in a year and let me know. The McCarthy pants, if my memory of trying them on a few years ago serves me correctly, are wholly uncomfortable pants. They are also ridiculously expensive at $43. Pants of the same quality can be found at Wal-Mart and Giant tiger for $15. Pants of good quality can be found… anywhere… for less than $43.

I know for a fact that if I am uncomfortable while working, I accomplish nothing. I don’t know if this is a unique trait or not, but I suspect that many people are this way. A lot of people are very picky about pants, and the specific brands that they find comfortable.

Another problem that I see with this new rule is that people will buy 2 or 3 pairs of the pants next year, and will virtually refuse to buy more pants when theirs start to fall into disrepair. I have a vision of 600 people walking the schools of St. FX wearing tatters of McCarthy clothing. Ok… so it won’t be that bad, but you get the idea.

I would like to think that St. FX is doing this for more than the money (5%) that they get out of the deal. When 600 people buy 2 pairs (most people will probably get more than 2) of pants each , the school will make nearly $3000. Really, it is the only reason that I can see for the school (or even the school board) to implement the new rule. Students will not be more successful, they will be uncomfortable, and they will have worn out pants after a couple years.

I do not enjoy walking around as a billboard for either St. FX or Catholicism. Since it is a catholic school, and I made the choice to come here, I will accept that I have to walk around the school with a little cross on my shirt. But after being the editor of the Chicken Hawk for a few weeks, I have come to realize that the school doesn’t really care what the students think. So why should I “proudly” wear the school uniform if the school doesn’t respect my opinions? The school disallows us from broadcasting what we love and respect with our own clothes, but forces us to be a billboard for a school that refuses to listen to what we are saying. It makes no sense. If the school showed some sign of respect to us, I would be much happier spending 5 days a week in the uniform.

Pants are not the only change being implemented next year – Shorts and skirts will be required to go down to the knees, no boots will be allowed, and shirts must be buttoned to the top and tucked in. Can I be so bold as to suggest that the school simply ask students to present themselves nicely? Fine – don’t allow students to wear pants that start at the knees, skirts that barely pass the waist, or any other such clothing. If it is really a problem, then suspend people for not wearing proper uniform. But please, show the students some respect, and consider their happiness, comfort, and individuality.

- Demosthenes

Research Proof Internet

I'm pretty confident that anybody who has used the internet at St. FX already knows what I'm about to say… The school internet is pretty useless. Actually, I think that Symantec Web Security (I'm pretty sure that’s what the evil program is called) is used across the board. I understand that the school board doesn’t want all of their young scholars going to porn sites during lunchtime. That’s reasonable. I understand why they wouldn’t want the future of the world playing games during their classes. That’s also reasonable. And they wouldn’t want those innocent 14 year olds learning how to swear. Heaven forbid they read those filthy words. I suppose that that to is acceptable. But what I don’t understand is why the school board would be so set against their young, innocent, scholarly charges doing research.

See… Given the courses that I had this year, and the fact that I had at least one spare every day, I ended up trying to do quite a bit of research. And you must understand that I tried. Really I did. But the school board didn’t want any of that research nonsense happening on their soil. Finding images on Google to use in presentations was almost impossible, as was any page that had swearing in it. Actually… nearly any page that had anything in it.

Let me explain what happened whenever I tried doing research over the course of the last year. I got sick of trying to find information, and stopped trying. I would then proceed to download a game (boy, that filter sure does work) and play it for the rest of the period. If the computers were functional, then I wouldn’t have any desire to play games! Actually, if they were functional, I wouldn’t even be able to get through the filter to be able to download the games! As it is though, its all that the filter allows us to do. Interesting, isn’t it?

- Demosthenes

Youth Alienation

All forms of authority corrupt and ultimately destroy creativity in children – so goes a psychological theory anyways. Experiments have apparently been conducted, wherein children were given the option to do whatever they pleased in a schoolroom environment. After something like 3 months, these kids stopped sitting around and playing, choosing to learn instead.Now, I’m not sure if removing all authority in the lives of children is best, however it certainly would seem that a certain degree of freedom and self-control for children stimulates a natural tendency towards creative and intellectual pursuits.

To bring this to its obvious conclusion – an environment where all freedom is lost, where self-control is non-existent, where the lives of individuals seem beyond the understanding and control of children is an entirely unhealthy one.

The school environment at StFX is one of restraint. Suspensions, whether perfectly justified or not, come and go without explanation. It’s an unhealthy thing for children to see their peers dragged away without any sense of justice. If the administration feels their suspensions are reasonable, they ought to make that belief clear, rather than rely on their current stance (characterized best as arrogance), wherein they do not feel they need to offer any explanation to the student body for suspensions.

Of course there is some merit to this; one must protect the prosecuted student in case they do not want their story to be freely told, but ‘defense through silence’ is not always the will of the student. And in any public institution where rule of law holds, it is imperative to make the law-code well-known. It also must be readily and easily accessible, so that children can freely hold the administrative decisions accountable to the code of law (which legitimizes the authority in the first place), training the practices of democracy to youth.

Most importantly for children, isolation and alienation must be combated at all costs. On that very same level, social organization and defense are a skill that must be acquired through experience. And therefore a capacity for formal discussion, if the accused student so approves, ought to exist between the school administration and a student defense committee.

Naturally, final sentencing would lie in the hands of the administration, but a degree of democratic discussion will bring to the students a sense of understanding and self-worth absent in our current authoritarian (and therefore alienating) system.

Based on the theory that a degree of liberty and self-control is a positive influence in a child’s life, and that unbridled authority alienates and depreciates their worth, students must be given due justification for all [authoritarian] acts taken by the administration, and should feel that their opinions and beliefs have a relevant and official public forum which gives them value and allows them to formally discuss and debate the ruling; to ensure that it is reason and acknowledged law which holds supreme control, and not the vague and unhealthy commands of an authoritarian will.

- Anonymous

Letters

To The Editors,

    On being informed of your website and subsequent reactions to it I immediately opened it up as I am sure most people involved with SFX did. With the reaction of authority to one issue you have become a pariah to some and a 'cause celebre' to many.

    I must say in the article on the student council your choice of words concerning the teacher advisors and the principal is vulgar and unwarranted. It requires a retraction and an apology. Perhaps it even warrants a suspension. However not an indefinite one and certainly not to a person who is not the author.

    As to the rest of the articles you state your opinion very well. Making the assumption that what you say is the truth you certainly give cause for thought and investigation. If it is not true then you have been most unjust to all associated with SFX.

    Since the time of Gutenberg authority has feared the printed word. It keeps popping up not only in newspapers but on church doors, telephone posts, washroom walls and now on a form of media gone wild; the internet. But wild or not freedom of speech is the basic right of a democracy. Does the fact that you are teenagers eliminate you from this right? I can only conclude that in the minds of some it does.

    Your contention that authority, instead of being punitive, should seek dialogue to explain and educate is well founded. If this is indeed your intention the powers that be would be wise to recognise it and build on it.

    As to not stating your name in fear of retaliation I feel sorry for you. Perhaps I feel even more sorry for a system that not only places so little value in the opinions of it students but would punish them for having them.

    My name is Erskine, Frederick Samuel

Mr Erskine,

Thank you very much for your email.

About the student council article, I agree with you. I wish that it had never been written, although I do believe in the message of the article itself.

I also guarantee that everything that we write about in the Chicken Hawk is true, with the exception of small numerical errors that we don’t have precise information on, etc.

As for the names - this has been one of my biggest dilemmas (along with censoring articles that come in) since taking over as Editor after Pat was suspended. If you have read my introduction to Issue 2, then you probably already know what I am about to say. I wish that I could write my name without fear of getting suspended. I know that there is no reasonable way that I should be suspended. However, cannot make myself trust the school authorities to use logic or reason when they see my name in the paper. With only two weeks until my graduation, I think that I have too much to risk losing if I put my name into the Chicken Hawk.

I would love to see the administration come around at least a little bit to my way of thinking by the end of the school year. I don't expect it to happen, but the more support we get, the more quickly it will happen. Hopefully, people will take up this cause next year, and the year after if need be.

Sincerely,

Demosthenes

This E-Mail is in regards to the proposed concentrated arts program to 
Be introduced in your high school (St. FX). I have never attended St. FX, and have been out of high school for nearly 10 years, however, when I did attend secondary school, I was part of the concentrated arts program at DLS (DeLaSalle) in Vanier. 
 
The article it seems slants toward the idea that concentrated arts 
would be an expensive venture for your school, and that it would be unwise to implement such a program in a school were enrollment is down. However, have you considered that the implementation of the program would reverse that trend and may be one of the reasons that the administration has decided to consider this as a viable option? By providing an alternative to the "standard" high school, St. FX may be hoping to draw in a large population of eager artistic minds, in such increasing enrollment and the proportionate level of government funding. It's simple mathematics really:
More students = more funding = more/better programs = better reputation 
= more students.
 
When you release your yearbooks every year, are there many colour pages
and/or advertisements? At DLS, a school with a large concentrated arts
program that easily rivals (and surpasses?) Canterbury, at least in my 
day, there were over 20 pages in full colour and NO ads. This was possible due largely to events such as the yearly "Gala". The Gala is a yearly show put on by the combined efforts of the students in the concentrated arts(visual, music, theater, dance) that is meant to display their talent to potential and actual investors from the business community. They recognize the value of the arts program, and are willing to pay for young people to broaden their horizons.
 
Lastly, the atmosphere within such a school is absolutely spectacular. 
In all the years I went to DLS, there were a total of ZERO fist fights 
Among students, and aggressiveness itself was frowned upon. In every hall and every corner, you could just feel this buzz of energy from the creative minds that surrounded you. Where else might you find a violinist playing in the stairwell or and artist building a massive sculpture? Definitely not in the usual closed-minded institutions that are the result of Mike Harris' "Common Sense Revolution".
 
So worry not. Concentrated art can be a great thing for you and your
school. And if you don't like it, just switch schools!

-----------------

Yes, the cost is part of the problem. You seem to have countered that aspect pretty well, although I think that it would be a bit harder to fundraise in a rural area then in the city.

 There are more issues, though. St. FX is not in a highly populated area. In fact, you would probably be hard pressed to find a less populated area. It will be much more difficult to find a couple hundred eager arts students to come to Hammond than it is for a school like Canterbury. Currently, the school has a strong arts program, but it seems to me that it is the same 30 or so people in all of the artsy programs.

I realize that switching schools is an option.. But is it really a nice option for somebody who has gone to the school from grades 7-11 and is interested in science and math, before they realize that they won't be able to fulfill their university requirements because the school no longer offers physics? They will have to leave all of their friends, and make a completely new start in their senior year.

Or is it a good option for somebody who lives right down the street from the school? If they don't want to go to St. FX, they have to take a 30 minute bus ride to the nearest school, rather than walking.

I realize that both of those options are realistic, but given that we live in a hugely unpopulated area, they are inconvenient.

I have no problem with arts schools at all. I just think that St. Francis Xavier is a bad place for one.

Demosthenes

To the esteemed writers of Chicken Hawk,

I would like to introduce myself, my name is Zachary from Governor Stirling Senior High School, in Perth, Western Australia. I was browsing through varying pages, namely i-am-bored.com and up came your page. I liked it.

I read and read about what is going on in your school and I am very shocked and to say the least, appalled. I am involved with at least 4 youth groups within my community on a local and state/county level. Most notably, the student councillor of year 12 (highlest level in high school for Australia) of Governor Stirling and also the President of the Student Guild. I have forwarded your site to all of my governing council members of the Student Guild and it seems, from their replies to my emails, that you have gained yourself an international audience.

You seem to be fighting an uphill battle and I would like to commend you. Our school is nothing like this, in fact we value the freedom of speech, assembly and association within our school... I am surprised to hear that, in the United States, where the Bill of Rights, a prestigious historical document was made, is obviously being denied within the realms of your school.

Your first issue of CH seemed to be two people. I count up to ten other writers who are forced under the cloak of anonymity to ensure that they do not end up like your editor. Obviously there is an evident problem and you are the only people brave enough to stand up against the seen oppressive and restrictive nature of the school.

When our student guild was first formed, we were a small group of concerned students, mainly utilizing our out of school links to generate better welfare for the school. We were appreciated so much by our school that we became an official institution. I must tell you that in our history, from what I understand, we to did fight an uphill battle. But we prevailed.

I am hoping that you have not died down in your fight against the hypocrisy of your school. Be it that you are allowing a much needed outlet for your freedom of speech you must not falter in your truths which you hold self evident.

If what happened at your school occurred within our walls, the principal would be taken from his post as soon as possible. It disgusts me to think that my international peers are heeding such pressure.

I don't know exactly what spurred me to write this but I would like to convey to you that the essence is to never give up. Never stop believing that a small amount of concerned citizens can change something, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. I know that we are thousands of kilometers away from each other, but if there is anything at all our guild can do to help, I would be happy to provide you with the appropriate resources. A seemingly empty statement, but we would like to ensure that you stay in operation.

Please let me know about how you are going in your fight for freedom for a unified school because I would never like such an autocratic situation to happen within our school. Reply to this post and I would be happy to do the same.

Best of luck,
Sincerest Regards and Trust,
President the Honourable Councillor Zachary R. F. K. _D.S.D.
Governor Stirling Guild President

Leadership and Learning are indispensable to each other.
- John F. Kennedy
Speech Prepared For Delivery the Day of His Assasination Nov. 22 1963

Whats the point??

Walking around the halls while the protest was going on was painful. Students everywhere were not willing to protest because they didn't see a point. I know we have all heard the saying "Ignorance is bliss" but it didn't apply to these people. What is wrong with the students who wouldn't stand up for a fellow student and a very good cause. I tried to get to the bottom of it by asking people and the majority of the answers I got were, "What's the point", "Who cares about freedom of speech", and my favorite, "Even if I did go out, what

difference would it make?" Common people, at least these guys are trying to do something to help the school. And everyone who thought the people out there protesting were stupid, don't be ignorant. What is the point of freedom of speech? Is there a more stupid question?; I don't think so. Freedom of speech is one of the fundamental rights given to Canadians, so why should our opinions be censored by the administration? Some people are willing to fight wars to get freedom of speech and the majority of St. Francis can't even stand outside for a few hours. And the protest alone was enough to make me sick. I was willing to give my

afternoon to this great cause. I was very happy to see that around 50 people out there giving there support. This feeling ended after standing outside for 10 seconds. Everyone around me just seemed to be out there to skip class. That's not to say everyone was. To those who were serious, I salute you. You guys stood up and made a stand for a good cause. To everyone reading this article who wasn't willing to support the cause when you were needed, you should ask yourself why.

- Anonymous

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