THE DRAGON'S PEN

SECOND SEMESTER EXCITEMENT
Overcrowding, a Trip to London, and Water Concerns

by Henry MacDougall
(click images to enlarge)

After a busy end to semester one, students were given two semester transition days on January 26 and 27 to catch up with unfinished work. Semester two began on Wednesday, January 28. Semester one’s final learning updates (formerly known as report cards) were published later, on Friday, January 30. As in the past, learning updates are accessible on MyEducation BC.  

OVERCROWDING AT KG

In keeping with King George’s nature as a school that operates well over capacity, many students are experiencing a bottleneck while attempting to change their course schedule (ie: taking French instead of Chemistry) at the start of this semester. Nearly all courses are simply full and a student wishing to swap must wait for a vacancy to be created in their desired course by another student. There are currently 625 students enrolled at KG this year, while the official operating capacity is set at 375 students.

View fullsize

A line beginning to form in KG’s cafeteria.

Overcrowding at KG is most noticeable at lunch time, when what seems like half of the entire student body rushes to the cafeteria, all at once. Students meet their friends, line up for school lunches, and things get out of hand very quickly. The lunch line expands not only in length, but also in width, almost always ending up with a blockage at the door, and a crowd in the hallway outside shortly after. Much of KG’s cafeteria blockage woes stem from the school's status as an inner-city high school with a small footprint, where the cafeteria remains only a little larger than the typical classroom.   

Principal Evans and Vice Principal Clark often attempt to clear the blockage at the doorway and crowds in the hallway, but every day the issue persists. There may not be a solution within reach until KG’s pending redevelopment allows a design accommodating the increased population, hopefully allowing for less traffic jams during lunchtime.  

A TRIP TO LONDON FOR DRAMA STUDENTS

For the first time in eight years, KG students will be going inter-continental on a school trip!

Eight King George drama students will travel to London, England for a week during March break, seeing four shows and one play in London’s West End. Students will also be attending drama workshops run by professionals. In past years, Ms. Init’s drama class had gone on trips to New York City to see shows on Broadway. With New York no longer being considered a safe place for a school trip, the UK is considered more suitable at this time.  

SOCK & TOQUE DRIVE SUCCESS

After months of collecting monetary and clothing donations, the King George Interact Club’s Sock & Toque Drive is coming to a close. On Monday, January 26, members of the club went shopping with donated funds, buying socks, toques, and mittens that will be donated alongside all clothing donations on February 5.

Items will be handed off to Vancouver Park Rangers Steve and Mario, who will distribute the items to those in need. 

WATER FOUNTAIN CONCERNS

If you are a frequent water drinker at KG, you might have noticed that sometimes water from the fountains can have a bit of a metallic taste, which is often more noticeable in the morning. This is caused by overnight stagnation in the water pipes.  

View fullsize

Bruno expressing his feelings towards water at King George.

Thankfully, lead does not have a taste and therefore must not be the culprit for the rusty, metallic edge that many students detect in the water fountains.

In addition, a January 2023 routine test carried out by the VSB reported levels of lead low enough for safe consumption across all KG water fountains. This meets the current federal government guideline, which states that no drinking water should have more than 0.005 milligrams of lead per litre, or 5 parts per billion.  

In the report, the highest concentration of lead at KG was found on the bottom floor, across from the music room and cafeteria. This fountain had a reported 0.000528 mg/L concentration of lead, or roughly 10 per cent of the maximum acceptable concentration. For reference, the lowest concentration of lead was from the third-floor water fountain, which was curiously so low that it was under the detectable limit of the tests. I found out the reason for this after speaking to Tony, our school’s custodian. In reality, this is because the third-floor water fountain is the only one in all of KG to have a filtration system, meaning that even the nearly identical fountain located near the gym on the third floor, sadly lacks a filter.  

Grade 12 student Bruno Guevara is unhappy with the lack of filtration in the water fountains, especially on the ground floor, near the gymnasium, where students often need it most. 

“I usually use the water fountain at least three times a day,” Bruno said. “Most of the time I’m using the first-floor water fountain next to the gym, because it’s the closest one to my art and gym classes.” 

When asked about the taste of the water, Bruno recounted memories of the second-floor fountain that left a bad taste in his mouth. “I never drink really from the second-floor water fountain these days because it has a really strong metal taste that throws me off.” 

Bruno did not previously know that only the top-floor fountain was filtered, but now feels “unsettled” at the fact that the school “isn’t doing much to fix filtration across the school.” To him, it feels like the situation “isn’t being taken seriously,” and neither are the students. 

Overall, Bruno, along with many KG students are unhappy with the water situation at KG. He wishes that the school would choose to help with filtration across the school, not liking how he has to take a journey through the building each time he’d like a fresh drink of water. 

Thanks for reading and have a great second semester at KG!