Our Lady of Justice High School

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Recommended: Teachers'roles and responsibilities in school

It was a lovely September morning of 2007 and I was fresh out of Teacher’s College. Naturally, everything was “beautiful” and “wonderful” as I walked into the large, stone building at 7:15 in the morning. I enjoy looking at my life in retrospect; I know that my sole purpose for getting to school that early was to be able to sit back and start my day on a peaceful note. The hidden purpose was to avoid students and other teachers for as long as possible. Why?

Earlier in the summer I had accepted a job at Our Lady of Justice high school in one of the small corners of the large city of London, Ontario. Now, I can’t quite figure out what I was on when I accepted the position, but looking back I realize that I was not quite right for the Catholic School Board. The one thing that I do remember thinking on my first day of school was that Our Lady of Justice was also not suited for the Catholic School Board either.

Aaron Gilfoyle didn’t know it yet, but he would be walking into the one and only classroom out of his short-lived high school career where he wasn’t being taught by a devout catholic. It was one of the only issues of being hired by Our Lady of Justice, as they felt that I was lacking on the spiritual side. Father Gerald, a robust individual, stated frankly, “Here at Our Lady of Justice, we pride ourselves on our all-catholic teaching staff, and would like to maintain that tradition of dedication.” Unfortunately for the Round Father, I like to think of myself as more of a “to each their own” spiritual leader, but my job depended on the fact that I was brought up in a catholic home and was educated in the catholic system. I needed a job, and perhaps God saw that the Catholics at this school needed to take their heads o...

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...holes that had bothered him, brought them all together and had formed a gang. Every gang has a corporate ladder and Aaron happened to be on top – using my four pillars to maintain his position. With all of his genius and knowledge, he had forgotten that you can’t fight a war with just knowledge. Someone had brought their own knowledge to the table, in the form of a hand gun.

Needless to say that Mr. Gilfoyle chose to relocate with his family – perhaps believing that they were overdue for a fresh start. I’m not sure what happened to Aaron, aside that his wound healed and he was able to go back to whatever school would accept him after his gang-related leadership experience.

Overall – after that first year, I swore to myself two things. The first: to make myself perfectly clear when giving advice. The second: to only give my advice to mentally-stable students.

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