Rick Hansen Secondary School (RHSS), opened in 1999, is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

located in the southeast corner of

Streetsville Streetsville (pop. 47,327) is a neighbourhood located in the northwestern corner of the city of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on the Credit River. Although Streetsville occupies the west and east banks of the river, the historic village area is l ...

, a community in

Mississauga, Ontario Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

. Rick Hansen Secondary School is home to graduates from Fallingbrook Middle School, Fairwind Senior Public School, and Hazel McCallion Senior Public School. In 2002, the school underwent expansion, during which a new wing on the west side of the school was built. This wing added 14 classrooms, 2 dance studios, and 2 art rooms, accommodating the 2,000 students attending RHSS. Rick Hansen Secondary School is a sister school to Rick Hansen Secondary School in

Abbotsford, British Columbia Abbotsford is a city in British Columbia next to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver, and the Fraser River. With a census population of 153,569 people (2021), it is the most populous municipality in the province outside metropol ...

with which it shares a school mascot named Stormy.

History

When the school opened on September 7, 1999, it was named East Credit Secondary School, and it was one of the first schools where the administrative staff helped create the blueprint of the school. It was the first public high school to open in Peel in ten years. Many Canadian icons were considered for the school's name, but the

Peel District School Board The Peel District School Board (PDSB; known as English-Language Public District School Board No. 19 prior to 1999) is a school district that serves approximately 153,000 kindergarten to grade 12 students at more than 259 schools in the Region ...

ultimately chose Rick Hansen Secondary School.

Rick Hansen Richard Marvin Hansen (born August 26, 1957) is a Canadian track and field athlete (Paralympic Games and Olympic Games), activist, and philanthropist for people with disabilities. When Rick was 15, he was riding in the back of a pickup truck ...

granted permission to the Peel District School Board to use his name for the school, saying that he was "delighted that your school will be part of my heritage and to carry the history of the Man in Motion tour by being a barrier-free school." The school's architects implemented a

wheelchair A wheelchair is a mobilized form of chair using two or more wheels, a footrest, and an armrest usually cushioned. It is used when walking is difficult or impossible to do due to illnesses, injury, disabilities, or age-related health conditio ...

-friendly and

barrier-free Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible to people, regardless of age, disability, or other factors. It emerged as a rights-based, anti-discrimination measure, which seeks to create design ...

design by doing the following: *All floor tiles featured a special color scheme to assist students with visual impairments *Disabled parking spots were relocated into a more accessible location *All furniture in every classroom was barrier-free *There was a specialized door system that made hallways fully accessible to students *Handles on all doors in the school were lowered for accessibility *Push buttons were installed in every drinking fountain *The library shelves were spaced enough for a wheelchair to go through *Disabled showers were realigned to better suit the use of students In the first school year, there were 655 students and 53 staff members in the school. At the time, the school only taught ninth and tenth graders. The first two floors of the school were occupied by the ninth and tenth graders and the third floor was used by elementary school students, as the neighboring Swinbourne Public School was still under construction at the time. In 2002, the school initiated the

Rammed Earth Rammed earth is a technique for construction, constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as soil, earth, chalk, Lime (material), lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently ...

project, which began as a vision of the school's arts department. The idea was to create three rammed earth sculptures in front of the school to bring art, culture, and community together. Students have worked together to blend 15 cubic yards of

clay soil Soil classification deals with the systematic categorization of soils based on distinguishing characteristics as well as criteria that dictate choices in use. Overview Soil classification is a dynamic subject, from the structure of the system, ...

with cement, sand, and pigment. The students also hand tamped over a hundred layers of soil. They put a personal artifacts into the sculptures. This project was supported by the

Ontario Arts Council The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is a publicly funded Canadian organization in the province of Ontario whose purpose is to foster the creation and production of art for the benefit of all Ontarians. Based in Toronto, OAC was founded in 1963 by O ...

, Toemar Garden Centre,

Rona Rona, RONA or Róna may refer to: Places *Rona (Kristiansand), a neighbourhood in Kristiansand, Norway * Rona (river), a river in Maramureș County, Romania * Rona, Bellevue Hill, a historic house in the Sydney suburb of Bellevue Hill * Rona, Swi ...

, and ABCO Construction Inc. The sculptures were removed after the 2011–2012 school year began.

Donations

Every year, students from Rick Hansen Secondary find new ways of collecting money for the Rick Hansen Foundation. The school collects a small amount of money from late students entering the school after the morning announcements have been completed. The school also has "Mad Minutes," where Peer Mentors run to every homeroom and collect as much loose change as possible from people's pockets in a short amount of time. The school also occasionally hosts many other activities, such as a coin drive, a school walk, pledge sheets, and a wheelchair basketball game at the school's gym.

Use of technology

Rick Hansen was built with

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

s in every room in the school until the 2016–2017 school year, when all the classroom televisions were removed. The school possesses more than twelve computer labs. The school also has its own BBS television channel powered by Digmark, an electronic signage provider. This BBS system allows announcements to be broadcast throughout the school in a PowerPoint presentation format to the school's televisions, with extras such as small breaking news updates, weather, and stock prices. There were also live morning broadcasts a couple times a month run by the broadcasting class. These broadcasts delivered morning announcements in a video format, and also showed the culture around the school by filming segments featuring students and staff but with the removal of the classroom televisions, the school has resorted to oral announcements. There is

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

throughout the school building.

''FIRST'' Robotics Team

Rick Hansen's two

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition operated by ''FIRST''®. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work to build robots capable of competing in that year's game. Robots c ...

teams, known as THEORY6 and The Big Bang, have taken part in regional and worldwide competitions. THEORY6 started in 2003. They have won numerous awards, such as the Regional Chairman's Award in 2005 and 2012, and the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award in 2013. At the 2013

FIRST Championship The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dome ...

, they earned the title of world champions along with two other teams: Team 610 (Crescent School) and Team 1477 (Texas Torque).

Association with Rick Hansen

The school is named after

, an athlete who won all-star awards in five

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

when he was

paralyzed Paralysis (: paralyses; also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, r ...

at the age of 15 after being thrown from the back of a truck. He subsequently became an athlete and an activist for people with

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

injuries. Rick Hansen has made many special visits to the school, and his most recent visit was on April 5, 2011, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Man in Motion World Tour. In the event, Hansen announced that a relay will take place to retrace the Canadian segment of the original Man in Motion Tour. The celebration was attended by many notable people, such as

Hazel McCallion Hazel Mary Muriel McCallion (; February 14, 1921 – January 29, 2023) was a Canadian politician who served as the fifth mayor of Mississauga. First elected in November 1978, McCallion was mayor for 36 years until her retirement in 2014, makin ...

, the mayor of

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

, and

David Onley David Charles Onley (June 12, 1950 – January 14, 2023) was a Canadian broadcaster and writer who served as the 28th lieutenant governor of Ontario from 2007 until 2014. Prior to his viceregal appointment, Onley was a television journalist. ...

, the

Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the representative in Ontario of the monarch, who operates distinctly within the province but i ...

. In total, 25 medal-bearers, including the school principal and a staff member, were chosen from the school. The Relay made its way through Rick Hansen on November 10, 2011.

References

External links

Theory6.ca
- The website of Team 1241, the school's robotics team.
School Website Link
- The school's official website. {{PeelDistrictSchools Peel District School Board High schools in Mississauga Educational institutions established in 1999 1999 establishments in Ontario