Tag: dee beattie

What Dee Beattie should have said

After being outed as being behind a years-long campaign of harassment against New Westminster parents, teachers, other school trustees, and a wide range of other people in the community, New West school trustee Dee Beattie sent out an apology for being caught.

Here’s what she should have said:

I apologize fully and without reservation for what I did. I apologize for the harm I have done, and will be undergoing a period of self-reflection, therapy, and other assistance so that I never act in this way again. I will be offering my resignation to the New Westminster board of school trustees and withdrawing my membership from Community First effective immediately.

Instead she made excuses related to “chronic pain and mental health issues”. Guess what, people live with chronic pain and aren’t dickbags. People live with mental health issues and don’t set up fake accounts and run them for years in a campaign of harassment. Using those as excuses show that she personally doesn’t apologize for her behaviour, instead pushing them off to medical conditions as if they aren’t actually her.

I hope Dee Beattie gets the help she needs. I also hope that during this healing process she comes to the realization that her behaviour was caused by her, not by her mental illness or chronic pain. Triggered by chronic pain or mental illness, perhaps, but ultimately those are a part of who she is, and her behaviour is the chief problem, not the chronic pain or mental illness.

Dee Beattie answered my questions!

Dee Beattie is running for New Westminster School Board, and she answered my questions!

With NWSS finally built and opened, what school do you see the province neglecting to tear down and replace for the next fifty years?

There are no more funds to ever replace schools, that ship has long sailed.

Council will soon be introducing coyotes to New West parks in what many are calling a misguided effort to boost tourism. Okay, it was all my idea, they’re not actually doing that. But if they do, what do you feel is the optimal coyote-student ratio for our school grounds?

We will get the Surrey School District to send buses to take all the Coyotes to Coyote Creek Elementary.

With a 50% success rate on names for new schools built in the past few years (hits: Qayqayt, Skwo:wech; misses: Fraser River, New Westminster), what will you do to improve this rate?

This is DPAC & PAC work, I would not want to step on their toes. 

One thing my daughter learned at a New Westminster school is that New West is one of the most haunted cities in Canada. I’ve asked this question before but that was an election and a half ago so I’m asking it again: who would be three people to join you as Ghostbusters?

For sure you Brad, as I hear you are good at archery. But really, why do we need to get rid of them?  We need acceptance and inclusion of everyone.

(Editor’s note: I’m not the archer in the family, my wife is!)

We all know that school space is at a premium, and buying new land for schools is expensive. Will you support the hostile takeover of City Hall to turn it into a new school? 

Thanks for the idea, and out of the box thinking, we could turn the parking lot of City Hall into a 3 story school and that would help the city in creating a no car policy for staff. It’s a win-win for both council and school board.

Thank you Dee!

And don’t forget to go out and vote!

Dee Beattie answers my questions!

I asked some questions of the two school trustee candidates in the upcoming by-election, and Dee Beattie answered them!

Question: New Westminster Secondary School is going to be rebuilt one way or another within the next decade. One of the challenges with the site is the Douglas Road Cemetery under the existing high school. When the current NWSS is bulldozed, this will undoubtedly anger the spirits and unleash them on New Westminster. My question for the candidates is this: name three people who will join you as Ghostbusters to save our city.

Answer: My ghostbuster friends I will invite all of the Lumineers.  I don’t know them personally but their new CD is totally awesome.

Question: Concussions and other repeated head blows in football and rugby have been shown to be the cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (or CTE), leading to player suicides, memory loss, depression, and dementia. The NFL has been sued by ex-players because of this link. High school students are more likely to suffer concussions, and seven died in the US in 2015 from concussion-related injuries. What will you do to ensure the safety of NWSS students playing football, rugby, and other heavy contact sports?

Answer: My son played football of of his youth, and luckily he never was seriously injured.  He quit the team when he realized he did not like getting hurt and I was okay with that.

The information is emerging on the injuries and consequences of the injuries that happen in these sports, so I would like to listen to the research and know more before we made big changes in this area. I think I need to listen to the recommendations of experts and doctors on how changes can be implemented.

Question: Parents in the West End of New West are asking for some sort of solution for getting their children to Fraser River Middle School. This is a two part question: 1. How boring is the name “Fraser River Middle School” on a range of watching paint dry to school trustee by-election? 2. Do you support Queensborough parents of NWSS students in telling West End parents to fuck off?

Answer: 1. The Fraser River Middle School.  I totally love the name of this school.  Did you know that I grew up in New West on McDonald St?   Our front room window faced the Fraser River.  My father was a Dutch immigrant to Canada.  His chair sat at the corner of the window facing the river. As a young child I remembered him saying that he was the luckiest man in the world because every day he could look at the most mighty magnificent river in the world.   He felt he had a million dollar view in his $4,000 dollar home.   We had that as a family home for over 30 years.    When my dad died in 1997 my brother and I took a few of his ashes and sprinkled them in the Fraser River.  It was a small tribute to a man who loved that river.  I have no problem with the name of the school.

2. I need to look into this problem and understand it more.  I don’t know what has been done. what planning went into this, and what are some good options.  Tonight I was door knocking in The West End and heard the concerns from many families.  I heard frustration.  A few parents I spoke to have a good solution to get their children to school and a few parents are frantic.  I don’t have the answers to help with this, but I will try my best to understand and appropriately advocate.

Question: What will you do to ensure parents continue to be punished for daring to have children who get sick?

Answer: My background is working in schools, and I think this is a standard policy. I think it is more about protecting the liability of a school district if something goes wrong. Schools are a busy place and if no procedure is put in place it is easy for the safeguards to not be there. To take on the liability of medicating someones child is serious when you have no medical background.

Question: After NWSS, what do you feel are the priorities for capital projects in SD40?

Answer: Seismic Upgrading of all schools is a Priority. Did you know I went to Sir Richard McBride as a child? I would hope to see McBride upgraded and saved. I love bigger older schools. New schools classrooms are small and common areas even smaller. The Stage in the gym disappears in new schools. Having a stage with curtains is like magic to children. The art of Drama belongs on a stage like McBride has! McBride is a Sapperton pride and has valuable heritage. If I can advocate to make that school a lasting piece of history that would be nice!

Question: What restaurant would you like to see in the Anvil Centre?

Answer: I loved taking my 2 boys to ChuckECheese. That could be a great family family fun destination. Just think a restaurant and game centre. ChuckECheese has my vote.

There you have it! Thanks to Dee Beattie for answering all of my questions. You can follow Dee on Twitter at @deelightful or visit her website at deebeattie.ca.

Questions for School Trustee By-Election Candidates

Good news everyone! New Westminster is having another election! This time it’s a by-election to elect a new school trustee after MaryAnn Mortensen resigned back in March! In case you can’t tell, I’m excited! I’m putting in more exclamation marks to make you excited too! OH BOY SCHOOL TRUSTEE BY-ELECTION HOW CAN YOU NOT BE PUMPED UP??!?!?!!!

Anyhow.

It’s my job to come up with satirical questions for any and all candidates that we get for any and all elections in New Westminster. I’ve had a hard time coming up with any good questions (my wife came up with the first one), so this time around I’m actually going to ask a mix of satirical and serious questions for Mary Lalji and Dee Beattie. It’s up to you, my loyal reader, to figure out which is which. Satirical and serious, not Mary and Dee. Although you will have to figure out which is Mary and which is Dee when you vote, you can’t just go “eh I don’t care”.

  1. New Westminster Secondary School is going to be rebuilt one way or another within the next decade. One of the challenges with the site is the Douglas Road Cemetery under the existing high school. When the current NWSS is bulldozed, this will undoubtedly anger the spirits and unleash them on New Westminster. My question for the candidates is this: name three people who will join you as Ghostbusters to save our city.
  2. Concussions and other repeated head blows in football and rugby have been shown to be the cause of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (or CTE), leading to player suicides, memory loss, depression, and dementia. The NFL has been sued by ex-players because of this link. High school students are more likely to suffer concussions, and seven died in the US in 2015 from concussion-related injuries. What will you do to ensure the safety of NWSS students playing football, rugby, and other heavy contact sports?
  3. Parents in the West End of New West are asking for some sort of solution for getting their children to Fraser River Middle School. This is a two part question:
    1. How boring is the name “Fraser River Middle School” on a range of watching paint dry to school trustee by-election?
    2. Do you support Queensborough parents of NWSS students in telling West End parents to fuck off?
  4. What will you do to ensure parents continue to be punished for daring to have children who get sick?
  5. After NWSS, what do you feel are the priorities for capital projects in SD40?
  6. What restaurant would you like to see in the Anvil Centre?

You can send your answers to me at brad.cavanagh@gmail.com. Thanks in advance!

Update: They answered! Here are Dee Beattie’s answers and here are Mary Lalji’s answers. Thanks to both of you for responding!