Atrocity of the Month

Gordon Price Elementary School

I was going to poke fun at this building and its parking lot in front of the main doors and how absurd it is. Unfortunately, this isn't funny; it's dangerous.

By Trey Shaughnessy
Published May 16, 2005

Gordon Price Elementary School (West Mountain)
Gordon Price Elementary School (West Mountain)

What were they thinking when they planned this disaster? Was it, How can we make a school look like a jail? Or was it, How can we make it as difficult as possible for students - those few who walk to school - to enter the building?

I wonder if the seniority of the teacher dictates how close their parking spot is to the main doors. Perhaps the Principal gets the closest spot (only ten steps required) and a first year teacher gets the parking spot far away at the back near chainlink - or is that the front? Does this school even have a front and back?

I was going to poke fun at this building and its parking lot in front of the main doors and how absurd it is. Unfortunately, this isn't funny; it's dangerous.

The front street access also features an entrance-only and exit-only curb cut, similar to a drive-thru Wendy's, which lead cars from the street in a semi-circle to the front doors, a mere few meters away.

This creates a dizzying and dangerous situation of cars dropping off their kids then trying as fast as they can to exit, trying not only to avoid other cars parked haphazardly doing the same thing, but also students (JK to grade eight) walking. Then, for more danger, we add some school buses, piloted by drivers who always seem to be in an futile rush.

The front of the school is landscaped similar to a bus-shelter site. Of course, landscaping is unimportant because the primary use of the front of the school and main entrance is to facilitate the movement of cars, buses, mini-vans and SUVs.

Walking facilities seem to have been tacked on as an afterthought.
Walking facilities seem to have been tacked on as an afterthought.

The only sidewalk that connects the street to the building for hundreds of students and their parents is a tiny, uneven swath of asphalt, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. As a result, most people have to walk beside it, consequently turning the grass into a permanent mucky wetland.

I don't know who designed this - or if an architect is even responsible - but how this ever got built makes me wonder where the priorities lie for public education and its institutions. A convenient parking space - or an environment that is safe and conducive for educating our children?

G. L. Armstrong School on Concession Street. What school would you rather walk to?
G. L. Armstrong School on Concession Street. What school would you rather walk to?

Trey lives in Williamsville NY via Hamilton. He is a Marketing Manager for Tourism and Destination Marketing in the Buffalo-Niagara Metro.

His essays have appeared in The Energy Bulletin, Post Carbon Institute, Peak Oil Survival, and Tree Hugger.

And can't wait for the day he stops hearing "on facebook".

54 Comments

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By Trey (registered) | Posted None at

Burlington student struck by car Jun, 01 2005 - 5:00 PM BURLINGTON (AM900 CHML) - Horrifying moments outside of a Burlington high school. Halton police confirm that a 15-year-old student from Robert Bateman has been seriously hurt, after he was struck by a car in front of the school this morning. The youngster was crossing New Street when the accident occured just after 11:30. Police are still investigating and are asking witnesses to come forward.

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By GORDON PRCE KID (anonymous) | Posted July 06, 2015 at 19:44:10 in reply to Comment 53

MY SCHOOL IS NOT DANGEROUS! IN FACT IT IS SAFE! DO YOU HATE THIS SCHOOL? WHY SO NEGATIVE?!? AND JUST TO LET YOU KNOW, THE SIDEWALK IS TO SMALL FOR 2 FAT PEOPLE TO WALK ON IT TOGETHER SIDE BY SIDE!!! GEEZ! NO ONE MAKES FUN OF MY SCHOOL!

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By GORDON PRICE CHILD (anonymous) | Posted April 28, 2006 at 23:24:48

EXCUSE ME!!!!
MAKING FUN OF MY SCHOOL HUH???
Well as a matter of fact it is not a jail and the teachers park anywhere they want, god!
people these days .

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By ... (anonymous) | Posted May 01, 2006 at 18:36:02

ARE YOU EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE PICTURES OF THIS SCHOOL ON THIS SITE?!?!?

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By jason (registered) | Posted May 01, 2006 at 23:39:06

Taxpayers paid for this school. Unfortunately, they weren't consulted on safety issues or design (human safety, not the safety of precious vehicles). Public space is exactly that - public. Available to be enjoyed and photographed by whomever would like to. You should be glad that an independent media source cares enough about the safety of children at this school to do a piece on it. Over the past 20 years Hamilton has averaged 26 car deaths PER YEAR. It's horrendous designs like this one that lead to human beings being sacrificed for the sake of our SUV's and shortening our walk to the front door by 13 steps. As a student or staff member of this school perhaps you'll take up these serious safety issues with the powers that be.

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By Hamilton Citizen (anonymous) | Posted July 02, 2006 at 20:16:55

The biggest issue I have with this school is that the sidewalks on either side leading up to the school are rarely plowed in the winter, making all the parents with young ones in strollers have to chance it by walking through a slushy parking lot with many of the other parents in cars, SUVs, etc. rushing about. Not too considerate, considering there's a daycare right there. If you can't afford a vehicle, it's too bad for you. Hopefully you don't get hit by a car... At the same time, I couldn't help but notice last winter that the parking lot was regularly plowed.

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By parent (anonymous) | Posted October 03, 2006 at 08:13:45

I feel the driveway is fine. It's up to drivers to check before they enter the driveway. Pedestrians have the right of way. I have said for several years on the parent survey that the walkway that runs along the side of the school is too narrow. This year is even worse with the addition of the fence outside of the kindergarten area. I am not looking forward to negotiating this area in the winter ( especially when it hasn't been plowed yet).

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By Trev (anonymous) | Posted October 06, 2006 at 11:31:10

Re: The photo use.
Wait, I'll ask the bricks and see if they're offended by having their picture taken. I'll get back to you soon.

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By Trev2 (anonymous) | Posted October 06, 2006 at 11:39:11

Isn't the new chainlink attractive? I think they only need to put a few weight benches on the back ashphalt and it will look like the excersice yard of Kingston Pen.

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By (anonymous) | Posted November 23, 2006 at 11:52:13

we have doors in the back ...THE BACK ..BEHIND THATS PICTURE.. geez. we get in there the grades 6-8 and all the rest us a lovely side door walking on the path. Jail..pfft. is the best school i have ever been too, and thats not my only one.

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By katharina wiebe (anonymous) | Posted December 14, 2006 at 16:57:51

I USED TO GO TO THIS SCHOOL BEFORE I MOVED TO DALEWOOD MIDDLE SCHOOL. I LOVVE THIS SCHOOL AND THE TEACHERS ROCK. MY FAV. TEACHERS WERE MR AND MRS MARSHEL. I HOPE TO VVISIT SOME TIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE.

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By G.P. student Wade (anonymous) | Posted September 30, 2007 at 01:17:55

This is stupid you took pictures so they look dangerous! There is another side walk on the other side of the school that is about 25 feet long. just to let you know I will telling my principal ( just to let you know is a good one) to see if this is even leagle to take these pictures. by the way i like this school and u disn it aint helpin its rep!

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By trey (registered) | Posted October 01, 2007 at 10:40:46

I don't have any problem with the teachers and administration. There are very good. It's the building design that is flawed. It's oriented for vehicle traffic and not for pedestrians. If a student decided to choose the other sidewalk, that student would also have to cross the paths of parents driving their kids to school not once but twice. There are two curb cuts and the drivers do not look for children. The school buses are the worst offenders.

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By sweeny (anonymous) | Posted February 12, 2008 at 19:05:51

I love this school! the teachers are great! The principal is the BEST!!!!! I wish Mrs.Griffin were here though, she was the best secratery ever!!! Best wishes to the school xox

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By sweeny (anonymous) | Posted February 12, 2008 at 19:10:21

I wish SOMEONE would stop putting graffity on the school! it is disrespectful!!! I guess people don't understand what NO TRESPASING DAWN TILL DUSK MEANS!! If Gordon Price Is a great school than i would never disrespect the school!!

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By the-one-and-only-bitch-of-GP-LS (anonymous) | Posted February 15, 2008 at 17:23:45

kaay bud, honestly go get a fking life;! like do you not have anything better to do with your life then make fun of schools? I am the one and only bitch of GP and as much as I hate the drama and crap at GP its a good school. so go fuck a cow buddy before you mess with us and our school.

FUCK OFF
I'm positive if I went and made fun of your damn school you'd be just as mad.
right now I am wishing GP was a jail so we could throw your sorry ass in there

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By Titilanonee lenny (anonymous) | Posted February 15, 2008 at 17:27:52

TRUEE THAT!!1!!i go to the school and its crap...crap education and crap teachers(except for mr. and mrs.marshall). Mr Yull Sucks BIG FAT BALLS!!! i hate him he ruins life.......

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By Titilanonee lenny (anonymous) | Posted February 15, 2008 at 17:28:02

TRUEE THAT!!1!!i go to the school and its crap...crap education and crap teachers(except for mr. and mrs.marshall). Mr Yull Sucks BIG FAT BALLS!!! i hate him he ruins life.......

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By the-one-and-only-bitch-of-GP-LS (anonymous) | Posted February 15, 2008 at 17:36:02

this Trev guy needs a life
why dont you just leave the damn school alone
like ohmygod
when I read it I was ready to knock him out

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By Bassist (anonymous) | Posted February 15, 2008 at 17:45:13

I Go There
And I must admit it's pretty brutal
some of the drivers in the parking road thing
are vicious and rude. As per the jail thing, thats more or less correct. I remember one of my friends tripping over the chain blocking the road once and knocking out one of her teeth. Although its been gone since then.

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By brittany (anonymous) | Posted March 15, 2008 at 19:37:05

okay.. so i agree with some of you! becuz i go to GP and it sorta sucks... i mean some of the teachers are cool like MRS. SWARTZ!! <3

but i walk to school every day, and yea i've almost been hit by car, and im careful. i watch wuts going on around me.. like its an okay school, the kids and everything are great... but.. its dangerous!!



YEA WHY DIDNT U SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ARMSTRONG!!!! I MEAN IT CANT BE PERFECT!

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By bus rider from GP (anonymous) | Posted October 12, 2008 at 19:25:47

I go to the school and my sister says its great, but the buses are crowded

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By Julian Notariani (anonymous) | Posted October 23, 2008 at 19:35:50

I like this school! <3 it is wonderful

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By Teacher (anonymous) | Posted April 27, 2009 at 15:22:07

^ Your passion comes through but would benefit from some basic research, as many claims are unsubstantiated. As well, restraint is called for in drawing over-strong conclusions from limited information. The essay also suffers from numerous spelling and grammatical errors. C-

(Please revise and resubmit by next Monday for another chance at grading.)

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By dav (anonymous) | Posted September 20, 2009 at 11:01:31

i went to this school and loved it. My favorite teacher was Mr. Mckenna, does anyone know if he still teaches there?

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By repley (anonymous) | Posted October 29, 2012 at 20:35:34 in reply to Comment 33914

Sorry dude Mr. Mckenna passed away.
:(

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By hkgh (anonymous) | Posted October 29, 2012 at 19:43:54 in reply to Comment 33914

no ms. mckenna is gone

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By hi (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:04:12

i like this school period.

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By Gordon Price Student (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:05:17

dont hate just apprecieate D.L.G

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By kuuri. (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:06:56

dude, screw u
the worst part about the school is the music teacher
everything isnt even close to as bad as the school itself

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By you dont know me (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:10:08

i like this school, and i walk to school everyday and i dont see a problem with our school.
it's wonderful<3
and our teachers are awesome!

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By Justin bieber luverrrr :D (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:18:42

There is nothing bad about this school it is the best school I have ever been to and Ive been to more. This school has more walkways and doorways at the back of the school so dont judge!!! There has never been any accidents, and all the teachers are great.
I wish that i wasnt leaving in a year :(:(:(

DONT HATEEEE

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By Santa Claus (Your on the naughty list!) (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:20:41

Dude Trey, I can take this article out if I want too, what is wrong with you? People live alot to Gordon Price then your G.L So leave us alone you lame liar -_-# I will take this down I have to! Have a nice day:)

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By EmBry (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:21:03

Are you kidding, I have seen schools waaaaaaaaaay worse than this, this school, my school is amazing and maybe if you saw the INSIDE and MET THE TEACHERS you would realize that.

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By Sanata Claus (Your on the naughty list a (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:24:54

Trust Me I can and people do live closer to Gordon Price then G.L and If I report this to the Hamlton Board they will KILL this website Have a nice day! :)

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By ....... (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:25:01

and the last person to comment is a retard
this school sucks d***

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By cdm (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:26:16

this school is amazing if you want to trash a school go trash your school or better yet i'll trash your school so you can go die in a hole somewhere bith because you have no right to trash any school period!

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By BOBI (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:26:46

THESE PEOPLE HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO WHAT A BUNCH OF STUPID IDIOTS

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By justin doyle (anonymous) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:28:27

i like this school the teachers are nice its clean and the kids are nice if i ever hear you talking about my school tike that agean im going to beat your face in

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By moylek (registered) - website | Posted June 18, 2010 at 14:54:36

This is possibly the most fascinating thread on the entire site.

I am awed. I only wish that A. Smith and grassroots would chime in.

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By Pxtl (registered) - website | Posted June 18, 2010 at 15:18:53

Agreed, Ken. This thread is hilarious - I imagine this page is pretty high up when those middle-schoolers Google their school's name.

checks

Yup. Search "Gordon Price Elementary School" (with quotes) and this is the second hit.

Also, katharina wiebe has no idea what she is talking about.
Dalewood rules, G.P. drools ;)

Comment edited by Pxtl on 2010-06-18 14:20:21

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By highwater (registered) | Posted June 18, 2010 at 17:00:55

DALEWOOD RUUUULES! Plus it's Art Deco.

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By sad (anonymous) | Posted July 08, 2010 at 20:21:38

Mr. Mckenna Died Guys :'(

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By ...fu (anonymous) | Posted November 23, 2010 at 22:37:14

I have attended Gordon Price and my parents are correctional officers who work at a jail. so unless yu work at a jail yu dont know what they are like, but i do.. this is nothing like a jail.. so i would get off yur fat ass and start doin some reasearch because what yur saying is not truee.. I learned alot from this school and even though I left in my eighth year I am still missing that school there were teachers i hated and teachers I love they were also the only ones in the board of hamilton who played baseball which I love to play.. So get out of yur faat ass chairs and start dissing other school and leaves this alone or I will get the board to shut this down because I am pretty sure this is allegal thank you very much !! not!! yu have noo right to be dissing any school if I knew who wrote this and knew what school they went to i could diss that school too because I am a BITCH and i know it ..

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By student (anonymous) | Posted February 01, 2011 at 16:33:27

This article is completely incorrect. There are sidewalks that any person in their right mind can walk up and not go near the cars and buses. The parking lot is in the front maybe because thats the only place they could put it not because the teachers like it (and by the way parents can park their too). If you have noticed we have a public park and little forest to one side, houses to the other, and another school to the back so that is the only place a parking lot could go. Considering the pedestrians, even if they were walking on the road, being idiots, they still can't get hurt by a car because the cars drive like 5km/h. The fence at the front of the parking lot is to show drivers where the parking lot ends so the don't drive on what little property we have. And the sidewalk leading to the side of the school is broken and small because it has been there for over 10yrs. and we would rather spend money on learning instruments, than have a brand new sidewalk. So if you are going to write an article about our school and post it on the Internet maybe you should research about it, maybe even ask some people some questions, rather than making up nonsense that can't be true.

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By theonlyyoudontwannascrewwith<3 (anonymous) | Posted February 26, 2011 at 12:49:28

Seriously, I have gone to Gordon Price and it is a good school. It does not look like a jail it looks like a small school for a small area, I also miss alot of people from Gordon Price because they made life. So your just a dumb ass with the wrong opinon. Like Leggit!!! Stfu ANN GTFO and go die or do something other than dissing the school because I would seriously appreciate that because at this point you are pissing everyone off from Gordon Price. !

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By zammy (anonymous) | Posted February 26, 2011 at 15:43:14

Yea, you don't want to p$ss off the Gordon P people now do you??

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By JahneshaBrown (anonymous) | Posted April 12, 2011 at 18:30:25

Hi trev you're really stupid I bet u didn't even take those pictures. Try going to Gordon Price and see what its like before you start saying rude things about the school. This school is great in every which way and if you can't see that, then obviously you arent very wise or you're blind.

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By Fan of John Orme. (anonymous) | Posted May 18, 2011 at 21:42:07

Good Evening everyone, especially you superintendent of Hamilton Wentworth District School Board. My name, do not ask. This is for one of my favourite teachers that used to work at Gordon Price, and SHOULD continue to work for it. John Orme, a teacher of Gordon Price of the HWDSB, was suspended last month for doing his job. Here is what happened, and I hope HWDSB is reading this because your making MANY students mad, John Orme, was teaching his class literacy in the computer lab so his students would be able to view a video called "Dear God" by a British group. After they were done watching the video, they were suppose to write down their opinions of the song, thats when things started to go wrong. The lyrics of "Dear God" were saying things about how god isn't real. As I stated earlier,the class was supposed write down their opinions, the class did except for one particular student. This student wrote down "I hate this because I believe in God and always will". This is where the problem starts, ALL he asked after that was to "stretch" out her answer and give a better explanation as to why she holds that belief, and the student said "It's just a faith thing. I couldn't think of anything about why. I just do". Upset, she stuffed the assignment into her pocket and brought it home to show her mom, instead of handing it back. That is my question, why get mad? It's just an opinion ABOUT the song. Sure the lyrics are upsetting but no need to get mad enough to come home in tears. He was TEACHING literacy, it's part of Orme's job, isn't opinions and connection part of literacy? Well, at least in my opinion, the assignment WAS part of the language curriculum for opinions. Maybe this wasn't appropriate for there level, but hey, he's just a first year teacher, we all make mistakes. Please forgive him, he was just doing his job and trying to help develop opinions.
Thank you,
sincerely, Torreto.

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By banned user (anonymous) | Posted May 19, 2011 at 07:42:52

comment from banned user deleted

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By I <3 Mr. Orme<3 (anonymous) | Posted May 20, 2011 at 22:07:16

he was NOT a stupid teacher.

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By banned user (anonymous) | Posted May 20, 2011 at 22:51:25

comment from banned user deleted

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By Julia l. (anonymous) | Posted July 07, 2012 at 08:25:16

I don't understand why your article is only about the front of the school...if you wanna be the creep you are then go to the back entrances or inside cause you can't judge it and say its a bad school if you know shit about it...js

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By fan of Mr.Orm and student (anonymous) | Posted October 29, 2012 at 19:56:19

Gordon price is not a bad school

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