Elgin Park students show strong sense of responsibility
Too often, older people decry the irresponsibility of youth.
They too often forget that, not so long ago, they were young themselves and
made their own share of mistakes.
About 25 students from Elgin Park Secondary proved recently
that such generalizations are incorrect. They and about 45 other students had
attended an unauthorized and unsupervised end of year party near Harrison Lake,
one which provoked a lot of outrage on social media when photos of the mess
left behind were posted. The pile of garbage was particularly upsetting, as the
area they were camping in is a pristine wilderness area.
Principal Bruce Filsinger was naturally upset when he found
out about the incident and the unwelcome publicity. It was blackening the name
of the graduating class, which has 297 members. Most of them did not attend the
party and had nothing to do with the incident.
He called it “entitled and asocial behaviour.”
After being contacted by the Four Wheel Drive Association of
B.C., Filsinger let students know that they were welcome to take part in a
cleanup organized by the association. Neither he nor the school could force
them to do so – it was up to them.
“I think that’s important,” he said. “The students took responsibility
for their actions.”
On their own, about two dozen students and one parent went back
to the site and worked hard to clean it up. These students, who represent about
30 per cent of those who attended the party, showed that young people can learn
from their mistakes. They were ready to own up to what happened, and to repair
the damage that had been done – both the physical damage, but also the damage to
the reputation of their school and their graduating class.
Ever since I worked for an Agassiz newspaper at the dawn of
my newspaper career in the late 1970s, I’ve been well aware of the many grad-related
parties that occur in the mountains on the north side of the Fraser River. There
have been occasional deaths, and there have been many injuries. What happens
almost all the time is that partiers fail to clean up the mess their event has
created. They leave it to others and act irresponsibly.
This kind of disregard for the beautiful natural environment
which they have chosen to visit is not something that anyone should be proud
of. It also hardens the attitudes of many people toward young people who choose
to go camping along Harrison Lake, the Chehalis River, Davis Lake, Stave Lake
and the many other wilderness areas that are so close to us.
This is not a good way to begin adult life, by acting
irresponsibly. Thankfully, some Elgin Park students understood that, and did
something positive to repair the damage.
They are to be commended. I’ll go out on a limb and predict
that young people with attitudes such as theirs will go on to lead useful and
productive adult lives. They will be a credit to whatever organization they represent
in the future, and they will lead happier and more fulfilled lives.
High school graduation is a very important milestone in life.
Getting started on the next stage in a responsible manner is an achievement
which deserves to be highlighted.
Hopefully, the actions of the 25 or so students will also
prove to be an inspiration to the other members of their graduating class.
Kim Reeves, president of the FWDA, summed up the actions of the
responsible students this way: “They worked really hard, did a fantastic job
cleaning up, so kudos to the graduating class.”
Their efforts remind all of us that taking responsibility for our
actions is always the right thing to do.
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