“‘The Dames Let Us Down,’ Say Student Strikers, Returning To School,” Toronto Star. April 20, 1939. Page 25 & 26. ---- BEFORE STRIKE ENDED For three days students went on strike at Port Haney, B.C., because they said their schoolhouse was rat-infested and a handicap to students and teachers. They loafed, fished, did a little picketing. But yesterday the strike was over.
PORT HANEY YOUNGSTERS ARE BACK IN THE SCHOOL THEY CONDEMNED Port Haney, little Fraser valley town in B.C., is back to normal again. Three hundred protesting students returned to classes yesterday in the unlighted school which they condemned as unfit. Three days ago they trooped out on strike parading with signs, but the strike was over when the students’ council voted 11-5 for return. ‘Too many girls on the council!’ exclaimed some irate young males, who declared: ‘The dames let us down.’
“Tanned Hides, Co-Eds’ Lure, Bust of Students’ Strike,” Toronto Star. April 20, 1939. Page 25 & 26. ---- B. C. School Reopens - Reveal Gladstone Murray Once Was Pupil ---- ‘DAMES LET US DOWN’ --- Special to The Star Port Haney, B.C., April 20. - Fourteen-year-old ‘Brains’ Williams and 17-year-old Douglas Edwards are convinced the old-fashioned razor strap and fluttering feminine hearts are a menace to civilization.
Though they would be the first to deny it, the freckled-faced young ‘Brains’ and his good-looking partner are moving spirits behind the ‘children’s crusade,’ which 300 school students of this Fraser Valley town walk out of classes three days ago and stay out, as a protest against overcrowding. Today, however, they were forced to admit their strike was at a temporary end. Reluctantly, Haney;s pupils straggled back to class down country lanes to resume their readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic. ‘The dames let us down, young Edwards growled bitterly. The son of a valley mill operator, he is the ‘Frank Merriwell’ of the school and a natural-born leader.
Young Williams, a laughing, good-natured little man, with a sharp face and sharper mind, blames the parental rod for breaking up a glorious three-day holiday devoted to loafing, fishing, and a little incidental striking.
‘My old man said he’d tan my hide if I didn’t go back to school,’ he confessed to a Star reporter.
‘Yeah, and mine said he’d take away my clarinet and sent it back to Vancouver,’ piped up another young red-head.
Girls Swing Vote At any rate, the students went back to classes yesterday after their council, headed by pretty Phyllis Dewold, had voted 11-5 for return. ‘Too many girls on council,’ an irate knot of boys cried, when the decision was announced. Lusty boos resounded over the McLean high school playing field, where students had massed in bleachers to talk the matter over with their principal, F. J. Welland.
The students went back to classes grudgingly. Several said they would be out on strike again within a week.
Meanwhile, they are pinning their hopes for better conditions on a petition which they have signed and forwarded to Dr. George M. Weird, provincial minister of education.
In the letter they complain that Maple Ridge school, which was built in 1870 and numbers Gladstone Murray among its alumni, is overcrowded, dilapidated, has been condemned four times, and is a virtual arena for Port Haney’s rats.
‘Come and see for yourself,’ they invited the minister. So far the government has indicated they will leave it a municipal problem. With the chairman of the school board away on holidays, the four remaining trustees have split on the issue.
Trustee Runs Blockade A bitter argument Tuesday night resulted in a near-riot when one of the trustees tried to force his way through a cordon of students who linked arms to prevent him from leaving the building. In the ensuing fracas a pretty ninth-grade student, Peggy Whitby, suffered three scratches on the neck.
‘He was mad, all right,’ she told reporters. ‘But I don’t think he meant to hurt me.’
All other demonstrations of students, who have the sympathy of a large number of farmers in the area, have been most orderly. They marched out in neat file singing ‘The Stein Song,’ and since that day have had a whale of a time with their mass hookey.
Teachers were credited with a neat coup d’etat Wednesday when they issued term report cards to parents. ‘That will bring some of them back,’ one instructor said: ‘and I miss my guess if a few of ‘em don’t take their classes standing up.’
[AL: Gotta love the casual misogyny of blaming the strike ending without a resolution on teenage girls on the student council - and that not being interrogated by the Star reporter. Just based on the pictures, there were clearly just as many girls as boys on the picket line. Weird take, but the rest of the story is fascinating.]
