Columbia Collage
Peter Copple
Youth, Crime and the law – Crim 155
February 7, 2013
To help clarify the understanding of the Residential Schools and The movie the “Rabbit proof fence” and the effects of social and legal environments while the Juvenile Delinquent Act was happening, seen as to be an influencing factor within the youth justice system. You need to compare and contrast between how the aboriginals were being treated in Australia and how the Aboriginal students were being treated in Canadian Residential schools. In both environments the children were being treated like animals with no rights or freedom of speech, had their religion and culture taken away and were taken away from their normal environments …show more content…
Where they were sent to the Moore River Native Settlement where they were not aloud to speech in their own language, weren’t aloud to talk much, had to dress to fit the standards of the “British Upper Class”, slept on cots and were forced to pee in a bucket in the corner of the room. They were also being imposed to learn the ways of the “white people” and adapt to the Christian religion and beliefs. The children were not enjoying how they were being treated and were planning any possible ways to get out of there and not be caught. “If only they would understand what we are trying to do for them” (A.O. Neville) Mr.Neville thought that what he was doing was the best possible solution for these kids and had the right to remove any child from their family if he thought they were not being raised the correct …show more content…
The residential schools held 15,000 native kids that were taken away from their families and were sent to church-run schools under a deliberate policy of “Civilizing” first nations. (CBC news). By taking away everything a child has grown up to believe, does not save them it ruins them, in a way that might never be fixed. Many of the children were physically, mentally and sexually abused and some even committed suicide. (CBC news) The children were denied rights to acknowledge their heritage, culture and were not aloud to speak their own language. The children were taught ways of the “upper class white people” and they were being taught minimum skills, not like normal public schools they would be taught what they would need for after they were sent away, for instants girls would be taught how to do manual labor in agriculture such as to do laundry, sew, cook and clean. The boys were taught carpentry, tinsmithing, and farming.(Wayne Christian) which pretty much meant taught to be slaves. Was that a right way of treating children? Where they were scared of what could happen next, or even being acknowledged for how they were feeling about what was going on?