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The Chicken Hawk

An alternate paper for St-FX

Issue 1         chicken_hawk@canada.com

~Opening Pandora's Box~

Editor-in-Chief: Patrick Yeon

Most Articles : Patrick Yeon

Only Contributor: Trevor The Vampire

Intro

Why is there a second school newspaper? The main reason is that the falcon is crippled, not on account of the students involved in running it, but because it is run by the school, giving the administration the opportunity to edit and censor it however they please. This publication is not meant to replace the Falcon, it is actually meant as a companion, covering the issues and angles they are not allowed to touch.

What you hold in your hand is the result of a few students living up to the ideals of democracy and a free and open society by taking matters into their own hands to disseminate their information and news.

We want the school administration to realize that they cannot hold a monopoly over the information available to the students. They operate as if they have no accountability for what is done, which is true if nobody dares to stand up and shine the spotlight on what is going on. We're standing up; we're shining the biggest spotlight we can find.

Anybody can do this. Your submissions on any topic, in any form, would be greatly appreciated. We need reader support to keep this kind of operation going. Anyone interested in helping out, in any way, should contact chicken_hawk@canada.com

Once you are done reading this issue, please pass it along to someone you believe would be interested. You got this for free, keep the information moving for free.

Table of  Contents

Introduction

Canterbury of the East?

Student   Council Shenanigans

A   Brief History of Censorship at St-FX

Stop   the Hate

Editorial

(All articles, with the exception of "Student Council Shenanigans" were written by myself, Patrick Yeon)

Canterbury of the East?

The administration of St-FX has finally announced plans that have been brewing for many months behind the scenes; St-FX is going to try to become and arts-concentration school. A popular nickname given to this plan is "Canterbury of the East", alluding to an attempt to imitate CanterburyHigh School, a high school in Ottawa with a very good reputation as an arts-concentration school.

The plans are always mentioned with big smiles and lots of enthusiasm. We hear about how great our arts programs (especially music) are, and also about how it is the students who have been asking for this course of action by flocking to the arts programmes en masse.

Not everyone's jumping for joy, though. Some students and parents are asking what other parts of the school are going to suffer for this. Not even all the teachers are happy about this shift in emphasis towards the arts courses (I won't mention names, but I know some myself).

Why would this area need an arts-concentration school? There is already one with much better facilities and a good head start that serves students from St-FX's area - Canterbury. The suggestion of another arts school in Ottawa has recently created a wave of protest from parents, so why should one be created over here, where there is already a much smaller population that can be served, when compared to a school in downtown Ottawa? The school population will only be getting smaller in the near future, with a new high school opening in Russell next year, taking in all the students from that area in grades 7-10.

This arts concentration will not be cheap either; the arts are always expensive courses for a school to cover. Schools in general are lacking in fundraising, they are already cutting corners to keep their facilities afloat. With an attempt to put the arts front-and-center, it is obvious that non-arts programmes are going to suffer.

Any doubts about the costs of arts programmes can be put to rest once we examine the situation with "Grease". The play is obviously taking up an incredible amount of money. Purchasing the script and rights to perform the play was a cool $2,000. The "Grease" cast has already had at least five dress-down days, each of which raises $1,000 to $1,200, which total to $5,000 to $6,000 raised in dress-down days. The tickets to attend the performances are selling at $8.50, signaling that they still need to hunt around to find all the funds that they need to put their production on.

This year's grade 12 university-level Physics and Discrete Math courses (both necessary for a range of university studies, including engineering, sciences, and pure math) were nearly axed. Had they been canceled, the students enrolled would have had to take two of the hardest and most abstract courses in high school online, a possibility that was not appealing to any of them. The courses may not have run if a school trustee had not stepped in and spoken out on the matter.

Even though both courses ended up running, the physics students were still in danger of going through the course using books older than most of them are. Much of the science equipment is broken, and there are no funds to repair or replace it. There aren't even any good scales to be used. These are only small problems compared to what anyone hoping to work with computers is facing; there hasn't been a single computer course offered in the past two years.

All this isn't to say that the arts are useless or shouldn't be covered; they do serve a purpose in society. I am arguing that St-FX should not dedicate themselves solely to the arts. The school is already suffering under the load of the "Grease" production, this should not be increased by pushing more arts programmes. St-FX should concentrate on doing what high schools are supposed to do, that is to offer a broad range of courses to produce well-rounded students who have not been forced to close doors on themselves. An arts-concentration school cannot do this.

Student Council Shenanigans

By: Trevor The Vampire

These last few years the Student Council hasn't really done much.  It seems that Student council is more than pleased to pull off the same mediocre events year after year without any change to the standard format.  With their closed meetings and recent lack of communication with the student body the situation has gone from bad to worse.  Every year it seems to be the same: MOGA, a couple dances, Coffee House, and then MOGA again.  They all end up with their 40 hours (in years past, not this year), and get a nice little tid-bit for their university applications and resumes.  This has generated a lot of animosity and cynicism among the student body, but this reporter has learned a certain secret about the council.

See, a lot of council members are also unhappy with the state of affairs on the council and have either quit, or acted in ways that would get them kicked off.  I asked a few of them why they decided to leave and they all seemed to have the same response: the teacher advisors.  It seems since Kennedy left the council they've been stuck with real idiots who simply kiss Mr. Coccia's butt instead of actually try and help the council.  I hear tales of how the teacher advisors go in ahead of the council and talk to Mr. Coccia before the council members themselves get a chance to convince him of anything and then the teacher advisors show just how "dedicated" they are to the council by arguing against whatever idea they have in front of Mr. Coccia.  This sounds like conflict of interest to me.

The teacher advisors are there to help the council succeed, not bury them with ludicrous objections and outrageous "what-if?" scenarios.  It seems every time the council has an idea all the teacher advisors have to say is "what if some girls wear white t-shirts without bras?" or "what if someone trips and scrapes their knee?"  Absolutely stupid.  Even if the council wants to have rules that prevent these worst-case scenarios the administration, at the prodding of the advisors, shoot them down saying that people will refuse to follow the rules.  That sounds a lot like the reason why the Canadian government interned Japanese-Canadians during World War Two.  They were afraid the other Canadian citizens would start riots, and essentially break the law.  So they punished those who would be most offended by the law-breaking instead of the law-breakers themselves and ended up violating the human rights of hundreds of thousands of people through the exact same philosophy that the school administration currently uses to keep the Student Council down.  Punish the rule-breakers, not those who are simply trying to help the whole school have a good time.

This school has a Student Council that truly tries very hard to bring good events to the student populace, but it also has teacher advisors who do not deserve their positions.  If they are too scared for their jobs to support the council instead of cover their butts, they do not deserve to be on the council and therefore should have their positions on the council eliminated.  It's not Student Council's fault that STFX sucks, it's Mr. Baldwin's and Mr. Lannin's.  Blame those deserving of blame, and get them off OUR council.

A Brief History of Censorship at St-FX

Canada is supposed to be a free country, where you can say whatever you want. That is what 'free speech' and 'freedom of the press' mean. The administration here at St-FX seems to think such ideas stop mattering as soon as you enter the school's doors. They choose heavy censorship to clamp down on freedom of speech. Censorship is the bane of any free society, and this short list is aimed at helping people realize what kind of censorship happens right under their own noses.

September 11, '01: Students were not allowed to listen to radio reports of the events in  classrooms or even in their own cars. Most were not told by the faculty exactly what had happened either.

Spring '03: "Falcons"; mural painted over because the administration said it looked like "Fuck". The rest of us saw only "Falcons".

Spring '03: Students attempting to organize an 'anti-racism day' were told not to contact any group promoting acceptance of   homosexuality.

Winter '03-'04: X-men mural idea rejected because "womens' breasts were too large".

Ongoing: Uniforms break down individuality and clamp off students' expression.

Ongoing: Student Council meetings are held behind closed doors. Council members are discouraged from discussing meetings with the peers they were elected by to represent.

Newspaper Censorship

- William Hung's speech bubble could not contain "She bangs. She bangs."

- Comic dropped because the character sleeping from exhaustion (he had been dancing all night long) "suggested intoxication". The comic didn't mention alcohol or drugs.

- An article on the leadership class was dropped at the request of the administration.

- Issue 2 held back because the administration was worried about "the spin" in the article about "Canterbury East".

Stop the Hate

Look around our school, see if you can spot the discrimination and hate. No, it's not the old standards of colour or religion, that would be just too easy. The problem, in fact, is discrimination based on things as simple as style, what type of music someone may listen to, or lifestyle choices. Think I'm crazy? Just look at the cycle of hate...

The punkers hate the rappers for listening to (c)rap and wearing their blings. The rappers hate the geeks for enjoying computer games and other 'nerdy' stuff. The geeks hate the stoners for being burnt all the time and for acting like dumbasses. The stoners hate anybody who is stuck up enough to tell them off for doing weed. The rappers hate the punks for looking like freaks and listening to crappy, screaming music. Nearly everyone hates the metalheads for looking weird and worshipping Satan with their music.

(Please note that all those stereotypes are just for example, none of them are necessarily true)

Doesn't it all seem pointless, to hate whole groups of people because they happen to be different? Sure, we may not all agree on what good style, taste in music, or lifestyle is, but isn't that what makes life interesting? I, personally, have hung out with people from all groups (I think) and have good friends in nearly every clique. I can tell you that any preconception you may have could quite well be wrong, people tend to break the mould in one way or another more often than absolutely conform.

Fifty years ago, people started realizing the absurdity of racism, how it made no sense to hold down someone else simply because their skin was a different colour. Attitudes were changing, and against no little resistance, the civil rights movement formed, with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as perhaps the most recognizable member. Now, most people recognize without a second thought that nobody's skin colour matters. Religious leaders are taking great leaps to reach out to other religions and work together to recognize and accept each other's religions. Have we come full circle and started a society ready to judge people on their choice of music? Simply this thought makes me start to lose faith in the people ready to make their mark on the world in a few years, the high-schoolers; me, you, the person sitting beside you, every one of us.

What I'd like to see from everyone who reads this article is a change in attitude, right now. Don't judge people for stupid reasons like my examples have. Whenever you hear someone use the terms "stupid wigger", "fag", "punk", or tear anyone down for something like smoking pot (which can't be too much worse than drinking), discussing geeky topics, or dressing differently, tell them off. Tell them that they are idiots for thinking that way, that they are just as bad as any racist in history, and they'd better change their twisted outlook. If you still can't convince people that they are wrong, tell them where they can shove their lame, discriminatory insults.

Editorial

When I'm talking to fellow students, no matter who it is, I can always get a conversation going by bringing up school. It seems to me that everyone's got something to complain about and they'll all do it with the slightest prompting. The only problem is that everyone will talk your ear off and whine about school, but nobody seems to do anything.

Sitting around and complaining with your friends isn't going to change anything. Students need to become active and make the changes they want. Whether this is accomplished by writing articles, joining student council and pushing for changes, putting pressure on the administration, or just helping around with activities you may see as worthwhile. If you're not willing to work to change things, I don't think you should be allowed to complain about the state they are in either.

This publication is the first step to getting involved. It is meant as a forum for anyone to express themselves without being censored by the administration. Yes, this issue is almost only my articles, but that's how it has to start up. If you have anything that may help me, either a full-blown article, a letter in response to something I?ve printed, or even just a tidbit of news (a scoop, as they call it in the business) that you think may help me, please send it to chicken_hawk@canada.com. As long as I don't judge something to be completely stupid (ie: '"Wiggers are stupid. I hate them all."), I'll publish it. You can even use a nickname if you don't want anyone to know who wrote it. I will never, ever, give out the name of someone who has helped me out if they don't want me to.

If you don't like what I'm doing, write me a letter, or publish your own newspaper, flyer, pamphlet, or whatever you feel like. The key point is to get involved. If you want help, e-mail or talk to me, I really want to spark a movement of alert, aware, and involved students before I head off for university. This school desperately needs change, and the students are the ones to put this change into action.

Addendum

Firstly, I've been corrected on some numbers. The information I have is gathered from a variety of sources, and as such it is prone to some inexactitudes. I've been told now that the rights for "Grease"; were actually just under $1000, and not the $2000 I had been told before. Dress-down days only pull in between $800 and $1000, not the $1000 to $1200 I had been told about before. Finally, the "Grease"; dress-down days have also helped fund renovations the stage and gym needed to enable the "Grease"; crew to put on their show. These renovations will last longer than "Grease"; will, so the changes won't all disappear after the show's run is finished.

Secondly, it seems Trevor the Vampire's article has caused a bit of a stir. Many people understand it to be a personal attack on the teachers named. In reality, they were named to ensure there was accountability for what was going on with student council, the Vampire felt that not including names would not have enough force, that nobody would have cared. The teachers named are only pointed out because they are in the hot seat, it could be any other persona nd they'd get treated no differently. Readers may have gotten to wrapped up in the tone of the article and forgotten to look for the message. - Pat                                                   Chicken Hawk Home