Red Deer 1913 — 2013 Create Celebrate Commemorate
Red Deer BMX host provincials after flood repairs done
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT Stampeders hold off surging Esks to win Labour Day Classic B1
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Red Deer Advocate TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2013
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‘I’m Too many students glad that I told’ Too few schools
TRANSGENDER BOY SHARES STORY AT SCHOOL BY CHRIS PURDY THE CANADIAN PRESS EDMONTON — When 11-year-old Wren Kauffman goes back to school this week, he won’t be hiding the fact that he’s actually a girl. Teachers, friends and other students at his Edmonton school know the truth — that he’s a girl on the outside but feels like a boy on the inside. And that’s why, even at such a young age, he has chosen to live in the world as the opposite sex, and not keep it a secret. “If you’re not yourself, then it kind of gets sad and depressing,” says the freckle-faced kid with short-cropped hair. “I’m glad that I told everybody.” More students these days are not just coming out in school as gay but also as transgender or transsexual, and they’re doing it at younger ages, says Kris Wells, a researcher with the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies and Services at the University of Alberta.
Please see TRANSGENDER on Page A3
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
Workers with Clark Builders work from a scaffold on a new Catholic school being built in Clearview Ridge on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. The school is one of four being constructed in the city with funds from the provincial government. BY MYLES FISH ADVOCATE STAFF
EX-TEACHER HELPS COLLEAGUES DEAL WITH STRESS A7
The bells will ring, bag lunches will be examined, traded, and eaten, and new friendships will be forged as kids across Central Alberta head back to school today. As they do, though, they will see a record number of Alberta students alongside them, fewer teachers, and, in some cases, crowded classrooms. Enrollments are projected to be up in the Red Deer Public School District, Wolf Creek Public Schools, and Chinook’s Edge School Division for 2013/14, and each division is turning to modular classrooms to fit its students in while waiting for new schools to be built to ease the pressure. But students in at least the Wolf Creek system will have to wait for
Alb Al berta t Mottor Associiati tion, schoo hoo ol safety patrols and RCMP are reminding g motorists to slow down in school and d playground zones as students head d back to school this week. Motoristss are reminded that school zones speed d restrictions are in place. Drivers are e warned to expect increased vehicular,, bicycle and pedestrian traffic around d schools and playgrounds. Most Centra al Alberta students head back to schoo ol toda to dayy. y. their new classrooms as the modular units have not yet been delivered. Two modulars were approved for Blackfalds’ Iron Ridge Elementary Campus in 2013, where class sizes average as high as 27 students, but they have not
yet arrived and the school has had to be modified to use music, art, and computer room spaces for classrooms. Tim Chamberlin, spokesperson for Alberta Education, said the delay is largely due to a production issue. Over 100 new modular classrooms were approved for 2013/14, creating over 2,000 new student spaces, he said. “One of the things with modulars is that suppliers don’t only supply the education system. We are in competition with other sectors like oil and gas,” said Chamberlain. “There is a delay, but we’re maintaining contact with our suppliers to ensure that our orders will be met for 2013/14,” he added, saying the expectation is that the modulars will be delivered to each division sometime in the fall.
Please see SCHOOLS on Page A2
Red Deer, Sylvan Lake mark milestones on long weekend BY MYLES FISH ADVOCATE STAFF
Photo by MYLES FISH/Advocate staff
Red Deer River revellers pass under the CPR bridge on Sunday. The 105-year-old structure was festooned with 10 banners displaying historical images from Red Deer’s past for the day as part of the city’s ongoing centennial celebrations.
Sun and cloud. High 25. Low 11
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INDEX Two sections Alberta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Business. . . . . . . . . . . . .A8, A9 Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A5, A6 Classified . . . . . . . . . . .B8-B10 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .A10 Entertainment . . . . . . . . . . .A11 Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B1-B6
Please see CENTENNIALS on Page A2
Verizon has no interest in Canada Verizon Communications says it is no longer interested in entering the Canadian wireless phone market. Story on PAGE A8
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WEATHER
Labour Day weekend was not on the calendar of centennial event planners in Red Deer or Sylvan Lake when the 100th birthday celebrations of each were planned, but the unofficial end of summer featured some official events to celebrate the milestones. Flooding and high water levels along the Red Deer River in late June left centennial planners having to shift their grand plans for the city’s homecoming weekend, held on the Canada Day long weekend. The venue for celebrations and fireworks was changed, and some events were postponed. On Sunday, two of those events, the
Centennial Chocolate Chase and Banners on the Bridge got their due. Fueled by some pre-race chocolate and the promise of more chocolate post-race, a few dozen participants took part in the non-competitive five kilometer race on Sunday. They went across, and then came back along the old CPR bridge, on their second pass being able to see 10 red banners hanging from the bridge as they approached from the city’s riverside trails. Eight of the six metre long by two metre wide banners featured archival photos from the city’s history that could be seen from the trails or the river itself by the hundreds of floaters travelling down.