Education
Taking advantage of every opportunity helps Hunting Hill’s Valedictorian reach new heights
News Release from Red Deer Public Schools
For Raahim Aqueel, seizing every opportunity possible in his high school career has not only been a memorable journey, but has paid off in a big way. He has been named this year’s Valedictorian at Hunting Hills High School.
Raahim, originally from Saudi Arabia, said the news is still sinking in.
“If I had one word to describe it, it’s really a feeling of euphoria. Getting the acknowledgement and recognition for the hard work and dedication that I’ve had is gratifying,” he said, adding that he moved to Canada at the age of nine. “In a sense being a Valedictorian is a way to say thank you – a way of appreciating the sacrifices that my parents made to move to Canada for education and better opportunities.”
After his family’s move, Raahim quickly thrived in his new surroundings. “I always loved soccer as a kid and during recesses at school all we would do was play soccer. I built friendships over soccer and it became part of my identity and it gave me the confidence to be who I am today.”
Darwin Roscoe, Principal at Hunting Hills High Schools said he is extremely proud of Raahim’s achievements.
“I continue to be amazed at the quality of students who attend HHHS,” said Darwin Roscoe, Principal at Hunting Hills High School. Raahim had an average over 98%, which is an outstanding accomplishment. There are few things more satisfying than watching our youth prepare to make the world a better place. Congratulations for this amazing achievement.”
As Raahim reflects on his high school career, he has many fond memories.
“Most of the highlights from my high school years are conversations I’ve had with classmates, the friendships that I have built, hanging out after school – it’s the little things that have had the greatest impact and what has helped shape me into the person that I am today,” he said.
As part of being named Valedictorian, Raahim will have the opportunity to address his classmates at their graduation ceremonies. It’s an opportunity he’s excited to seize.
“I want to touch on how important opportunities are and how to capitalize on those,” he said. “I also want to talk about fear because as you enter high school as a freshman and a sophomore, you are paralyzed with fear – you are scared of what others think of you. You’re scared of rejection, you’re scared of not making the team. I want to talk about how to face those fears and how to change them into life changing moments, how to change them into lessons and how to
grow from them.”
Looking ahead, Raahim will attend the University of Alberta in the fall to pursue education in nutrition and food science with the ultimate goal of becoming a dietician.
“Physical exercise, whether that be sports, cardiovascular training, or weightlifting, has always been a hobby of mine, and a desired form of stress relief. But, something I’ve struggled with in the past is nutrition, and this would hinder my progress,” he said. “Through education, I’ve been able to overcome that roadblock, and I strongly believe that my dedication to physical wellness has played a significant role in my success in other aspects of life. With a degree in Nutrition and Food Science with Specialization in Dietetics, I hope to guide those in need toward a healthier lifestyle and help them accomplish their goals.”
As he gets ready to wrap up his time in grade school, Raahim has lasting words for fellow students entering Grade 9 and journeying through their high school years.
“My advice to other students is to take risks – that is the only way you are going to grow and learn about yourself. If you’re truly passionate about something, pursue it. Don’t let others stop you from doing that,” he said. “And secondly, enjoy the journey. Set goals, work hard, but don’t forget to have fun and do the things that make you happy.”
Hunting Hills High School will hold their graduation ceremonies on May 13 at Westerner Park.
From LifeSiteNews
Monique LaGrange was ousted last December from the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools’ board for comparing the LGBT agenda targeting children to brainwashing.
A Canadian judge ruled that a school board was justified to place harsh sanctions on a Catholic school trustee forced out of her position because she opposed extreme gender ideology and refused to undergo LGBT “sensitivity” training.
Justice Cheryl Arcand-Kootenay of the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta ruled Thursday that the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) Board’s sanctions placed against former trustee Monique LaGrange will stand.
LaGrange had vowed to fight the school board in court, and it remains to be seen if she can take any further actions after the decision by Judge Arcand-Kootenay.
The judge ruled that the RDCRS’s policies in place for all trustees, which the board contended were breached, were “logical, thorough, and grounded in the facts that were before the Board at the time of their deliberations.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, the RDCRS board voted 3-1 last December to disqualify LaGrange after she compared the LGBT agenda targeting kids with that of “brainwashing” Nazi propaganda. As a result of being voted out, LaGrange later resigned from her position.
The former school board trustee initially came under fire in September 2023 when she posted an image showing kids in Nazi Germany waving swastika flags during a parade to social media, with the bottom of the post showing an image of kids waving LGBT “Pride” flags along with the text: “Brainwashing is brainwashing.”
After her post went viral, calls for her to step down grew from leftist Alberta politicians and others. This culminated in her removal as director of the Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association (ACSTA).
In September 2023, the RDCRS passed a motion to mandate that LaGrange undergo “LGBTQ+” and holocaust “sensitivity” training for her social media post.
LaGrange, however, refused to apologize for the meme or undergo “sensitivity” training.
She had argued that the RDCRS had no right to issue sanctions against her because they were not based on the Education Act or code of conduct. Arcand-Kootenay did not agree with her, saying code of conduct violations allow for multiple sanctions to be placed against those who violate them.
From the Fraser Institute
The average entrance grade at the University of British Columbia is now 87 per cent, up from 70 per cent only 20 years ago. While this is partly because the supply of available university spots has not kept pace with growing demand, it’s also likely that some B.C. high schools are inflating their students’ grades.
Suppose you’re scheduled for major heart surgery. Shortly before your surgery begins, you check into your surgeon’s background and are pleased to discover your surgeon had a 100 per cent average throughout medical school. But then you learn that every student at the same medical school received 100 per cent in their courses, too. Now you probably don’t feel quite as confident in your surgeon.
This is the ugly reality of “grade inflation” where the achievements of everyone, including the most outstanding students, are thrown into question. Fortunately, grade inflation is (currently) rare in medical schools. But in high schools, it’s a growing problem.
In fact, grade inflation is so prevalent in Ontario high schools that the University of Waterloo’s undergraduate engineering program uses an adjustment factor when evaluating student applications—for example, Waterloo might consider a 95 per cent average from one school the equivalent of an 85 per cent average from another school.
Grade inflation is a problem in other provinces as well. The average entrance grade at the University of British Columbia is now 87 per cent, up from 70 per cent only 20 years ago. While this is partly because the supply of available university spots has not kept pace with growing demand, it’s also likely that some B.C. high schools are inflating their students’ grades.
Sadly, grade inflation is so rampant these days that some school administrators don’t even try to hide it. For example, earlier this year all students at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School in Aurora, Ontario, received perfect marks on their midterm exams in two biology courses and one business course—not because these students had mastered these subjects but because the York Catholic District School Board had been unable to find a permanent teacher at this school.
The fact that a school board would use grade inflation to compensate for inadequate instruction in high school tells us everything we need to know about the abysmal academic standards in many schools across Canada.
And make no mistake, student academic performance is declining. According to results from the Programme for International Assessment (PISA), math scores across Canada declined from 532 points in 2003 to 497 points in 2022 (PISA equates 20 points to one grade level). In other words, Canadian students are nearly two years behind on their math skills then they were 20 years ago. While their high school marks are going up, their actual performance is going down.
And that’s the rub—far from correcting a problem, grade inflation makes the problem much worse. Students with inflated grades get a false sense of their academic abilities—then experience a rude shock when they discover they aren’t prepared for post-secondary education. (According to research by economists Ross Finnie and Felice Martinello, students with the highest high school averages usually experience the largest drop in grades in university). Consequently, many end up dropping out.
Grade inflation even hurts students who go on to be academically successful because they suffer the indignity of having their legitimate achievements thrown into doubt by the inflated grades of other students. If we want marks to have meaning, we must end the practise of grade inflation. We do our students no favours when we give them marks they don’t really deserve.
Just as our confidence in a surgeon would go down if we found out that every student from the same medical school had a 100 per cent average, so we should also question the value of diplomas from high schools where grade inflation is rampant.
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