Nothing short of a revolution was needed at the school, so Mrs. Haliburton believed.
Serious with intent she armed herself with grim statistics to make her point: the violent
behaviour, the truancy and dropout rates, teenage pregnancy issues. Things were not
just bad, she meant to imply; they were unacceptable.
Her first moveable target was Mrs. Ossinoff, a program coordinator, whose duties were
to provide counseling to students referred to her office: students with "problems" at home, in the classroom, with abusive boyfriends, drugs. Her office was usually crowded.
Students wanting to talk to Mrs. Ossinoff stayed away from classes; they loitered outside
her door; they played cards in her office as they waited their turn.
Mrs. Ossinoff had been a student at Berkeley in the 60s. On Fridays, when teachers
dressed down and looked forward to a relaxed funfilled weekend, she wore flowers in her
hair and blue jeans and tie-dyed T shirts; her crinkly hair with its first strands of grey
hung down her rounded shoulders.
Students loved her. They encouraged her to talk about the 60s when smoking
marijuana was a harmless if socially unacceptable indulgence; they claimed she understood their problems, spoke their language; she was "always there" when they needed help.
There was, however, a loitering problem outside her office. Mrs. Haliburton made
this the first issue of her campaign for change.
"You walk past Rm. 217…at any given time, on any given day…what do you see?
Students hanging out. Just hanging out. Nobody's in control," she observed, adding good-
naturedly in reference to Mrs. Ossinoff: "She's doing the best she can, I don't deny that,
but I don't think she's able to relate to these kids on a meaningful level."
She began cutting out newspaper articles carrying the latest high school violence
statistics. John Wayne Cotter H.S. was usually high on the list. She made photocopies
of columns – the borders and capitals severe with printer ink – and she pinned them up
on the notice board in the main office.
(from "Ah, Mikhail, O Fidel!" a novel by N.D.Williams, 2001)
FARJOURNEY CARIBBEAN 