The school provided a strict, traditional education with corporal punishment and an extensive outdoor program that included snowshoeing, hiking, canoeing, ice hockey, lacrosse and other rigorous and challenging activities.
[citation needed] Updated discipline included things like: marks below minimum received supervised study in the dining room instead of the dorm; homework not done for class, free time spent in learning centre with a teacher to help; late for class: Run 1 km; swear in the presence of a teacher, 10-20 pushups; running in the hall, go back and walk; talking after lights out, stand in silence in the hallway for half an hour while dorm mates get to sleep.
This incident took place at St. John's Cathedral Boys' School in Selkirk, Manitoba and was the basis for an article in the Canadian edition of Reader's Digest "Drama in Real Life".
At the Selkirk Hospital, doctors heated up the ER and wisely placed an ice pack on his head to prevent thermal shock to his brain.
As a consequence of this incident, the school instituted a policy of mandatory cold weather hypothermia training for all staff and students to be completed before the start of the winter season every year.
[citation needed] On a canoe trip from the Ontario School on 11 June 1978, 12 boys and one staff member died on Lake Temiskaming from drowning and hypothermia.
Some policies changed over the years: some time before corporal punishment in Canadian schools became illegal in 2004,[5] the spanking of students with wooden paddles for infractions at St John's was ended.
The school employed a janitor who came four times a week, but the students did most of the work including, but not limited to, taking care of the sled dogs, building and repairing sleds, harness and traces, cleaning dorms, shovelling walks in winter, yardwork in spring and fall, cleaning the kitchen, dining room, and laundry (using the machines, sorting, and distributing).
"): (from the same document, p. 17): Paul 'Chester' Nordahl, a teacher from St. John's School of Alberta, was charged with one count of assault causing bodily harm in 1990.
[9] After the school initiated a letter-writing campaign to the Attorney general of Alberta, the Chief Crown prosecutor, the Minister of Social Services, the M.L.A.
Summary: Complaint received from former student that discipline at St. John's school is done with a three foot long board and often results in bruising.
A boy complained to child welfare authorities that the school's discipline of him with a 3-foot-long (0.91 m) stick, measuring 1 by 4 inches (25 by 102 mm), had caused bruises.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigated because causing bruises in such circumstances is considered infliction of bodily harm.
The school was sued for $3.5 million in 2003 by Jeffrey Richard Birkin regarding "psychological and physical mistreatment" on a "new boy wilderness trip" in 1976.
In a 1990s interview, founder Ted Byfield agreed that some of the treatment of students in past times would be considered excessive and worthy of criminal charges if they occurred today.
[12] The school had been previously sued in 1996 by Matt Riddel who lost 9 toes on a 4-day, 50-kilometre snowshoe and dogsled trip during which temperatures dropped to -28 degrees C.[12] The outcome of this lawsuit was a negotiated and sealed settlement in 1999.
[13] [14] Leonard Sax's second book, Boys Adrift, mentions Saint John's School implicitly in two separate illustrations.
[16] From a story by James Quig p. 6 quoting Frank Wiens, (headmaster and co-founder of St. John's Cathedral Boys' School, Selkirk).
[citation needed] Saint John's premises now house Mother Earth's Children's Charter School (MECCS), attended by some First Nation, Metis, & Inuit (FNMI) K-09 students from the neighboring communities.