A message from the Vezina Secondary IT guy!

There was a previous message in place of this one, however I felt it needed to be replaced as I am updating the school page

Hello, I am the IT guy for AFNEA - Vezina Secondary / Board Office Sites, my name is John Baptist Nakogee, 27 years of age. I am aboriginal and lived in Attawapiskat most of my life, I have gone to the J.R. Nakogee School site from K-8 before it was condemned, graduated highschool and started to go to work, eventually made my way to AFNEA as a Teacher Assistant due to reasons beyond the control of AFNEA, I was hired to take over the IT position and been here since. I have been privileged to leave the community many times travelling with my grandfather through out Ontario and a few other places. I have had the pleasure of working for Attawapiskat First Nation Education Authority for seven years, six years as their IT guy. I have had my scrapes with the board members concerning my age and experience but overall I never felt mistreated or unheard as long as I maintained my professionalism and my integrity.

Working for AFNEA many staff members including myself work beyond of what is expected of us to maintain an overall successful school especially to cope with the isolation, not all experiences will be perfect as we are an isolated community working hard to strive as Attawapiskat continues to develop. The social interactions of all staff I have experienced and seen are positive; there are many times when staff get together in the evenings and go into relaxation mode. Staff also include themselves in the activities of the community to help insert themselves as an educator and friend, staff also go out to sight see the beautiful nature that is around the community, hunting or picnicing along the Attawapiskat River which is a beautiful sight during the warmer days, which includes skidooing or skiing during the winter months.

Attawapiskat is quite safe as our local law enforcement (NAPS - Nishnawbe Aski Police Service) works very hard to upkeep an orderly community. Like the rest of the world we have our negative elements which is kept in check with our local law enforcement, you can be rest assured to seeing little violence as due to facts of history and our culture, we are a very passive people who continues to honor tradition. However like other aboriginal communities across Canada, we are seeing a declination of our Cree Language as technology continues to insert itself into our community, the Cree educators work very hard to educate our young on the Cree language, both written and verbal instructions and many of our elders can only speak in Cree, which helps our young to want to learn Cree to communicate to our grandparents.

There are times where student attendance fluctuates, but stay patient with the students, our negative elements are kept in check however they do negatively influence our younglings minds, they may say things but it is the fault of no one today but a fog that people are trying to escape due to the facts of history of our people. I see a day where the people no longer looks down on Attawapiskat for the lack of commodities but stand together and say I am proud.

I acknowledge what the educators do here as they helped to educate me and they will continue to educate the younglings. I couldn't say it back then as I was just a boy, but as a man I want to say, Thank you for all those who helped educate me and for your time and patience to help educate future minds of Attawapiskat and yes that includes the Teacher Assistants.