Save Sir William Van Horne High School is the motto a group of high school students are taking to a trustee meeting next week.
Van Horne Grade 12 students Terri Wright, 18, and Jonie Tarasoff, 17, are pledging to save their school from possible closure due to dwindling enrolment and plan to take their concerns to the trustee meeting.
“We know how important this school is to the students who go here and it has done a lot of good things for the students, who all have some form of learning disabilities,” Wright said.
Wright’s own brother, now 21, is deaf and she says he flourished under the school’s successful deaf and hard of hearing program.
“I think the sad thing is a lot of the students here would drop out before they would go to another school because they are segregated there and here they are just like everyone else.”
Tarasoff says the students believe the Calgary Board of Education has already made up its mind about the possible closure.
But CBE spokesperson Ted Flitton said the board consulted with the students, teachers and parents on Jan. 14 and welcome the students to speak further through the proper channels at the trustee meeting on Feb. 16.
“No decision has been made yet, the meeting is just to consider the closure and weigh the recommendations,” Flitton said, adding the proper processes are being followed.
