On the morning of December 1st, a paper entitled, "The Revised Manifesto for Rideau" began to circulate the halls of Rideau. The aggressive letter "published by the STUDENTS for the STUDENTS" called for more information on issues such as the new Coke machines, the track facility, the Internet access and computer availability, and the Principal's Slush Fund.
Included here are two pieces. One is written by Derek Dunfield as a follow-up to his original "manifesto." The second article is by Lesley Haskin in response to Mr. Dunfield's two writings. It should be noted that at the time of the follow-up's publication, the author's name was not included. However, Mr. Dunfield has allowed his name to be printed for this article.
Change
by Derek Dunfield
Well Rideau, it happened. After a small controversial Manifesto, things changed. People realized issues that they never chose to think about before. Students and teachers saw beyond their monotonous daily routine to something larger. Response was grand and varied-everything from enthusiasm for the cause to a letter stating, "What kind of misguided Fu&* wrote this $hit." But, at least we began to talk.
After a 45 minute chat with our principal during the day of publication, I learned that everything was not in vein. Finally a mode of communication to the students was made-a way for us to understand what happens right under our noses. In light to the topics editorialized in Volume 1, our principal only expanded what had been said during our talk. He explained that Pepsi and Coke were both given a fair chance to win a bidding war for machine precedence in our school (Pepsi coped out at $9000 while Coke offered $15000), yet never clearly explained why all of this money had to be put towards the track. He also spoke of an added bonus to the Coke deal in which Rideau would be able to put Coke machines into the community and the proceeds from these machines would come back to Rideau-into the principal's Slush Fund. The principal also explained that our satellite was not connected because the board office had security issues with the procedure.
In general, he denied nothing, and supported the idea of student awareness.
Expect more-ask more-do more.