Hammarskjold, Superior Collegiate students voice support for their schools

THUNDER BAY -- One way or another, it appears students from Hammarskjold High School and Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute are going to study under one roof.

The idea doesn’t sit well with many of the affected teenagers, who face the possibility of having to change schools midway through their high-school tenure. 

Rivalries aside, it’s not that they don’t like each other.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite, said SCVI student council president Casey Hudyma, in her final year at the school.

“We truly believe this is the better option, just because of the technology,” she said.

SCVI, which opened in 2009, bringing together students from the now closed Port Arthur Collegiate Institute and Hillcrest High School, is a more modern facility, with technology designed for students in the 21st century.

That is the main reason she wants the board to choose Superior Collegiate, Hudyma said.

“We don’t want it to be a fight between Superior and Hammarskjold. We really want the students to come together, come to this school and be civil with one another and not have it be a competition between which school is better or Superior versus Hammarskjold,” the 17-year-old said.

Fourteen-year-old Caleb Perzan made an equally passionate case for the board to choose Hammarskjold to remain open.

The youngster, who joined nearly other 40 students at a noon-hour rally outside the Clarkson Street school, transferred to Hammarskjold midway through his Grade 9 year.

It didn’t take him long to realize the school was worth saving.

“The people here are very positive. The academics and athletics are insanely good and you can tell that everyone who was (out here) care about their school and the lifelong legacy people want to keep going,” Perzan said.

He doesn’t want to go somewhere else.

“To start at Superior again would probably be devastating. I’d probably just go back to Westgate,” said Perzan, a running back looking to earn a scholarship to play university football.

Maddi Reppard is a Grade 9 student at Superior Collegiate, and like Perzan, would like to stay in one place until her Grade 12 studies are done.

But she thinks the merging of the two schools could be a positive change.

Of course, she’s firmly in the camp calling for Superior Collegiate to remain a high school and not be changed into an elementary school, as one of the closure proposals suggests.

“We’re going to be a new family and create a new legacy. Of course I want to stay in this high school. To me it’s the best thing for us. But if we have to change, in the end, as long as we’re together and it’s in the best interest of the students, then that’s where we should be.”

Grade 9 Hammarskjold student Mikaila Abick said if school spirit is factored in, Hammarskjold should be hands-down winner.

“It would be such a shame for it all to be shut down, for the name to turn into nothing.”

Lakehead Public Schools is hosting a public meeting on the south side accommodation review on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Westgate CVI. A north-side meeting will be held on April 11 at Superior Collegiate. Both meetings begin at 6:30 p.m. Hammarskjold's parent council is holding an information session on Thursday night, starting at 7 p.m., at the school.