Dear Editor,
I am a product of ACE (Agassiz Centre for Education). I attended ACE in 2014 and graduated in 2016.
Both Sandy Balascak and Ray Steiguilas were very helpful and encouraging in my schooling. They pushed and strived for me to do better.
The ACE students were treated with respect and patience. You don’t see that respect and patience in today’s public school system.
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In the last few years I have seen it in the eyes of the ACE students, of those that have graduated and the new students coming in. That they were victimized by other students and staff in the public school system.
At ACE, they found a new hope. They have a second chance to better their lives against overwhelming odds.
The ACE student has something that the public school student doesn’t have. The ACE student has a strong will, a resilience and a determination.
Two recent graduates of the ACE school ran in the recent Agassiz school board elections. They were young and inexperienced, going up against those who were quite more experienced. Yet, these two had the determination to be elected and to change conditions in the Agassiz public school system.
Now, the ACE student is being put back into a system and environment that has victimized them in the first place. They feel betrayed. I will feel betrayed. A once safe environment has now become a dangerous environment.
The ACE school was a safe environment.
– Harvey Andrew, Agassiz
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