Saint John's School of Alberta (SJSA) was a small private boys' boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 in Stony Plain, Alberta

Stony Plain, Alberta

Stony Plain is a large town in rural Alberta, Canada, just west of Edmonton.Stony Plain is a rapidly growing town with strong historical roots. It is located west of Spruce Grove and surrounded by Parkland County. The town is governed by one mayor and six councillors. The region is dominated by...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 which operated from 1967 to 2008, the last of three such schools founded on conservative

Cultural conservatism

Cultural conservatism is described as the preservation of the heritage of one nation, or of a shared culture that is not defined by national boundaries. Other variants of cultural conservatism are concerned with culture attached to a given language such as Arabic.The shared culture may be as...

 Anglican ideas and the notion that children were not challenged by present-day society. It closed in June 2008. Ted Byfield

Ted Byfield

Edward Bartlett "Ted" Byfield is a conservative Canadian journalist, publisher and editor. He founded the Alberta Report and Western Report newsmagazines.Born in Toronto, Byfield moved with his parents to Washington, D.C. at the age of 17...

 was one of the founders of the school.

The school provided a strict, traditional education with corporal punishment and an extensive outdoor program that included shoeshowing, hiking, canoeing, ice hockey, lacrosse and other rigorous and challenging activities.

Two other 'Saint John's Schools' had already closed. They were Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School

Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School

Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School was founded in Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada in the early 1960s by Ted Byfield and Frank Wiens, who believed that boys were not challenged by the education system or by society in general. The two started an Anglican lay order called the Company of the Cross,...

 in Selkirk, Manitoba (near Winnipeg), and Saint John's School of Ontario

Saint John's School of Ontario

Saint John's School of Ontario was the third of three private Anglican boys' boarding schools in Toronto founded on conservative Anglican ideas and the notion that children were not challenged by present-day society. The two other defunct schools are Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School , and Saint...

 (Toronto area).

Core philosophical beliefs

The school was conservative in social and religious outlook. Following is a listing of the main principles espoused by the school:

Perseverance is a virtue

The ability to go on when you want to lie down and quit is important. Most people can do far more than they ever thought possible. Success in doing the difficult in one area makes it easier to succeed in another.

Courage is a virtue

It is not wrong to be afraid. It is right to face your fears, and do your utmost to overcome them. "Without real danger there can be no real adventure. Without real adventure, there can be no real growth." [Ted Byfiled, Men Wanted—Staff Recruiting Manual]

Faith is a virtue

When the world is dark about you, strength comes from your faith in God. Grace is said before every meal. On trips the day starts with Morning Prayer, and finishes with Compline

Compline

Compline is the final church service of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours. The English word Compline is derived from the Latin completorium, as Compline is the completion of the working day. The word was first used in this sense about the beginning of the 6th century by St...

. The religious connections of the school had diminished over the years, to the point that it described itself as non-denominational and staff did not consider themselves as members of a faith or religious community.

Work is honorable

Chores decrease the costs of running the school, making it less expensive for all. They also ensure that no student need fear unemployment.

Strength and learning come through hard work

These were organized in the form of exercise and study. Study is foreign to the wishes of most boys, so the school has supervised study for all boys whose marks are below 75%.

Corporal punishment

The school's historic use of "swat sticks" to spank the boys for virtually any infraction (0.4 metre long pieces of wood, similar to a US school paddle) was defended by founder Ted Byfield as being among the positive and character-forming aspects of the schools..

Paddlings continued until the 2003 school year (Confirmed).

Revised discipline in later years

Updated discipline included things like: marks below minimum received supervised study in the dining room instead of the dorm; homework not done for class, free time spent in learning centre with a teacher to help; late for class: Run 1 km; swear in the presence of a teacher, 10-20 pushups; running in the hall, go back and walk; talking after lights out, stand in silence in the hallway for half an hour while dorm mates get to sleep. Bully and get a 5 day suspension; do it again - expelled; bring drugs into the school, suspension and counselling, required attendance at a program to stop using and periodic urine tests thereafter.

Staff were expected to lead by example

Eighty percent of the frontline staff participated in the outdoor program. Many staff had a chore crew to oversee, and they often joined in the task at hand.

Ted Milligan, 1976 hypothermia case

The school's outdoor program was news on several occasions. This incident took place at St. John's Cathedral Boys' School in Selkirk, Manitoba and was the basis for an article in the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest "Drama in Real Life". In 1976, Ted Milligan collapsed with hypothermia two miles from the school while on a voluntary training run for the "Interschool Snowshoe Race" held annually between the Manitoba and Alberta schools. The day started out warm, but at sunset, the temperature dropped rapidly. Milligan's clothes were soaked with sweat, and he chilled. Initially he was thought dead, with no detectable pulse by the school's nurse. He was unresponsive to resuscitation efforts. At the Selkirk Hospital, doctors heated up the ER and wisely placed an ice pack on his head to prevent thermal shock to his brain. In time, he was revived and was awake and alert the following morning.

Ted Milligan's ordeal established medical history as being one of the first deep hypothermia victims brought back. He has no effects of the incident besides memory loss of the incident itself. (Common in hypthermia cases.) As a consequence of this incident, the school instituted a policy of mandatory cold weather hypothermia training for all staff and students to be completed before the start of the winter season every year. The school also required polypro instead of cotton long undewear, required that cotton-based outerwear not be used, and that all personnel would carry their parka with them at all times on snowshoe runs. The school issued a day pack to make carrying the parka easier on warm days.

Markus Janisch, 1970s death

Markus Janisch, collapsed during the Interschool Snowshoe Race, and died at the Alberta school from an undetected (and with the medical technology of the era undetectable) brain aneurysm. The autopsy report stated that this type of aneurysm would typically have burst before the patient was age 20.

Response to Lake Temiskaming canoeing disaster at St. John's School of Ontario

On a canoe trip from the Ontario School on 11 June 1978, 12 boys and one staff member died on Lake Temiskaming from drowning and hyopthermia. At the inquest into the deaths, the coroner determined that the trip could have been better planned but that the school was not negligent.

Program changes, post-Temiskaming

• Bowsmen must have 10 days' experience as a paddler.
• Steersman must have 10 days' experience as a bowsman.
• All paddlers must pass a test on cold-water hypothermia every year.
• All paddlers must have a minimum of 8 hours' paddling instruction and practice under controlled conditions (protected area, rescue boat nearby) before undertaking an expedition.
• All paddlers must participate in two dumping practices before each trip to become familiar with the rescue procedures, both as victims and as rescuers.
• All voyageur canoes carried an inflatable life raft. These were rechecked as per manufacturer's recommendation.
• The school put in place rules regarding hours travelled, hours rested, hours a driver could drive, and the frequency and spacing of meals leading up to the trip. All of this was to prevent personnel from commencing trips in exhausted states.
• All non-trivial rapids are scouted from shore.
• Any person if worried about the safety of the rapid can opt out. This includes bowsmen and steersmen.
• The brigade leader may decide that a given individual is not qualified to shoot a particular rapid.

After Temiskaming there were no dumpings on lakes. The school also retired its fleet of specially designed "Selkirk"-style canoes in favour of the Mariner design from Clipper Canoes in Abbotsford, B.C. These canoes were more stable, with greater freeboard and width.

Corporal punishment and outdoor program changes

Some policies changed over the years: some time before corporal punishment in Canadian schools became illegal in 2004, the spanking of students with wooden paddles for infractions at St John's was ended.

Underlying attitudes and ideology did not change. The school continued to have an outdoor education program

Wilderness therapy

Wilderness therapy is a subset of adventure-based therapy. It is the use of wilderness expeditions for the purpose of therapeutic intervention. There are a range of different types of wilderness therapy programs, with a range of models and approaches. Some grow out of a survival approach and some...

 with snowshoe

Snowshoe

A snowshoe is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes work by distributing the weight of the person over a larger area so that the person's foot does not sink completely into the snow, a quality called "flotation"....

 training and races (now shortened from the original one-day, 16-hour races of 50 miles (80 km), canoe trips

Canoeing

Canoeing is an outdoor activity that involves a special kind of canoe.Open canoes may be 'poled' , sailed, 'lined and tracked' or even 'gunnel-bobbed'....

 and other outdoor excursions. The school pushed students to their physical and psychological limits; the wilderness excursions emphasized endurance and challenge.

The students were required to participate in four core programs: academics, outdoor, work (chores) and sales. The school employed a janitor who came four times a week, but the students did most of the work including, but not limited to, taking care of the sled dogs, building and repairing sleds, harness and traces, cleaning dorms, shovelling walks in winter, yardwork in spring and fall, cleaning the kitchen, dining room, and laundry (using the machines, sorting,and distributing). The school had 60 students from grades 7 to 12 when it closed, down from the 106 boys capacity.

Tuition fees as listed on the school's website ranged from about $9,000 for day students to $23,000 for residential students. In 2007–08, 80% of the enrollment was residential.

Company of the Cross

The school was run by a religious order

Religious order

A religious order is a lineage of communities and organizations of people who live in some way set apart from society in accordance with their specific religious devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's religious practice. The order is composed of initiates and, in some...

 called the Company of the Cross

Company of the Cross

The Company of the Cross was a lay religious order which was affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada when founded. It operated under the authority of the Anglican bishops in Winnipeg , the diocese of Edmonton and the diocese of Toronto It was founded in 1962 by Frank Weins and Ted Byfield...

, which was a lay order of the Anglican Church of Canada

Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church of Canada is the Province of the Anglican Communion in Canada. The official French name is l'Église Anglicane du Canada. The ACC is the third largest church in Canada after the Roman Catholic Church and the United Church of Canada, consisting of 800,000 registered members...

, but the relationship to the church is presently unclear, having changed over time from the specific church control and sponsorship described in the Company's

Company of the Cross

The Company of the Cross was a lay religious order which was affiliated with the Anglican Church of Canada when founded. It operated under the authority of the Anglican bishops in Winnipeg , the diocese of Edmonton and the diocese of Toronto It was founded in 1962 by Frank Weins and Ted Byfield...

 documentation
to informal, i.e., not acknowledged or listed on any official document of the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton or Anglican Church. The school later labelled itself nondenominational.

Internal documents

(source: Stephen Riley, archives, St. John's Cathedral, Winnipeg), p. 2:
From an undated document entitled "The student and the Master"

"The Necessity of Discipline"

We are, as Christians, supposed to know the world and be able to cope with it. One of the greatest temptations put forth by the world is to buy its fantasy picture of reality. This fantasy would have us believe that

a) all people are basically good;

b) that we don't have to work to eat;

c) that getting the work finished is more important than how well it is done;

d) that carelessness won't end in tragedy;

e) that children know what is best for them.

Discipline is necessary in every society to keep it functioning because human nature is not basically good."

(from the same document, p. 15, comes a warning to the staff that each member must be consistent
in applying the policy on discipline. It says there is no room for "Mr. Nice Guy."):

"1. You know school policy, follow it.

2. If it offends you aesthetically - leave and quit undermining everyone else.

3. If you want to stay, change before you are asked to leave."

(from the same document, p. 17):

"spanking is permissible in class or study but be aware of two things:

1) If you fear a confrontation, don't try it.

2) Don't humiliate a boy and make him cry in front of the group."

Criminal charges

A teacher from St. John's School of Alberta, Paul Nordahl, was charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm in 1990.

After a letter writing campaign to the Attorney general of Alberta, the Chief Crown prosecutor , the Minister of Social Services, the M.L.A. for Drayton Valley and Mr. Tom Thurber, the charges were eventually stayed. (reference: freedom of information documents)

Child welfare investigations

In January 1990, Alberta Family and Social Services conducted an investigation that was obtained by a freedom of information request. This is a summary of the document that is available in full form in Wikisource

Wikisource

Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...

.

Summary:
A boy complained to child welfare authorities that the school's discipline of him with a 3 foot (0.9144 m) stick, measuring 1 by, had caused bruises. The investigators examined the child, and found bruising consistent with the measurements of the stick. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Royal Canadian Mounted Police

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 (RCMP) investigated because causing bruises in such circumstances is considered infliction of bodily harm. The investigators noted that prior complaints were received before 1983. The investigation noted that six children had run away to avoid the physical punishment of being hit with the sticks, and this was known to the RCMP from previous reports. It was also noted that older children physically assaulted younger children during supervision of chores and other activities. The Wikisource document should be consulted for complete details. The document also contains an initial heavily edited response by the school, also obtained by freedom of information request (the indication of "SEC. 17" in the document indicates censored information with the freedom of information request).

Lawsuits

The school was sued for $3.5 million in 2003 by Jeffrey Richard Birkin regarding "psychological and physical mistreatment" on a "new boy wilderness trip" in 1976. The claim listed direct physical abuse involving being hit by teachers causing physical injuries, and having been subjected to degrading and humiliating treatment. The outcome of the lawsuit is not clear, possibly a negotiated and sealed settlement. In a 1990s interview, founder Ted Byfield agreed that some of the treatment of students in past times would be considered excessive and worthy of criminal charges if they occurred today.

The school had been previously sued in 1996 by Matt Riddel who lost 9 toes on a 4-day, 50-kilometre snowshoe and dogsled trip during which temperatures dropped to -28 degrees C. However, the boy had refused to comply with the standard periodic foot checks and sock changes designed to forestall this sort of event.

A teacher at Saint John's Cathedral Boys' School was jailed for sexual abuse of students in the 1980s.

"Boys Adrift", book

Leonard Sax

Leonard Sax

Leonard Sax is an American psychologist and family physician. He is best known as the author of three books for parents: Why Gender Matters, Boys Adrift and Girls on the Edge. He is also founder and executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education.Sax's views on gender...

's second book, Boys Adrift, mentions Saint John's School implicitly in two separate illustrations. Sax's view of the school seems to be favorable, as its philosophy conforms with his views on single-sex education

Single-sex education

Single-sex education, also known as single-gender education, is the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools. The practice was predominant before the mid-twentieth century, particularly in secondary education and...

..

The Old Boys, television documentary

From The Old Boys a television documentary broadcast by CBC Manitoba on 28 February 1990 (produced by Stephen Riley; reporter was Robert Enright) interview subject was Patrick Treacy, who spent four years at the Manitoba school during the 1970s. Treacy was deemed by staff at the time to be one of the best students there.

"The New Boys", film

In 1974, the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

 filmed a documentary about sister school, St. John's Cathedral Boys' School .

Weekend Magazine No. 5, 1968

From a story by James Quig p. 6 quoting Frank Wiens, (headmaster and co-founder of St. John's Cathedral Boy's School, Selkirk).

Alumni who returned as staff

Peter Jackson, the last headmaster, is an alumnus of the Selkirk School. Keith McKay, recently retired from the Alberta school after 30 years service. Jason Coates, the previous headmaster, attended the Alberta School for one year. Al Tombs, who taught and counselled for about 13 years, is an alumnus of the Alberta School. Rory Nugent, the school bookkeeper for the last 4 years of operation, is an alumus of the Selkirk school. Blaine Thauberger, formerly work and sales program coordinator, is an Alberta alumnus. Two members of the Board of Directors of the school, Mike Williamson and Dave Hunt, are alumni. Williamson sent his son Tyler to the Alberta School. Mike Maunder, one of the Selkirk school's first students, worked at all three schools for many years. Numerous other alumni returned to the school for shorter periods of time.

School closure and the future

On 14 July 2008, the acting head master, Peter Jackson, posted a notice on the school's website that the school is closed for the 2008–2009 year citing a lack of instructors and a lack of students. The school was permanently closed in December 2008, although some former students and teachers have been discussing a revival which minimizes or severs connections with the old schools and what they see as the tainted St. John's "brand-name".

Saint John's premises now house Mother Earth's Children's Charter School (MECCS), attended by some 145 First Nation, Metis, & Inuit (FNMI) students from the neighboring communities.