Future of Jericho
still undetermined

Parents, teachers and students
at Vancouver’s Jericho Hill School
for the deaf, the only school'in B.C,
designed to teach deaf children,
remain very unclear and confused
as to what the future of that facility
will be.

Education minister Pat McGeer
announced two months ago that the
provincial government would be
phasing out the Jericho Hill school
as part of a new government
scheme to decentralize education
for the deaf and hard of hearing.
That announcement was im-
mediately condemned by a number
of organizations including the
Western Canadian Association for
the Deaf, the Vancouver and
District Labor Council and a
number of other trade union
organizations, all of which pointed
out that by decentralizing the
education of deaf children, the
government would be effectively
isolating the deaf away from their
own community.

Sources at the Jericho school
indicated that at this point it is “not
very clear exactly how successful
we have been in our protests
because school has closed and all
of the students have returned to
their homes for the summer, and
the department of education has
given us no indication as to what
will be happening in September.”

However, one staff member at
Jericho told the Tribune, that. it
appears as though the provincial
government may be backing down
somewhat in face of the protests.
“Essentially the government has
admitted that none of the in:

termediate and senior programs at.

the school are going to be cut.”

Parents of the students at the
school, in a special general
meeting last week, unanimously
voted to ask the government to
hold off with any changes for at
least one year to allow for further
study and community input,
particularly from the deaf
themselves. As well, more than 100
parents have indicated that they
will not allow their children to be
placed elsewhere next September
if at all possible, despite the fact
that the provincial government has
been trying to pressure the parents
into allowing such a move of
students.

In addition to the many hard-
ships which would be imposed upon
the deaf themselves, the Jericho
sources said that a number of other
problems would be caused by
restructuring the programs.
“Initially the government told us
that they would be laying off a lot
of the personnel at the school, but
so far only a few have lost their
jobs,” one person said. That
situation would change of course if
the school is phased out.

The cost of ‘setting up the
necessary facilities across the
province to teach the deaf would
also be prohibitive to local tax-
payers. “‘Audiological equipment
alone for one classroom ac-
commodating six children would
cost $12,000,’ sources said. ‘‘And
on top of that, a proper program
for teaching the deaf would require
special teachers’ aides,
psychologists, physiotherapists

“i :

TEAM-NPA bias cited

in phaseout of school |

Filling in as guest columnist for

.alderman Harry Rankin this week

is Jean Swanson, a community
worker in the downtown eastside
and a member of the COPE
executive committee. She is one of
several parents whose children are
served by Cecil Rhodes Elemen-
tary School.

The Vancouver School Board
announced June 30 that Cecil
Rhodes Elementary School at 14th
and Spruce will be ‘“‘phased out”’
over the next few years.
Enrolment has declined from 350 to
104-

The problem is this: as land
values in the inner city soar,
family housing is demolished and
replaced with apartments and
condominiums which don’t accept
or encourage children. —

The process by which children
are “phased out’’ of neighborhoods
is a gradual one. Parents in the
Cecil Rhodes area were shocked
into action when the school board
announced that Rhodes would

‘Close for lack of children. Repre-

sentations to the board prevented
outright closure but the main
battle still has to be won.

The main objective of the
parents is to get city council to
encourage housing for families
with children in their neigh-
borhood.

When the parents suggested this
to the TEAM-NPA school trustees
on July 19, several trustees
laughed at them. Trustee Nathan
Divinsky suggested that
“reseeding”’ the area could take 10
years.

The TEAM-NPA trustees
neglected to tell parents that they
had been actively discouraging
family housing in the area.
Granger Industries which wants to
build 32 units of family housing at
16th and Cambie, eight blocks from
Rhodes, has been having difficulty
getting a development permit for
its project which would be four
blocks from Simon Fraser
elementary and eight blocks from
Rhodes.

Why? The school board, in a
letter to city council’s planning
department, put it bluntly, ‘. . .the
school board does not wish to see
any housing developments in the
Simon Fraser school area which
would generate children at this
time.”’

Children in the new development
could easily walk the eight blocks
to Rhodes, as many children now
attending Rhodes will have even

further than eight blocks if their
school closes.

TEAM claimed in an ad-
vertisement in Vancouver
Magazine that it has ‘‘protected
residential areas from disruptive
changes.”’ -

Yet the school board, which has a
majority of TEAM trustees, is
actively seeking to disrupt the
Rhodes area by eliminating a
popular neighborhood school and
discouraging family housing. This
is in line with TEAM’s objective to
make Vancouver an “executive
city.”’

Meanwhile, families with
children have difficulty finding
affordable accommodation that
will accept children and be
reasonably close to their places of
work in the city.

In addition, families with
children from Vancouver’s inner
city are now being forced to the
suburbs or to the east side of the
city where taxpayers must fork out
again for new schools.

Residents of the Rhodes area are
not the only ones who face the
indifference of the TEAM-NPA
council and’school board. Several

and were replaced by singles #

months ago residents of Killarl
Gardens, a prize-winning fam)
housing development suitable ™
400 children, approached coull
for help. Tenants with children
were being harassed, moved ®

couples. The adjoining scny)
annex now has wasted classroom)
Many of the parents of Rho®} —
children bought or rented homes’)
the area precisely because it 4
close to their. children’s schol)
They have decided to fight "|
school board’s decision to pha
out their school. In addition, th}
will be asking city council to @
measures to increase the Ci
population of their neighborho0)
While it may be true that #
TEAM-NPA council and_ sch0)
board have protected Shaughnes}
and Point Grey from ‘disrupt!
changes,” it is obvious that it la)
encouraged thse changes in ™
inner city. on
A new city council and sch0l)
board which recognizes the need?)
all residential neighborhoods 1)
children and stability is wh!)
Vancouver needs, not a TEA!)
NPA “executive city.” =z

Islanders ‘hard hit’ |
by ferry fare hikes

Cont'd from pg. 1

“It simply makes no sense to
double the fares and cut the use
down,’ McKnight said. He noted
that many municipal representa-
tives had earlier suggested that a
modest increase — perhaps 20 per
cent — would have greatly in-
creased. ferry revenues without
having the drastic effect that
present rates have had.

Despite the government silence,
however, the protest mounted by
AVIM has had some effect since a
modified rate schedule was in-
troduced on the Tsawwassen-Gulf
Islands run by which passengers
pay full fare on the first leg of the
trip and a reduced fare on the
return journey.

The new schedule was put into
effect without announcement last
week, indicating the government
was feeling some pressure but the
change will do virtually nothing to
alleviate the plight of Vancouver
Island residents or those
holidaying to Vancouver Island.

That was AVIM president
McKnight’s reaction who

suggested that the reduction W4)
an attempt by the government!)
“defuse’’ the situation with0!)
making any major concessions.
“The fact is that transp?
minister Davis and the govell|
ment are under a lot of pressure®
the ferry fare issue,” he sali
“They thought that after the inill!
protest, normal ferry traffic wou”
resume — and it hasn’t.”’ |
He said Monday that he Wj
awaiting a telephone call fro!)
Davis but added, ‘‘we’re not gor"
to wait very much longer — we
already waited more than ™
months for a meeting.” He sa!
that the AVIM executive would ™)
meeting to discuss further acti
on the issue.
Although what form furth®
protest will take is not yet know!)
the issue will certainly be of maj?
concern in the convention of ¢ ¢
Union of B.C. Municipalities slat@)
for the middle of September. ’
resolution will be introduced the!)
calling for federal subsidies to |
B.C. ferry system, reduced freigh'|
charges and preferential fares fol)
Vancouver Island residents.

TOM
McEWEN

p olitics are generally associated in the public mind with
the differences — if there are any — among Tories,
Liberals, Social Credit and so on. In the U.S., much the
Same applies to Republicans and Democrats. The premier

of a Zionist Israel or the bemedalled ruler of an African |

country can pose as an ardent democrat, but he can cut
the throats of his own or other unruly subjects with the
utmost abandon.

Hence politics, as we know them, are a bourgeois in-
vention, handed down from generation to generation,
perfected in the process, never attaining the boast of
cleanliness that they pretend and ultimately ending up in
class rule — raw, brutal and without shame or decency.
Invariably, they are aimed at the people of all lands where
they hold sway, their foreign policies keeping pace with
domestic policies and their diplomatic ministers ranking
as the finest liars that a country can produce, with
Kissinger currently starring in that role.

In the capitalist state, politics are all-embracing. They
cover everything from mass murder to open aggression
and genocide, from the elimination of whole communities

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JULY 30, 1976—Page 2

and peoples to the atrocities of war. All is explained away
as “politics” by the spokesmen and diplomats of the
status quo, with protests unheeded or forcibly subdued.

It was natural therefore that the U.S. war fleets should
bombard People’s China in order to preserve the
“republic” of Taiwan and its former puppet, Chiang Kai-
Shek; that Korea should be invaded and cut in two (under
a U.S.-dominated UN flag) to provide greater glory and
“security”? for the Dulles-Eisenhower regime. The British
Navy had sailed far up the Yangtze 50 years earlier to
reduce the village of Wahnsien to rubble and annihilate its
entire population in order to force the sale of opium upon
the Chinese people. All strictly political, of course, and if
youdidn’t approve of that brand of politics, it was just too
damn bad — for you.

Now, in yet another attempt to finish off the Olympics,
which are not in the best of health anyway because of an
overdose of bourgeois politics, U.S. president Gerry Ford
has issued an announcement accusing Canada of not
“playing the game” in its refusal to recognize Taiwan as
the Republic of China. At the same time, the kept press in
the U.S. howls that politics are being allowed to dominate
the Olympics. The politics were always there — the U.S.
among others, saw to that — but now that they are
changing, U.S. presidents and the rulers of Taiwan want
the rules changed.

My sister-in-law gave vent to a very basic truth the
other day when she said: ‘Turn on the radio or read the

newspapers day after day, you never hear or read any

happy news.’’ That figures since all news one reads
hears is syndicated, manufactured, packaged am
streamlined in order to mislead and confuse the publi
What little there is in the way of the realities of life B :
generally relegated to a few back-page inches. But all ®
political, arranged and prepared in the interests of co”)
tinued capitalist rule. _ a
In short, how can an Olympics or a Habitat conferencé :
of national or international significance be “non-political
in a country inundated with the worst form of politics, ®}
yet unrecognized by many as bourgeois politics? How cal J
any thing happy or beneficial come from such a liars’ den a
Truly, he has a long spoon that eats with the Devil a?
some of the ink-slingers in Montreal are using shovels:
Even their ‘‘non-politics” are highly political as befi®|
their role as servitors of a class!

TRIBUNE

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