Sarah Syliboy:  

I entered the school at 13 in 1994.Highschool for me was a blessing in disguise.It shaped and formedMe into the woman I am today. I was held back a grade my motto was “ if you like a grade stick with it.” My mother was a single mother most of her life , raising three kids on her own. She dated a man by the name of Frank Thomas. He introduced me to the Warriors society and what position he had held among the society. He was ahead leader and assisted in Oak crisis up in Kahnawake. When he returned home he gave us T-shirts with the warrior logo on the front of the shirt and there was a statement that read” these colours don’t run” big hole track. The Warriors of state society still existed today among the native community. Defending the traditional territory fight for solidarity rights in Honouring to keep the treaty rights alive.Dressed in full camo gear,wearing The symbolic patch on their gear pieces as well as a red borah hats. The elder of the group in Waygobah,CapeBreton had held meetings for the Youngblood. Teaching them of the treaty rights by participating in various activities. Youngblood had sashes and had to collect patches to earn a place on the sash. The young generation were known as junior warriors. Witch is where I ended up being through my adolescence hood. I enjoyed what the future has in store for me. There are many faces among many that stood out. The teachers allow me to prevail with positive potential, which allowed me to learn and grow. I was a teenage mom at 17, and decided to take a year off but reentered the following year. On my very first day of high school I had my picture taken from the yearbook, waiting on my student ID to be processed. I walked into the cafeteria and these two seniors were running around taking pictures and for a minute, I thought they were exchange students. One of them stopped and asked,“ can I take a picture?”.Unbeknownst to myself, I didn’t think it would resurface. I guess I found out what a yearbook was. The biggest part about Junior/senior year I found the most interesting. I enjoyed learning about science and how to pinpoint the gravitational force, thanks to Mr. Perego and is nifty pets petey the Parroit . The class hamster was another interesting story. Having mistaken the hamster to be a boy only for her to have a lot of babies midway through science class . Then meeting a new student Roland who sat through his first class with the wrong group of students. Mrs.Dilmount-Ross was a freash out of university and started her first year term as our home room teacher. She was also our assigned math teacher. When the bell rang for our first fire drill.We all ended up standing outside of the AV room doors. Instead of the front of the school. She listened to a student who said “ok I know where to go, everyone follow me!”. I guess she was guilty of tardiness on her first day of school. Industry technology was always great to be at. I learned to shape a form many different things using heavy machinery. Like The whistle, pencil holder, picture frame, wooden paper towel holder, my last project was architecture and design of my dream house log cabin. When it came down to senior year we all sing along to the lyrics of Afroman “because I got high”. The winter carnival were always exciting. I can remember one year they had a hockey tournament outside the cafeteria area in back. What is the teachers versus students and how someone else started a penny parade. Physical education was not my best subject but Mr. Barrett and Mrs. Langil were interesting to learn from. Miss Langil taught me about bodyweight and how to measure body fat with the scale. Then how to do a work out schedule to keep track. How I got caught smoking in the girls locker room and then got to suspended for it for a few days. Not to mention being grounded for a week. I should’ve quit while I was ahead. Some students referred to these as a bird courses were you could just fly right through them. Note to self somebody was lying to the students. Most of my four years of junior high were learning to balance challenges. Not only did I bear witness to an evolution of my own bodily functions like puberty, peer pressure and clicks. I also had to watch as another new middle school taking shape.R.E.C middle school. All the junior high teachers were all relocated to that new school. Each student had to do a time capsule for science. Which was supposed to have resurfaced a few years ago. The time capsule was placed inside the middle school if the rec school while still underneath construction. Mr. Perrigo graded us on that for a school project. The school faculty taught me about spirituality Clairvoyance , Premonitions,and traditional teaches. Senior year wasn’t exactly an easy year for me but it taught me a lot. I found out I had a voice and a choice in taken affirmative action in Oder to get a response. I witnessed a turn of events that drastically turn my life upside down. I defended a student while he faced his own high school bully. I watch it as a high school bully picked on a junior high student who was a few grades lower than I. I overheard Craig talking back to someone who I couldn’t see behind a brick wall. The angle of where I was standing cut off my view from sight. He seemed upset about something. Who ever it was he was talking to didn’t know that Craig had a few onlookers. I couldn’t run down that sloop fast enough trying to cut short my smoke . To intervene and become a human wedge between the pair. I tried to convert the attention into myself by making comments unfortunately it was Craig that seemed to have been targeted . I watched as Mr.Macbeath grabbed hold of the scruff of Craig’s shirt and picked him up in the air.Take his other hand and grabbing hold of his sneakers and thrusting him up into the air . Then I helped Craig up on his feet after staying with him as help arrived onto the scene. Asking if he could feel his body parts and if anything else was Numb from the impact of the landing. Being directed by the student who had the first aid response license. We then took each of Craig’s arm as held him up as he hobbled back into the gymnasium. There Miss.Arsneld the student guidance Councilor treated both of us for sudden shock treatment. Having us follow her fingers answering a few quick questions and having her there for moral support. She wanted to know if Craig was dealing with anything she might wanna know about. I told her he just recently lost two of his family members to death within weeks of each other. Afterwards we both were expected from call that day. They called for an Amber alert over the PA system. The teachers treated it as a terrorist attack. The top level school went into lockdown. I hid in the bathroom next to the AV room that time. It was close enough to the water fountain,vending machines,and the coke machine. Luckily for me I had lunch money on me so it was convenient to wait in the washroom till next period. I was spotted by a former class mate Lisa Rose who explain that I was being requested to go down by the principal office. She also said that if she was asked she never saw me. I eventually made my way down through the hallways and was spotted by the security guard just passing the library. He spoken to his partner over the two way radio. Explaining where my exact locations were. The principal Mr.Hail showed up. Explaining that the extra security was ment for myself.That I was not in trouble.They were just worried that Mr.Macbeth was going to Retaliate . I watched as 4 cops had Escorted him off the premises handcuffed and shackled. It took three days for the investigation to die down. Overall 37 statements were taken and nine cop cars were involved that day. Craig had no need to lie about his identity when he gave a statement to the cops he claimed that he was his brother who had long since passed. Even through his class he had posed as his deceased brother Justin . As my Initial statement was being taken by one of the RCMP officers on duty. I tried to explain the situation but was curious as to what Craig had said. I watched as Craig came out of one of the police cars that were on duty. Knowing that his statement was taken . I stepped into the cruiser next and started the Process of the investigation. Then stopped short when I realized Craig had lied about his identity. I had explained that I couldn’t initially help him if he wasn’t willing to be honest with himself. I soon Later found out that Craig lied about his identity because he didn’t want to be placed in a group home. He lived with his primary care giver his only other living relative his uncle. Mr. Hail had mistaken the boycott movement as being planned and Craig lying assuming it was about the fight between Mr.Macbeth and Craig. Witch Initially wasn’t true. The only thing Craig lied about was his identity Mr.Hail was confused about what I was trying to say.He misunderstood the situation. That day we held up the school bus by a extra half hour trying to explain what happened to Dolores Maloney who sit on the chair through the Board of Education on the reserve. She listened has Craig told his story over the phone, and I confirmed what he said. And she was going to put it on the agenda for the chief and Council meeting. The rest of the class I had initially started a boycott movement which I suggested. Every first nations student had left the class a half hour early and proceeded to been driven back home after school. We all planned out the boycott movement the next day. Walking out of classes earlier then the rest of the students. It was the year of 1996 when things occurred and living through a boycott movement was hard. We dealt with centralization ,a invisible line that separates us ,from the rest of the students. Not only did our parents dealt with the back lash of culture genocide and poverty.The children had to figure out h...Expand for more