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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2002
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‘Like holding a gun to your head’
Mom pulls allergic child from school after bullies make peanut butter threat
by PAUL STRICKLAND Citizen staff
Telling a student with an anaphylactic condition you will smear a peanut-butter sandwich in her face is tantamount to uttering a death threat, a concerned mother said Wednesday.
Kim Dingwall said that happened Friday when her Grade 7 daughter tried to help another student who had been bullied, roughed up and pushed into a wall by a group of girls at Heritage elementary school. That victim had suffered a broken tooth in the attack and Dingwall’s daughter was trying to help her clean up in the washroom when the bullies entered.
Dingwall’s daughter, who is anaphylactic, told the bullies she wasn’t afraid of them. The ringleader responded, ‘“Oh yeah? How about if 1 got a
peanut-butter sandwich and smashed it into your face. How would you like it?”’ Dingwall said.
Dingwall withdrew her daughter from Heritage elementary on Monday, and on Tliesday enrolled her in a school that has a ban on peanut products in effect.
“It’s very real and very threatening,” Dingwall said. “You’d like to think they wouldn’t do it, but in the back of my mind 1 consider that they’re bullies and they could do it.”
Her daughter’s anaphylactic condition is such that even if she smells peanut butter — let alone touch it or put it in her mouth — she will go into anaphylactic shock. Hence the girl’s comment caused extreme concern.
“It’s a death threat, like holding a gun to your head and threatening to pull the trigger,” she
said. “It’s not just an idle threat. It’s very serious for the children with the allergy.”
A child may say to another he will go home and get a gun to settle a dispute. But that is less threatening in a way than the comment her daughter faced. “Not every kid has access to a gun, but every child has access to peanut butter.” Clint Buhr, principal of Heritage elementary, said the Friday incident had been dealt with through a conflict-resolution session with all parties involved. “I talked to the mother, and thought we had resolved it quite appropriately that way,” he said Wednesday.
Dingwall said she had to home-school her daughter for two years when she was younger because of her condition. In recent years she returned to attending regular school programs. In
one class, a teacher had her go out into the hallway to eat her lunch whenever a classmate brought a peanut-butter sandwich to school. Last year, a more understanding teacher had students who had brought peanut-butter sandwiches to school go to the office to eat their lunches, and the practice of bullies frequently “forgetting” they shouldn’t bring one to school quickly stopped.
However, in a school without a school-wide ban on peanut products, accommodating the few students who have the anaphylactic condition draws attention from bullies.
“You try to keep them as safe as you can,” she said. “But then the bullies know they have a weapon. Also, it points out a student is different, and that’s all the excuse bullies need to persecute someone.”
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GETTING THE WORMS — Terri McClymont, better known in local schools as the Worm Lady, introduces Grade 4 and 5 students at Beaverly elementary to their 1,000 newly-adopted worms, donated by the Recycling Environmental Action Planning Society (REAPS) to recycle food waste in the classroom during the school year.
Observers question future of B.C. Rail
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
There’s growing concern that B.C. Rail is up for sale despite a Liberal government campaign promise not to sell or privatize the Crown corporation.
Prince George businessman Ron East believes selling B.C. Rail is exactly what the Liberals are planning to do, although he said they may try to argue it’s not being sold off by retaining ownership of the rail and property itself. East is part of an informal committee that was formed following a meeting in 100 Mile House last April, which tried to convince the B.C. government not to shut down passenger service between Vancouver and Prince George.
B.C. Rail did just that, announcing last week passenger services will end next month for the Cariboo Prospector and immediately for the Whistler Northwind because the operations are money losers. The government said it would not kick in the millions of dollars needed to keep passenger service going. East pointed to other signs B.C. Rail is gearing up for a sale, including the fact the Crown corporation has been trying to find an independent operator for the branch of its line that runs from Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek.
East said CN Rail executives have been touring the line recently. East is fearful that if the rail line is sold off or leased to a private operator, they’ll only be interested in running profitable portions of the line, perhaps
running lumber from 100 Mile House to Prince George, and then connecting to routes in the East. That will leave the areas currently serviced by B.C. Rail north of Prince George and south of 100 Mile House out in the cold, he said.
The Council of Unions on B.C. Rail, representing about 1,500 employees, also has questions about the corporation’s direction.
Bob Sharpe, chairman of the council, said brass from Burlington Northern and Sante Fe Rail have also been touring the railway, and CP Rail has expressed interest in buying the line. Recently, the Crown corporation has been selling off assets it acquired in the ‘90s, noted Sharpe. B.C. Rail sold off its telecommunications division several years ago, has its marine division up for sale and has discontinued its intermodal service, which carried truck trailers on flat cars.
“Once you start piecing it off, does that make it easier to sell?” questioned Sharpe. “Who knows?”
B.C. Rail spokesman Alan Dever said the question of ownership is not a B.C. Rail management decision but one for its shareholder. “We don’t really have anything to say about that,” he said, noting the Crown corporation’s focus is to become a profitable enterprise. B.C. Rail’s shareholder is the public, although the B.C. government makes the decisions. Premier Gordon Campbell had said during the 1996 election campaign— which the Liberals narrowly lost, he’d sell B.C. Rail. He changed his tune in the 2000 election.
Luxury train makes last run to city
Tourists rave about Whistler Northwind, which B.C. Rail has cancelled
by KAREN KWAN Citizen staff
When they started planning their annual vacation, tourists Betty Corn and Starleen Pharis had never heard of Prince George, thousands of kilometres away from their home near Houston, Texas.
A travel agent told them about B.C. Rail’s Whistler Northwind luxury train trip which, until this week, ran between the city and North Vancouver, with overnight stops in Whistler and 100 Mile House.
On Tuesday night, their tour group arrived in Prince George on the North-wind’s last run into the city, and the pair planned to take a day-long tour of the city’s attractions Wednesday. “We probably wouldn’t have come to Prince George if we hadn’t been on the train,” Pharis said at the Ramada Hotel where the group was staying.
That’s exactly the kind of statement that has the tourism industry worried, said Northern B.C. Tourism Association executive director Dan Stefanson. He said the loss of all passenger train service between the Lower Mainland and northern B.C. is a major blow to the industry.
Citing huge losses — $107 million last year and a projected loss of $56
wind for the attentive service, excellent food and huge windows that curve into the roof to provide a 180-degree view of the passing scenery. “This would be a 10 out of 10,” Corn raved.
The two passenger trains brought thousands of tourists to Prince George and the North, and many tour operators use rail as part of their travel packages, Stefanson said. “It’s going to have a huge impact. My concern is (tour groups) will just go somewhere else. We’ll lose our competitive edge against other destinations,” he said.
B.C. Rail spokesperson Alan Dever said when the corporation decided to shut down the Cariboo Prospector it couldn’t afford to keep the other services running because they all shared administration. “We don’t have the funds to continue operating and absorbing the loss,” he said. The Cariboo Prospector lost $5 million last year while the Whistler Northwind ran a $2-million deficit, the corporation said.
B.C. Rail is open to selling the passenger services to private companies, Dever said, but added he’s not aware of any current negotiations. He said he believes the Crown corporation will be able to sell the Whistler Northwind train cars, which cost $9.5 million to $10 million.
Citizen photo by Dave Milne
Betty Corn, left, and Starleen Pharis of Texas had a great time on the Whistler Northwind run to Prince George and are saddened to hear the route has been cancelled.
million this year — B.C. Rail confirmed this month it’s pulling the Whistler Northwind, the Cariboo Prospector passenger train between North Vancouver and Prince George at the end of October, and the Pacific Starlight Dinner Train. B.C. Rail invested $12 million in the Whistler Northwind, which began service last May.
Corn and Pharis — retired teachers who plan to travel every year — said they were disappointed to learn the Whistler Northwind and Cariboo
Prospector were ending. “That’s a shame. Trains are best for seeing the countryside,” Pharis said. She said they picked the Totem Circle tour so they could experience different modes of transportation, taking the Northwind from Vancouver to Prince George, Via Rail to Prince Rupert, and the ferry to Port Hardy before heading to Victoria. They also wanted to stop in Whistler and see smaller communities, Corn said.
They praised the Whistler North-
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