Fed up with filming
Lawyer hangs banner on Delta Street office
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Cadets on parade
Airport event marks Battle of Britain anniversary
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Bringing the blues
Harpdog Brown to play at Genesis
Not finished yet
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Hall of fame football coach back on the sidelines
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YOUR SOURCE FOR LOCAL SPORTS, NEWS, WEATHER AND ENTERTAINMENT! WWW.DELTA-OPTIMIST.COM The Voice of Delta since 1922 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2013
See Page 22
School strike averted with CUPE deal BY
JESSICA KERR
jkerr@delta-optimist.com
PHOTO BY
GORD GOBLE
Delta Secondary students will be holding a bake sale next week to raise money so teacher Pam Mann’s son can benefit from a medical trial in the UK.
DSS rallies around teacher
Outpouring of support for Pam Mann and her son who suffers from black bone disease BY
DAVE WILLIS
dwillis@delta-optimist.com
The Delta Secondary community is rallying in support of a teacher at the Ladner high school. Pam Mann teaches English and humanities at DSS. Her son, Eshaan, who turns seven next week, suffers from alkaptonuria, which is also known as black bone disease. Students, teachers and parents are supporting Mann and helping raise awareness about the condition as well as money for a fouryear medical trial in the UK that’s testing a “very promising drug” to fight the disease. “This community has rallied around me like I never thought was possible,” said Mann, who has taught at DSS for over a
decade. Black bone disease is extremely rare, with fewer than 20 people in Canada and less than 1,000 worldwide known to have it, she said. An acid in the body builds up 2,000 times faster than usual, attacking a person’s bones, making them weaker. It affects the whole body. “It causes severely debilitating osteoarthritis, heart disease and other serious health complications. Patients become increasingly disabled as they get older,” states the fundraising webpage for the medical trial. Eshaan has to do lots of tests, is on protein-restricted diet and was given a list of activities to avoid so he doesn’t put any “extra wear and tear on his body,” Mann said. She noted men with the disease
usually start showcommunity, not just as ing symptoms at a class,” Huff said. 20. “It’s nice to know “Once bones we can do some stuff have been deteto help out,” said sturiorated, there’s dent Ashley Ives. nothing you can do. Upcoming fundraisYou’re just living ers include a bake sale with the pain.” (which Richlea Bakery So far DSS stuis supporting) on Sept. dents have made 24 and 25 from 11:20 Facebook and a.m. to noon in the Pam Mann Twitter pages, along school foyer. DSS teacher with an Instragram The Delta Ice account, to go Hawks have donated along with fundraising initiatives, tickets to their home game on Mann said. Oct. 8, which students will be Students in teacher Dana Huff’s selling beforehand and on the day Academic Leadership 11 class, of the hockey game at the Ladner along with other student groups, Leisure Centre. are helping out. Contact Huff for tickets at “I’m very proud of them. dhuff@deltasd.bc.ca. The cost is They’ve come together as a school $3 beforehand or $5 at the door.
A potential strike at B.C. schools was averted this week as the province reached a tentative deal with school support workers. CUPE and the B.C. Public Schools’ Employers Association came to an agreement late Wednesday. The two-year tentative agreement, which still needs to be ratified by union members, includes a 3.5 per cent wage increase over two years and no concessions. The union had been asking for a four per cent wage hike. “As well, the agreement recognizes the professional role of education assistants through formal changes to the School Act and collective agreements,” said Colin Pawson, president of CUPE Local 1091, which represents support staff, such as custodians, education assistants and secretaries in Delta schools. Pawson is also the CUPE B.C. K-12 Presidents’ Council chair. The agreement is retroactive to July 1, 2012 because support staff has been working without a contact for over a year. It provides a one per cent wage increase on July 1, 2013, two per cent on Feb. 1, 2014 and 0.5 per cent on May 1, 2014. “CUPE B.C.’s 27,000 education workers are vital to keeping our school clean, safe and inclusive,” said union president Mark Hancock. The province said earlier this month that money for any wage increases will have to come out of school board budgets under the “cooperative gains” mandate, which states there will be no new money for wage hikes. No one from the Delta school board or Delta school district was prepared to comment before the Optimist’s deadline.