Rideau High School

Rideau High School
Address
815 St. Laurent Boulevard Ottawa , Ontario , K1K 3A7
Information
Founded	1958
School board	Ottawa Carleton District School Board
Principal	Geordie Walker
Enrollment	560
Campus	urban
Colour(s)	Blue and White
Mascot	Ram
Team name	Rams
Feeder schools	Queen Elizabeth Public School, York Street Public School, Henry Munro Middle School
Affiliation	none
Website	http://www.rideauhigh.ca/

Rideau High School [Website] is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board high school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada . It is located at 815 St. Laurent Boulevard in the east end of the city on the edge of Vanier. It is located next to the Queen Elizabeth elementary school. The school opened in 1958. It was the second of a series of ten high schools built by the school board to cope with rapidly rising attendance and the baby boom. The project generated some controversy as the Collegiate Board presented a plan that included an auditorium, double gym, and a cafeteria. The Ottawa Property Owners association objected to these as expensive and unneeded luxuries, and the mayor Charlotte Whitton agreed. The dispute delayed the construction of the school for some time.

The school was renovated in the early 1990s at the cost of several million dollars. It is a mixed stream school offering Academic(advanced), Applied(general) and Essential level courses. The school also has a significant English as a Second Language program, with about 46.3% of the student population enrolled. Its specialization in ESL programs makes it one of the most multicultural schools in the city. Rideau also has programs for special needs students (with a population of 30.2% of students enrolled) and strong technological programming. Rideau was designed to hold 900 students. Today enrolment has fallen to about 560 students. However, only an estimated 400 students attend on a daily basis. The rest of the building is populated by the children of the two daycares and the adult English programs.

In an October 6, 2009 report by the OCDSB, closure of the school was recommended, with its current students to be redirected to Gloucester High School. and incoming students to be re-directed to Lisgar Collegiate Institute (English) or Glebe Collegiate Institute (French Immersion). The school remained open because OCDSB board members voted December 7, 2009 to reject the recommendation.

Crime at Rideau High School

As mentioned above, Rideau was recommended to be closed in 2009. Although a news article from CBC News noted dwindling enrolment, it abstained from discussing why many teenagers would choose to avoid enrolment in Rideau. The following paragraphs give an idea as to why the recommendation was presented in the first place and yields information that explain the reason why Rideau has a reputation.

Theft

Theft at Rideau High School occurs very often. A steady pattern has formed of how and what the thieves steal. Lockers are broken into by means of forcing the metal to bend and occasionally using a crow bar, thus creating a forced opening. Other times students are harassed in washrooms by being swarmed by four upwards of seven students who restrain the victim while others empty pockets and bags. The same happens in locker rooms and bus stops. The offenders are mostly students of visible minorities such as those of Somali and Lebanese ethnicity. They are known to live in a notoriously crime exposed neighbourhood called [Overbrook]. These students have lower grades, associate with gangs, and generally fit the cliché characteristics of a bully. They perform these petty crimes in groups to avoid having a single person being singled out and to ensure a false story is supported by other members of the criminal party; all in order to plant the seed of doubt in the minds of the principals and the resource officers of the school. The common occurrence of thievery has remained unsolved and thieves go on unpunished because they deal in large groups that help to intimidate the victim who then cannot deal with the problem in the normal fashion that one would deal with; in other words by reporting to the principal or vice-principal.

The school’s faculty is not successful in preventing this type of crime because there are simply not enough personnel to watch the halls in between and during classes. Students roam freely (without supervision) through the halls and any trouble can be caused without much resistance. The couple times that a teacher intervenes, the conflict is usually won by the student; hence demonstrating a lack of authority over the students.

Students are therefore encouraged to be wise about what they bring to school and where they store it. However, the pressure to fit into social groups is the reason why many students continue to bring valuables to the building and thus the crime perpetuates.

Violence

At Rideau High School it is no surprise to pass by and observe a fight about to unfold, in the process, or witness the police intervention and the aftermath. The frequency of these fights has decreased to approximately one every couple of days as opposed to past years where Rideau was an epicentre of fights happening every day. Additionally, Rideau and its rival school, Ottawa Technical Secondary School, would seek each other out during lunch break in order to fight and prove who’s the tougher school leading to brawls in the streets that at one time took up the intersection of St. Laurent Blvd and Donald St. with an estimated 75-100 students involved. Within school grounds, these conflicts usually unfold at the bus stop or at the back school parking lot. By the time the authority figures arrive on the scene, the participants have been warned by peers and have already broken the altercation and/or moved it to a different location, often times to Mutual Street, the street parallel to the school. The culprits of violence in the school are usually involved with illegal drug dealings. Sometimes it is between the dealer and his customer in a situation where the dealer attempts to con the customer by selling less of the product than the promised amount for the same amount of money. Other times the cause of the fight is attempted theft. As one former student notes, “We know we are in a bad school. We already have the reputation, so many of us use it as an excuse to behave violently. Those who watch the fights feel safe being ignorant. No one dares to step up.” Confrontations occur so frequently that school officials seem to have grown complacent to the violence. Rarely do teachers intervene and have any success in correcting the culprit’s behaviour. The surrounding neighbourhood also exhibits violent characteristics. In August 2012, the Police SWAT team raided a house for illegal weapons.

Drug-Abuse

In Rideau High School, illegal drugs are omnipresent among students. Usually there are fewer students that don’t use than there are those who do. The most popular drug is marijuana. Other drugs used include amphetamine, ecstacy, and alcohol (usually more often on Fridays). Marijuana of all drugs is the most accessible to students. Approximately every class has one student who provides and sells the product to his classmates. The consumers then smoke the marijuana outdoors, on or off school property. Drugs, ever-present in the surrounding neighbourhoods, are used to make long classes go by quickly. In many classes, students arrive intoxicated on a regular basis and still manage to pass the class simply by attending (yet there are the occasional exceptions to this). Teachers appear to be oblivious that their students are using, thus more students see only the advantages of drug use in class. Even when a student is proven to be intoxicated while in class, the worst punishment for him or her would be a day of suspension. The majority of students are consumers of marijuana. The other drugs are used by a smaller population. Usually these students are older (in grades eleven and twelve), although younger students have been reported to use as well. The older students see their minors as potential consumers, especially if they become addicted quickly.

Causes of Crime

The students of Rideau High School are well aware of the lack of opportunities offered to them. The courses offered are targeted to a students of lower intelligence with the majority being classified “essential” and “applied”. The first page on the school’s website’s list of courses shows a long list of “Credit Recovery”. The Fraser Institute reported some revealing statistics relating to Rideau’s demographic. The parent’s average yearly income in 2010-2011 in Canadian dollars was 40,900; this is 19,555 dollars less than Ontario’s average yearly income in 2006. The overall rating for Rideau High School was a 2.7 out of 10. This data helps to explain why students are not hesitant, rather they are eager to earn money in any way, legal or not. Any thoughts of post-secondary education are far-fetched and thus most students of Rideau High must enter the work-force immediately or apply for welfare. If any social change would to occur in the neighbourhood, then perhaps crime at Rideau High would decrease and more and more students may learn the value of their education.

References

1. ^ "Rideau Highschool Ottawa Ontario Academic ranking" (http://ontario.compareschoolrankings.org/secondary/Rideau_High_School/Ottawa/Report_Card.aspx) . Fraser Institute. 2010-2011. http://ontario.compareschoolrankings.org/secondary/Rideau_High_School/Ottawa/Report_Card.aspx. Retrieved 2012-11-20. 2. ^ "Rideau High School should close: report" (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/10/06/ottawa-rideau- high-school.html) . CBC News. Tuesday, October 6, 2009. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2009/10/06/ottawa-rideau-high-school.html. Retrieved 2009-10-21. 3. ^ "Rideau High School" (https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=mUMvDwOpzbg&playnext=1&list=PLBF859A847F76A96B&feature=results_main) . CentretownNewsOnline. November 6, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=mUMvDwOpzbg&playnext=1&list=PLBF859A847F76A96B&feature=results_main. 4. ^ "Overbrook Community fearful after weapons seized" (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/08/01/ottawa-weapons-seized.html) . CBC News Canada. August 1, 2012. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/08/01/ottawa-weapons-seized.html. 5. ^ "Rideau High School Course View" (http://rideauhigh.ca/index.php?page=course) . http://rideauhigh.ca/index.php?page=course. Retrieved 2012-11-22.