LOCAL COMPANY GOES HOG WILD
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MAN CONVICTED OF TAX FRAUD
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DEAFENING SILENCE ON HOMELESSNESS
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FRIDAY
JANUARY 11 2013 www.burnabynewsleader.com
She’s heard Lady Gaga’s message to go after your dreams. Will the Lady hear hers? See Page A5
Would a two-week spring break fly? Teachers union may suggest exploring idea Wanda Chow
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
MARIO BARTEL/NEWSLEADER
Allegra Wright and Isaac Caverzan portray young people touched by ecstasy at a rave in Russian Roulette, a play written and produced by students at Burnaby Mountain secondary with a grant from Burnaby RCMP.
The agony of the ecstasy wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
Students at a Burnaby high school were asked following a theatre performance recently how many of them had tried the drug ecstasy. One brave soul put up their hand. “Then they asked, ‘Who knows where they can get it?’ and everyone put their hand up,” recalled Grade 11 Burnaby Mountain student Isaac
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applied and the class was awarded The show is a docudrama a grant to create the show, written which includes the story of Cheryl and produced by about 28 students McCormack, an Abbotsford teen from the school’s theatre production who died in 2011 after taking the and media studies classes. drug, only three weeks after the The students will put on a free ecstasy-related death of Tyler performance on Wednesday, Jan. Miller, a 20-year-old from the same 16, 7 p.m. at Michael J. Fox Theatre, city. aimed at parents and any students The Mountain students’ research aged 12 and older. taught them that ecstasy works by In the last six years, 99 youth in raising serotonin levels in the brain, B.C. have died after taking ecstasy, which greatly improves mood and an average of 16 a year, Rudolph appetite and increases energy levels. said. “Those are the ones that are 4x1.25_bottle_depot_ad_final.pdf 1 12-03-05 1:20 PM dying, they’re not just messed up.” Please see THEY, A4
BOTTLE DEPOT
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Wanda Chow
Caverzan, 16, one of the actors that day. If the Mountain drama students needed any reminder of why they created and produced their short play, Russian Roulette, about the dangers of ecstasy use, that was it. “It’s $5 a pill,” Caverzan said. “Anyone can get their hands on it.” And it’s the often fatal effects of the drug that prompted Burnaby RCMP to put out a call for proposals on how to get that message out to students. Mountain drama teacher Felicity Rudolph
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Mountain students produce ecstasy cautionary tale
The Burnaby Teachers’ Association (BTA) could be willing to look into the idea of a two-week spring break according to a motion on the agenda of its general meeting on Jan. 22. The motion calls on the BTA to lobby the Burnaby school board to “co-sponsor an outside report with submissions from all stakeholders” on the pros and cons of a two-week break which, it says, saves other Lower Mainland school districts $200,000 to $500,000 each school year. BTA vice-president Patrick Parkes said the motion did not come from the BTA executive but rather from members who are interested in the topic. He stressed that the BTA has not taken a position on the issue. But “it’s a major topic of discussion among some members,” he said. In the Lower Mainland only Burnaby and New Westminster still have only a one-week spring break. The two-week school closures were implemented in other districts in the last few years as a cost-cutting measure. Please see SCHOOL, A3