Bell High School is a high school located in the

Bells Corners Bells Corners is a suburban neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located along Robertson Road west of downtown, within Ottawa's western Greenbelt (Ottawa), Greenbelt, in College Ward. As of the 2021 Canadian census, the co ...

neighbourhood of

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. The school was established by the Carleton Board of Education in 1962 as a public high school for grades 9-13. In 2018, Bell High School became a 7-12 school after the nearby D. Aubrey Moodie Intermediate School closed down.

Facilities and infrastructure

Bell High School is located on a 10 hectare (25 acre) campus. The school building itself is in the shape of the letter "E" and divided into several wings. Each wing contains a different educational discipline, one each for science, mathematics, English, and social studies. The school also has a cafeteria, a library, two music rooms, an art studio, a drama studio, a dance studio, a drafting studio, two full-sized gyms, a greenhouse, an automotive garage, two construction workshops, a soccer/football field with a 400-meter gravel track, and indoor weight training and exercise facilities. In 2021, the building was expanded to accommodate the newly-integrated intermediate students from the former D. A. Moodie Intermediate School. The school is adjacent to two baseball diamonds, a soccer/football field, an indoor ice rink ( Bell Centennial Arena), and a forested section of the

Greenbelt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wild, or agricultural land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts are greenways or gree ...

OC Transpo OC Transpo is the primary Transit district, public transport agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operating bus rapid transit, light rail, conventional transit bus, bus routes, and door-to-door paratransit in the nation's capital regi ...

routes buses serving Bayshore, Crystal Beach, Kanata, and

Barrhaven Barrhaven is a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located about southwest of the city's downtown core. Prior to amalgamation with Ottawa in 2001, Barrhaven was part of the City of Nepean. Its population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 10 ...

to the school.

Student activities

Bell High School offers programs in

gifted education Gifted education (also known as gifted and talented education (GATE), talented and gifted programs (TAG), or G&T education) is a type of education used for children who have been identified as Intellectual giftedness, gifted or Talent (skill), tal ...

advanced placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere ...

, enrichment studies,

student exchange ''Student Exchange'' is a 1987 American television film, made-for-television comedy film directed by Mollie Miller and produced by Walt Disney Television. It originally aired November 29, 1987 as a presentation of ''Walt Disney anthology telev ...

French immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French- immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects ...

, and an ESL in addition to the normal academic program. Approximately 50% of the school's student population are transfers from other districts who attend Bell High School for these specialized programs. Bell High School engages extensively in fundraising efforts. Through these efforts, Bell has contributed significantly to the local community and even managed to construct a sister school in Kenya which it maintains as an ongoing humanitarian project. Other than its fundraisers and humanitarian projects, Bell High School also hosts a plethora of events to actively promote arts and culture, though performances, banquets, and shows. The school also has a large roster of sports teams which in many sports under the Bell Bruins name. The teams offered by Bell High School include:

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

Nordic skiing Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe to heel. Re ...

Alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

Cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

Hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

Track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

Curling Curling is a sport in which players slide #Curling stone, stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take t ...

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...

, and

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Incidents

In spring 2016, two former Bell students separately filed complaints with the

Ottawa Police Service The Ottawa Police Service (OPS; French: ''Service de police d'Ottawa'') is the municipal police service of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, as well as most of the north east Ontario side of the National Capital Region. As of 2022, this police service ...

that Tim Stanutz, their former music teacher had groomed and then sexual assaulted them. In May 2017, Stanutz died before trial. The two complainants filed civil lawsuits against the deceased's estate and the

Ottawa-Carleton District School Board The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB, known as English-language Public District School Board No. 25 prior to 1999) refers to both the institution responsible for the operation of all English public schools in the city of Ottawa, Ont ...

(OCDSB), each seeking $1.95 million in damages. By 2018, the OCDSB was sued by victims and alleged victims of sexual abuse by three former teachers at the school, with the total amount of damages sought between all lawsuits being over $25 million. The lawsuits claimed that the OCDSB was negligent over the periods of historical abuse from the 1970s to the 2000s. The OCDSB's defense in the Stanutz case denied that any students were groomed or abused, but that if they did occur, such activity was not authorized by the board. In 2022, a disciplinary panel with the

Ontario College of Teachers The Ontario College of Teachers (OCT; ) is the regulatory college for the teaching profession in Ontario and is the largest self-regulatory body in Canada. It was established on 20 May 1997. The college's mandate is to license, govern and regulat ...

found a former Bell High School teacher, Peter Des Brisay, guilty of professional misconduct after sexually abusing a student in the late 1990s.

Notable alumni

* John Baird, politician * Gordon Fraser, cyclist *

Bruce Cockburn Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to folk- and jazz-influenced rock to soundscapes accompanying spoken stories. His lyrics reflect interests in spirit ...

, musician * Alison Korn, rower * Hamza Haq, actor *

John Manley John Paul Manley (born January 5, 1950) is a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the eighth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2002 to 2003. He was Liberal Member of Parliament for Ottawa South from 1988 to 2004. ...

, politician * Eliza Reid, writer * Doug Smith, hockey player *

Sonja Smits Sonja Smits (born September 8, 1958) is a Canadian actress. She was nominated for two Genie Awards: for '' Videodrome'' (1983) and '' That's My Baby!'' (1984). On television, she starred in '' Street Legal'' (1987-1992) and '' Traders'' (1996-2000 ...

, actress * Tina Takahashi, judoka * Phil Takahashi, judoka * Ray Takahashi, judoka *

Teddy Wilson Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive Swing music, swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was high ...

, TV personality *

Steve Yzerman Stephen Gregory Yzerman ( ; born May 9, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player currently serving as executive vice president and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings, with whom he spent all 22 seasons of his NHL playing ...

, hockey player

References

External links

Current School WebsiteOld School WebsiteSecond Old School WebsiteOCDSB Website2009-2010 OCDSB School ProfileBell High School Robotics
{{OCDSB Middle schools in Ottawa High schools in Ottawa Educational institutions established in 1962 1962 establishments in Ontario