This collection of stories, School Whisperers brings the personalities and issues of school life out into the air from the inner corridors.
I divide the characters of Tommy Douglas High School into three categories: staff, parents and students. The characters are as different from each other as within any cultural or institutional assortment one may find anywhere.
First, the parents. There is Rosaria Tegano, the very Catholic old school mom. Then, Yusuf Mohammed from Somalia the conservative Muslim father in cultural conflict. Having come from dire poverty in Haiti, Monsieur Georges Pier Pier has risen to be youth pastor in a thriving evangelical church. The inconspicuous, religious Mrs. Françoise McCaffery must address her son's vicious bullying of the most vulnerable boy. Reza Husseini and his wife face racism in her son's classroom. And Phyllis Fitzgerald, whoever you are, how could you do it?
As the schools rear their young, the parents are the often the unsung heroes, so it must be said to them when their off-springs blossom, "It doesn't happen by accident." Sometimes, one says sadly, "No wonder."
And for the staff, a truly assorted bunch, I'll start at the top. Keith Dudley, the painfully shy principal who `governs' with distant respect and trust until the unexpected brings crisis. The vice-principal Simone Weatherby could silence the multitudes with a whisper from a depth that would make the arrogant tremble. The gay Daniel McBride implementing the first Gay-Straight Alliance locks horns with those who want to force his students back into the closet. The two titans, Howland Shuttleworth, the erudite Englishman and Bernadette Lamoureux, the tough Native social science teacher, lock horns, and one of them must go. And Alexandre Denault, the retired superintendent who returns to his old school for opening remarks in September, learns that time forbids our going home again. There are others who weave this fabric making it multi-coloured and multi-layered.
Of course, the students are the body and soul of the institution. Anthony Tegano, the almost perfect youth caught by his own allure between Lakshmi Wickstrom, the indefatigable activist, and Fabienne Saint-Juste, the coy little rich girl with more wiles that a sorceress. Anthony is the protector of his best friend, the artistic, `out' Elmer Weitzel, against the school bully, Wesley McCaffery, who, while intimidated by Anthony, punishes Elmer. And Wesley: can we pity the bully? Ahmed Mohammed and his sister Amina who are torn between the strictures of their Somali family and the openness of the urban western city make choices that please no one and are seized by the conflict of cultures in a vice-grip. There is always the one who almost didn't make it: Fernando Mendez, set to go to adult jail to experience lessons no society wants taught. The ungainly and plain Antonia Guerra, most loved by everyone, harbouring loneliness in the school at home and at schoolthe perfect friend with never a date. And more: Misha Petrenko, the dashing Cossack but everyone's pain-in-the-butt, and Reggie Wapachee, the gentle giant from the shores of Hudson's Bay. The talented siblings, Thierry Pier Pier and sister Pascale, stars of the all-black school play, are caught between the righteous and the secular. There are more and more and more.
The core of the book is revealed in the chapter one: "Charity, Curiosity, Imagination," the motto of the school crest which asserts the spirit of the school and, I hope, of this book.