Students are continuing to settle into their school routines this week, with most of them bracing themselves for the loads of homework and projects to come.

Some students are excited to be back but many would rather have summer last forever. Deh Cho Drum spoke to a number of students this week to find out what their goals are for the school year. For most, their only objective in mind was passing their classes so they can get to the next grade. But to kids school should be something more than just that place parents make children go and it's up to the community to help them see that. Teachers can't do it alone.

Students who have a stronger attachment to school have fewer emotional and behavioural problems and ultimately do better academically, according to the Canadian Public Health Association.

The community can help students connect with their school by working together to ensure all students are safe and happy while they're there. Everyone should be keeping an eye out for bullies and taking action to ensure bad behaviour stops. If no one intervenes, the bullying will continue because a lack of action tells the child what he or she is doing is acceptable. Students also need to know it is OK for them to talk about bullying. Parents can help by bringing the topic up to their kids and letting them know who they can talk to besides themselves. Adults can start by putting the number for the Kids Help Phone on the fridge.

Literacy is also an important factor to consider. Statistics from the NWT Literacy Council show that a child's literacy level greatly affects how they do in school.

In Canada, about 60 per cent of youth with a reading level of one or lower completed high school. Meanwhile, 100 per cent of the students reading at the highest levels received their diploma.

Of course, teachers need to be helping students learn how to read, but literacy starts at home.

Parents should ignite a child's love for reading at a young age by bringing books into the home. That love of reading will spill over into school and help them succeed in the future.

The youth are our future and how they do in life shouldn't be left up to one person. It takes a village to raise a child.

The newsroom phone was ringing off the hook as people called to talk about the most recent Inuvik Food Bank break-in.

The descriptions didn't even come close to the real picture.

"Horrific" and "disgusting" were just two of the words used to describe the vandalism.

It was obviously done with malicious intent, someone said.

Darkness is starting to return to Inuvik and with the darkness, unfortunately, vandalism.

It wasn't only the food bank that suffered over the weekend. Jars of spaghetti sauce stolen from the non-profit were used to break windows at the library and the front door of Samuel Hearne Secondary School.

It's one thing – not necessarily the right thing – to break into a food bank and warm up while eating some food. Everyone has the right to basic shelter, nutrition and comfort. But breaking into a needed community resource for the sole purpose of smashing everything to be found? That's inexcusable.

Desk drawers were opened and sauce poured in. Shelves were swept empty of cans, bottles and dry goods. The fax machine was smashed.

A group of volunteers cleaning the building for hours on Monday night worked by flashlight until lightbulbs could be replaced because even those had been unscrewed and smashed to bits on the ground.

It didn't take long to mobilize a clean-up crew, but there shouldn't have been a need for one.

Anything that could be salvaged was. Cans were wiped clean and set aside. One volunteer jokingly mentioned setting up camp on a rooftop with a paintball gun waiting for the vandals to return.

But there weren't any smiles at the cleanup. The entrance is off the beaten path and anyone wanting to gain access could easily do so if they were determined enough. And there there was nothing but determination here.

It takes a lot of effort to smash everything you see, especially in the early morning hours of Sunday when most people are asleep. The saddest part is the vandal, or vandals, willingly took food away from their families, friends and neighbours. An expected delivery of groceries and supplies for the food bank had to be delayed because there's no point in storing them without a secure door.

There are people who have gone to bed hungry this week. People who count on the food bank to get them through one more week. Whoever is responsible will be caught. Hopefully, whatever their punishment is will demonstrate exactly how much they have hurt their community.

Yellowknife hunters received an unwelcome surprise last week when the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) cancelled their bison tags.

Oh, it was done for all the right reasons. This past summer's anthrax outbreak devastated the Mackenzie herd, with an estimated 440 carcasses found along the Highway 3 corridor and the rest of the Mackenzie Bison Range during the summer.

Considering that at last count there were about 1,440 animals in the herd, the disease reduced their number by about one-third. The number of dead bison could actually be higher because some carcasses may not have been found.

The move by ENR to restrict the number of animals allowed to be harvested during hunting season, which began Sept. 1, makes sense. There is no point in allowing more animals to be taken from a herd that is already in jeopardy.

That said, so far only 15 tags for resident hunters and nine tags for outfitters have been rescinded and there is only a possibility that more of the 118 issued tags will be cancelled, but only following consultations with First Nations groups. There are still 94 tags allocated to the aboriginal harvest, including tags held in the community of Fort Providence, by the Tlicho government, the Yellowknives Dene, the North Slave Metis Alliance and the North Arm Metis Council.

While we recognize that aboriginal people in the communities surrounding the capital, like Behchoko, have a reliance on wild meat, they are not the only ones who have a stake in the bison harvest.

We encourage territorial government officials to consider all the players in the process of making future decisions on wildlife. Resident hunters also deserve to be consulted about the future of the Mackenzie bison herd. We would have thought the GNWT would have learned from its experience regarding the draft Wildlife Act, which was completed prior to discussions with affected non-aboriginal people.

In the end, resident hunters and outfitters may not be able to make an argument persuasive enough to salvage any bison tags, but so long as they have a seat at the table they will at least be fully informed of what's at stake and why certain decisions are being made.

You can't fight city hall, some cynics say. The upcoming municipal election is a great opportunity to disprove that.

On Oct. 15, Yellowknife residents will elect a new mayor and council to a three-year term. As of press time, three candidates are vying for mayor and 11 candidates, including four incumbents, are competing for eight council seats.

Decisions made at city hall, which address everything from garbage collection and traffic flow to municipal zoning and recreational programming, arguably affect the daily lives of citizens more than any other level of government.

City council is about neighbours negotiating with neighbours for the improvement of the community. The discussion is enriched when lots of ideas are shared around the table.

With the nominations period now open, the best way to amplify one's voice is to run for office.

Yellowknifer hopes more candidates representing a variety of perspectives will make the choice to run before nominations close at 3 p.m. on Monday.

Win or lose, running as a candidate is an important and noble pursuit that strengthens political debate.

As time runs out on Kivalliq Counselling and Support Services (KCSS), one can't help but wonder what qualifies as a sound investment for funding these days.

Having been at the helm of Kivalliq News for the past 14 years, I've seen first hand the positive, often dramatic, effect programs delivered through the Pulaarvik Kablu Friendship Centre can have on families in our region.

The work done by the Angutiit Makigiangninga (Men Rising Up) group in Coral Harbour during the past three years has been stellar.

Social problems are near rampant across our region and we all know it.

Yet, the very people who have been doing the most to help stem the tide of addiction and despair are the ones struggling to keep afloat.

OK, so they don't spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to study suicide, and hundreds of thousands more to draft policies on how to tackle the problem.

And, no, most of these people don't have any initials after their names.

They also don't use big words to sound more impressive than they really are, and they don't spend a week baffling folks with a myriad of reasons (some would say glorified excuses) people in the professional world have come up with to avoid personal accountability with the help of one's therapist and/or lawyer.

What they do have is a genuine understanding of the issues so many people in our region struggle to deal with. They understand the pressures many face in not just providing for their families, but in trying to be a role model, nurturing parent and loving spouse in the face of adversity.

Staff members with KCSS or members of the Coral men's group have never claimed to be miracle workers.

There's no going to one meeting and becoming a perfect parent and spouse.

It's a process, and one that can often be long and difficult.

We do have people in our region, of course, who suffer from genuine disorders, but the vast majority of those who struggle do so from despair, poverty, frustration, a lack of hope and, yes, habit.

Maybe those who control the purse strings think the success of homegrown programming is being overstated.

Or, maybe, they simply can't buy into any group being successful that isn't based on a southern-developed formula or, at the very least, led by a group of people with those impressive initials after their names.

If so, they'd be wrong.

The North is as distinctive with its problems as it is with its culture.

We need people on the front lines born and raised here who truly understand the culture, the issues and, most importantly, the people trying to deal with them.

They have to know what's expected of them to become better people and understand there's no shortcuts to achieving that goal.

And, paramount to success, they have to know and trust those trying to help them almost to the point of family.

That's just the way it is here.

At the end of the day, people such as those found today with KCSS and the Coral men's group are our best hope in dealing with not all, but a number of the problems our region struggles with.

It's truly ironic to see them so dependent, themselves, when it comes to the funding needed to make a difference.

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