The Chilliwack
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Canadian funny man Ron James returns.
Schools put some fun into reading.
Ex-Bruin Howse finally clicking with Heat.
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Students angered by threat to prom night Katie Bartel The Progress Grade 12 students in Chilliwack may be denied a longstanding rite of passage that their older counterparts were granted. Last week’s vote by the teachers’ union to withdraw from volunteer extracurricular activities has left Chilliwack’s graduation banquets in jeopardy. While district superintendent Michael Audet informed The Progress that commencement and scholarship ceremonies will still go ahead without teacher involvement, he said the graduation dinner and dance is still up in the air. “I don’t know about [the banquet], there’s been no This is decisions made on that something we yet,” said Audet. The thought of not havlook forward ing prom infuriated several graduating students at to our entire Chilliwack secondary. school career “I think prom is just as important as regular ~ Shannon commencement,” said Grade 12 student Shannon Hames Hames. “This is something we look forward to our entire school career. It’s our one last shot at seeing everybody and hanging out.” Never mind that many of the graduating students have already purchased gowns, shoes, accessories. They’ve rented tuxes, put deposits down on limos and other fancy vehicles. They’ve made hair appointments and had dresses altered. And some of the boys have gone to imaginative lengths to ask their dates to prom. “I was asked just last week on a donut,” said student Shay Ritchot. “I’d be really upset if I didn’t get to go.” Initially Ritchot had no intention of going to the grad banquet, it wasn’t her thing, but because her mom always regretted not going to hers, Ritchot made an effort, and even started getting excited for it. This is as much for her as it is for her mom, Ritchot said.
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An RCMP training video, which will be used in jurisdictions across Canada, is filmed outside the Chilliwack Museum.
Chilliwack centre stage for national training films Robert Freeman The Progress
instance, the convenience store where she was last seen no longer exists. “We don’t have the big dollars,” Parker said. “We do what we can.” The department also maintains the state-of-the-art media equipment in the PRTC classrooms. Hiscoe said the training videos help show officers how to assess the risk they may encounter in different situations on the job. He said the videos don’t show trainees how to respond to those situations, but to analyze the actions taken by the officers in the video and to judge whether correct deci-
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RCMP training videos that will be watched across Canada were made in Chilliwack by the multi-media department of the Pacific Regional Training Centre. “The multi-media department at PRTC is recognized as one of the best in the country for doing this kind of work,” RCMP Cpl. Steve Hiscoe said in a telephone interview from Ottawa, where he is finishing post-production work on the training videos. Last month, actors and a production crew hired by the multi-media department
filmed seven different training scenarios in locations around Chilliwack and in Cultus Lake. Leann Parker, PRTC multimedia production manager, said the department staff of three do two national projects every year, but many more smaller projects that are used for training or public communications, like web-casting and crime-scene re-enactments. Creativity is a key ingredient in the success of the department, Parker agreed, finding the right actors, the right production crew and the right locations for filming. Re-enacting the disappearance of 10-year-old Joanne Pedersen 25 years ago, for
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sions were made. The seven scenarios, filmed in both English and French, show officers using different levels of force: baton, spray, pistol and communication to deal with situations like a protester at a VIP visit, like officers at a child apprehension confronted by the parents, like a robbery in progress and an impaired driver resisting arrest. “Each video has a special objective and teaching point to it,” Hiscoe said. The training videos are updated every two or three years as use-of-force issues emerge like the use of Tasers. rfreeman@theprogress.com
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