Cliffside Preparatory School at Shawnigan Lake BC was a private school before it shut down in 1977. I attended it between the fall of 1971 and the spring of 1974.
There is a FaceBook Page for it here:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=474446280132
I attended Cliffside for 2.5 years in the late sixties. The reason for the “half” year was due to the fact that one of the teachers, Jenkins, was summarily terminated by Mr. Curtis due to his propensity to use children as a whipping post. My mother pulled me out when she saw and heard the results of one of Mr. Jenkins disciplinary extravaganzas. The ongoing Jenkins Olympics was followed a year later when C J Curtis left and was replaced by a pedophile who took over as headmaster, a delight named Huggard - who was eventually caught and exiled by the board of governors to eastern Canada. Nowadays he’d been incarcerated until death. But before Huggard was run out of town a student, Fritz Smalley, a budding arsonist, burned down the old school house and and then several days later he followed up by torching the brand new modern dinning room facing the lake. There was an upside to this chaos; as young boys we were required to be bussed to Strathcona (?) girls school down the road for all of our meals until a new dining room was constructed. Even Steven King couldn’t make up what happened in this school. It certainly made for an interesting childhood.
Top Photo. Larry Chung and Raymond Massey as guest visitor..not sure of the others ??
ReplyDeleteBoy in the middle was John Lusney.Other msn at bsck was Mr C.J Curtis, Headmaster. I recognise other boy but don't recall his name.
ReplyDeleteI attended Cliffside for 2.5 years in the late sixties. The reason for the “half” year was due to the fact that one of the teachers, Jenkins, was summarily terminated by Mr. Curtis due to his propensity to use children as a whipping post. My mother pulled me out when she saw and heard the results of one of Mr. Jenkins disciplinary extravaganzas. The ongoing Jenkins Olympics was followed a year later when C J Curtis left and was replaced by a pedophile who took over as headmaster, a delight named Huggard - who was eventually caught and exiled by the board of governors to eastern Canada. Nowadays he’d been incarcerated until death. But before Huggard was run out of town a student, Fritz Smalley, a budding arsonist, burned down the old school house and and then several days later he followed up by torching the brand new modern dinning room facing the lake. There was an upside to this chaos; as young boys we were required to be bussed to Strathcona (?) girls school down the road for all of our meals until a new dining room was constructed. Even Steven King couldn’t make up what happened in this school. It certainly made for an interesting childhood.
ReplyDelete