Applications to Adopt-A-School from a number of alternate schools around the province total more than $100,000

Applications from schools seeking help from The Vancouver Sun’s Adopt-A-School campaign point to an education system struggling to deal with the effects of poverty on students.

Reports from teachers about the lack of food, clothing, and basic necessities in the lives of impoverished children, and how this adversely affects their education, are distressingly similar.

But there is a group of students — those in the province’s alternate school systems — whose needs are the most complex and chronic. Applications to Adopt-A-School from a number of alternate schools around the province total more than $100,000.

Three students attending the Fraserview Learning Centre in Mission, an alternate school, agreed to be interviewed about how the support found there has improved their lives. None will be identified. All are 18 years old.

Student A has been at the school for three years. She lives with her grandmother, a pensioner, in a trailer park. They have survived on one pension since her grandfather died.

They don’t always have enough food “especially now with food prices it’s hard to buy the food we need,” she said.

She needs a winter coat and boots. The shoes she is wearing with fake fur topsides look like slippers.

“These are my current shoes, not really waterproof. My boyfriend just bought them. They were on sale for $15, luckily.”

She suffers from anxiety, is on medication, and had a substance abuse problem “smoking weed” which she quit a few weeks ago.

From Grade 8 she missed about 18 months of schooling until in Grade 10 she was referred to Fraserview.

She was bullied in her former school, she says.

“I’d go in and I’d have to leave because I was uncomfortable. I didn’t get much work done. It was too intimidating in a big class of 35 people.

“I’ve worked with my anxiety here. Now I come to school daily.”

She would come in the summer if the school was open, she said.

“Because of this school, I’ve learnt a lot about my health and my background in the Indigenous culture.

“I would still have four broken teeth if I didn’t come here, and without their help I would not be graduating. This school has made it so I want to go to UFV (University of the Fraser Valley) for the veterinary technician program.”

Student B has been at the school for 18 months. She previously attended secondary school, but barely ever went.

Her home life was unhappy and she had problems with substance abuse.

“At home we had three foster children and it took a big toll on our house because we were always taking care of them. I’d take the school bus into town, but I’d skip school all day so I wasn’t doing any work and wasn’t motivated to do anything.

“I was just using that time as a break from home. Then I’d take the bus home and watch the foster kids, take care of them, and clean up the house.

“I have support systems here. I was doing a lot of molly (MDMA), smoking and drinking all the time, but I’ve gotten over that because I’ve had help from people throughout the school system.

“My family says, ‘You look so much better, so much happier.’ Yes, I’m happy I got to this school.”

Student C has been at the school for five years. She was a hard drug user — cocaine, MDMA, LSD and GHB.

“I came here because I was getting severely bullied at my middle school. I had a big gap in my front teeth and people would say things like, ‘I could put a semi-truck between your teeth’ — stuff like that — and more brutal stuff.

“At one point, the whole school was bullying me because I’d made friends with the wrong person and everyone would plug their noses when they went by me.

“I told my principal I was getting bullied and he said don’t go into the bathrooms and don’t go outside much, so they just segregated me.”

When she told her principal the school made her want to take her own life, “he just told me to go home. This school has helped me a lot. I’m trying to graduate now because last year I was struggling mentally and had to go to a rehab facility. But now I’m sober, I can. I try my hardest, but it’s a struggle.”

Since she joined Fraserview, she no longer takes ADHD medication. Her teeth are now perfect and she wants to go to culinary school and learn how to make sushi.

“I had to fight to get here. But they accepted me. It was probably the best thing that could have happened in my life.”

Fraserview is asking Adopt-A-School for $20,000 so it can continue its breakfast and lunch programs that are under threat from lack of funding.

How to donate

1. ONLINE: Donate online with a credit card at www.vansunkidsfund.ca

2. PHONE: To pay by credit card, call 604-813-8673.

By Gerry Bellett (gbellett@gmail.com)