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Picture from student strike in 1939. The sign reads: "The farmers are holding us down. The teachers can't teach under such conditions. Let the Board resign."
Students walking and cycling up the street with home-made signs during the student strike.
P01742 - Two boys holding a sign saying, "New School or No School" during 1939 strike of high school students.
High School Strike
In 1922, MacLean High School was built on Dewdney Trunk between 8th [224th] and 9th [225th], and consisted of two rooms and one lab. This was the first school in the district that was built to accommodate high school students. Prior to MacLean's construction, high school subjects had been taught first in the municipal hall in Port Haney and then in the old Maple Ridge School on Laity Street.
The MacLean High School building, prior to 1941, was the main centre of education for high school students in Maple Ridge. Four rooms were used in the building, with grade nine in the old school building on River Road and 3rd Ave., now Laity Street. (This is the site of the former Maple Ridge Primary School.)
The school soon overflowed into the 1909 Haney Public School building nearby, the Manual Training building, and even into the old 1882 Maple Ridge School again. The district tried to raise funds for a new high school by referendum in 1937 but taxpayers turned it down. In 1939 the students rebelled at their situation, and staged a protest march from Maple Ridge School to MacLean.
Carrying placards and walking or riding bicycles, the students protested their learning conditions which included grass growing up between cracks in the floor, and rats scurrying around the classrooms. They made quite a site as they pursued this activity which was "just not done" in that day and age.
They made headlines in provincial and national papers and evidently made their point with the district voters. The referendum was resubmitted, passed, and the new Maple Ridge Jr-Sr High School opened in 1941.
The old building was pressed into use even after the larger Maple Ridge High School was built in 1941.
It survived the fire of 1953 which destroyed the newer school, and had a final period of use as the Public Safety Building until it was torn down to provide parking west of the municipal hall.
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