School Library Is Pawn
in Nova Scotian Language Battle
The students on the English side of a building in Meteghan River, Nova Scotia, that houses both English- and French-speaking high schools have been locked out of the one library in the building, and school officials are scrambling to make do until a new school can be built for students who want to learn in English.
A Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruling that Acadian children could choose to be educated in French-only schools means École Secondaire de Clare and Clare District High School, which are operated by separate boards, will go their separate ways in about a year.
In the meantime, Clare District High is preparing a room to be used as a library and is waiting to receive some books from École Secondaire. It may be a long wait, for while Education Minister Jane Purves has promised that English-language books will be transferred to the English side, Rejean Sirois of the Acadian provincial school board says he is reluctant to relinquish any books that aren’t duplicates. “The books in the library belong to us,” he told the September 26 Halifax Herald.
“It’s an emotional thing at the moment,” said Aldaige Comeau, vice-principal of the English school.
Posted October 2, 2000.
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