The Sturgeon Heights school prayer issue is still ongoing, and the board seems to be trying to draw it out long enough that the parents will get tired and wander away.
The Facebook group has been actively discussing a lot of things in the news over the past few weeks. Donna Hunter has assembled the links for those of us who can’t follow along.
By Luke Fevin
As I slowly learn more about this crazy education system of ours in Alberta, sometimes there are moments of clarity where the fog lifts and the madness is truly self-evident. Let me try to share a moment with you.
I live in one of the best places in Canada to raise a family and in St. Albert; I pay the taxes to prove it. So what are my education options for my 3 young children in one of the wealthiest and most highly taxed communities in Canada?
My public school division is Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools (GSACRD - pronounced G-Sacred, really). The problem is not only do these schools permeate Catholicism (which is not really for me), they actually require that I sign a form saying I understand that Catholicism fully permeates all of the divisions schools teaching – and even though it is my public school division, and it is unconstitutional, I am not allowed to opt my children out of the religious indoctrination.
(Yes GSACRD, the School Act applies to you the same as all other schools. You get to do the Lords Prayer and 30 minutes religious instruction at the end of the day. You are not special and have been openly flouting the law and, as per the legislation, your failure to meet these requirements will cause your “office to be void” – or it would if Alberta’s Education Ministers weren’t either staunch Catholics or “void” in the cojones department.) Continue reading »
This week in the news
Christianity, News, St. Albert School Issue
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Oct 172011
Luke Fevin was in the news again this week discussing the Sturgeon Heights prayer issue, and standing up for his right to a secular education for his children. In case you missed the original announcement, there is a petition to stop publicly funding separate schools in Alberta, set up by Dave King (former education minister).
http://www.separateschooleducation.ca/petition.php
CTV news clip before the meeting – October 12, 2011
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150328263757683
CBC summary of the school board meeting – October 13, 2011
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/10/13/edmonton-sturgeon-morinville-lords-prayer.html
Should the Lord’s prayer be heard in public school? – October 14, 2011
http://life.nationalpost.com/2011/10/14/school-on-the-edge-of-edmonton-in-row-over-morning-prayers/
Continue reading »
Donna Hunter has been following the news reports and letters about prayer at Sturgeon Heights School since Luke Fevin went on 630 CHED. She’s kindly put together a list of articles for us. So, if you’re interested in how the public discussion has been playing out, read on!
Oct 072011
Luke was back on the radio again today, this time with alberta@noon on CBC. The principal of Sturgeon Heights School, Garnet Goertzen, was also part of the interview.
Audio can be found here:
http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/episode/2011/10/06/thursday-october-06-2011/
Sep 282011
Tuesday, 4 October 2011, 7:00pm – 9:00pm
Change of venue. This month only, we will be in the Chariman Room at the Westin Hotel, 10135 100th Street, just south of the Stanley A Milner Library.
This month’s roundtable discussion will feature guest speaker Luke Fevin, discussing his struggles with the Sturgeon School Division over school prayer and his efforts to see that his three children are provided with a secular education free from religion.
Round table discussion at 7:00 pm. The meeting continues informally at Elephant and Castle afterwards at 9:00 pm
All are welcome to both events!
Facebook RSVP here
To hear Luke Fevin and afterwards, Paula Simons, discuss the prayer issue at Sturgeon Heights School, you can visit the 630 CHED audio vault. Use September 26, 2011 at 9:00PM, the interview starts after the news/ads.
By Luke Fevin
Note: You can contact Luke through the SEA Facebook group, where this was originally posted.
For those of you interested in how religion impacts our schools and the importance of Alberta adopting a secular school system, I thought that you may be interested in my family’s experience. My wife and I live in St. Albert and have 3 children, two girls now 7 & 5 and a little boy who’s 3. Three years ago in the summer of 2008 we were looking for the right school for our children. Catholic schools, you will appreciate, were not an option for us – but we found a wonderful school on the outskirts of St. Albert in the Sturgeon school district. Not too big, not too small, nice mix of urban and country families, progressive programs and new I.T. tools finding its way into the classrooms. We visited the school and given that ‘no religion’ was one of our key factors, took the time to ensure there were no prominent crosses or other symbols, no religious artwork or any other indications of institutional religion.
Continue reading »
St. Albert:
Luke Fevin is trying to ensure that his children have a secular education. So, when he learned that Sturgeon Heights school, the public, secular school that his children are attending, has the Lord’s Prayer over the intercom every morning, he decided to speak out.
If you live in St. Albert and would like to help Luke with this issue, you can get in touch with him through the Society of Edmonton Atheists Facebook group.
Morinville:
This month marks the first secular classes in Morinville. Right now they’re in temporary spaces, but the fact that the classes exist at all is a demonstration of how a little organization, on the part of interested parents, has made a big change. Right now the school has 66 students – not bad for a small town where the school board said that there wasn’t enough interest.