Releasing the Warrior Within

In the early days, it seemed that I had rushed through life, without taking any time to grow up. Leaving university to get married. Having children and setting up our household. When I looked at my children or attended a meeting with their teachers at school I often thought, “what on earth am I doing here? I’m still a child.”

This all changed on my 32nd birthday. I woke up feeling completely different. When I looked in the mirror, I couldn’t see any differences, but in my heart, I knew it was there. I was an adult. That afternoon I went skating with my children and caught my toe picks in the ice, which sent me sprawling. I lay on there on the ice thinking “so much for being an adult”. But in spite of the fall, the feeling persisted. I was now a grown-up.

A couple of months later I discovered why this was so important. As a parent I was becoming very concerned about what was happening in my son’s grade 6 classroom at the local school. For some unknown reason they had not been assigned a home room teacher and were relying on the principal to fill this role. However, it appeared he was absent from the classroom, far more than he was in it. They also were spending long periods of time in the local hockey rink taking physical education, rather than the subjects we expected them to be taught. Every day the students would come home with another story of questionable activity in this classroom that had us perplexed. Finally, we decided to come together as parents and share what our children were telling us: hopefully to decide, as a group, what to do about it.

The evening meeting didn’t go quite as planned. When we arrived at the home of the parent who had offered to host us, her yard was jammed full of vehicles. Once we got into the house, we discovered that not only were the parents of the grade six students present, but also a huge number of other people from the community. As organizers, we tried to focus on our grade six concerns, but the rest of the crowd demanded that we do something about the brainwashing that was going on in the school. We had no idea what they were talking about.

A young woman who had graduated from grade twelve, the spring before, was present. As we were attempting to rein in the other participants and stick to our agenda, she suddenly stood up and asked permission to speak. The hostess replied “no, this is about grade six. We want to stick to the topic.” However, I was overcome by the feeling that there was something more going on. I held up my hand and said “let her speak.”

She started speaking and as we watched, her voice and her face transformed. She became a robot. I had never experienced anything like it. Throughout her presentation she praised the principal, calling him her saviour and claimed that she would follow him anywhere. She explained that his teachings had nothing at all to do with brainwashing but were the gifts of the truth. We all stared at her, open-mouthed.

When she was done speaking, she picked up her bag and left the meeting. The rest of the group began speaking, telling us how their children had all changed in grade 12. How they had given up all of their plans and dreams for the future and completely cut themselves off from their families. How they had moved to the communities this man had assigned them, where they acted as his disciples, sharing his truths.

My life changed dramatically that night as I became a warrior for my children and for the rest of the students in the school. We discovered that our children didn’t have a home room teacher so that the principal could control what was happening in that classroom. We discovered that the long periods of phys. ed gave him time to use this room to teach the grade twelve students English, which he had replaced with his brain washing techniques. We discovered that there were many other weird things going on throughout the school, not only with him, but also with other teachers. We brought everything we learned to the local school board. They ignored us, rationalizing what we pointed out as normal, in one way or another. We were mocked in the community as troublemakers. We received threats. But we leaned on each other and persisted in our fight.

We moved on with our concerns to the Department of Education. This led to a meeting, which was attended by the whole community. This included the current grade 12 students as well as several from the past. Throughout the meeting these students stood up and defended the principal in much the same way the young woman had, during our first meeting. In the midst of this, I presented concrete evidence on what had been going on in the school that was contrary to the laws laid out in the school act, which I had memorized. Finally, the meeting came to a close. I was walking out with my friend when the principal, his wife and the superintendent came striding towards us; tall, strong, and confident. When they saw me, they all turned scurried away, like the rats they were. I heard a voice proclaim “it is finished.”

That meeting changed everything. The behaviour of the students had shocked everyone who was present. The community demanded that the Department of Education do something about it. They held private meetings with everyone in the community who wanted to speak with them. Once all the concerns had been brought to light, they brought forward their ruling. The principal and three of the teachers were fired, as was the superintendent. Then they held a full investigation into the working of the school board, the very first in the history of our province.

The message “it is finished” allowed me step back and let the rest community take over the fight. However, I continued to celebrate the reality that I was now an adult, and as one, could take on any challenge I faced without falling on my face.