I can confidently say that De la Salle was the worst experience of my life. I will be giving you my truthful, first hand experience as a former student, attending this institution from grades 7 - 10. I left as soon as I realized how toxic the environment was for me. I am writing this solely for informing potential future students and enlightening staff who are unaware of the effects of their words and actions. Firstly, calling Del a religious school is an understatement. The religious curriculum covers very controversial topics including the disapproval of homosexuality, abortion, and premarital sex. I use the word "disapproval" with complete confidence and certainty, and will explain my reasoning. In grade 10, at 14 years old, my class was required to watch an anti-abortion video, with explicit graphics and messages. There was (and maybe still is) an anti-abortion poster on the outside of a teacher's door. Recently, when discussing sexual health, my friend asked me, "didn't you learn that in health class?" to which I replied, "No, I received a catholic sex education." I remember vividly, a health class exercise was having to rearrange little cut-out labels, such as "sex," "marriage," "dating," "kissing," etc. in the acceptable order. I understand that this aligns with religious beliefs, however, I wanted to emphasize the lack of important sexual health awareness in this class and school. The school had very strict rules about the dress code, to the extent that my friends and I felt very uncomfortable. Understandably, our ties had to be tight and socks had to be pulled up. However, the the fixation that the majority of teachers had with the length of our skirts was absurd. The shortest length permissible was precisely 2 inches above the knee and on multiple occasions, teachers, including male teachers, would measure my skirt with a ruler. This is extremely inappropriate in my opinion. A couple skirt slips resulted in detention and a requirement to wear pants for a week, which was humiliating when every other girl wore skirts and gave the opportunity for ignorant boys to call me "lesbian." This leads me to discuss briefly the social aspect of De la Salle. The school is not very diverse seeing as the majority of students are Catholic and Caucasian. I can't speak for other grades, but my own class of 2021 consisted of people, specifically boys, who were racist, homophobic, and misogynistic. The N-word and F-slur came out of straight, white boys' mouths more times than I can count. This may be due to the fact that, similar to other private institutions, students are sheltered from the real world. A lot of the exposure and cultural awareness that one would receive in a public school, is missing because of the demographic of Del. I thought it was important to mention the negative experience I had with one of my religion teachers. He knew me for my whole time at Del and would joke around with me, call me nicknames and was lenient with my tardiness. Then, out of nowhere, he would become aggressive and rude and usually look for something wrong with my uniform and send me for a slip. Half the time our interactions were lighthearted, but I was constantly taken by surprise when he would raise his voice and seem to be angry, immediately after making a joke. I felt that I was disproportionately targeted for my uniform by this specific teacher. The "tipping point" of my time at this school took place in 2019 when I was in grade 10. In religion class, a student asked why homosexual people can't get married in a catholic church. The religion teacher jokingly replied, "Well I mean, you wouldn't bring a dog into a university would you?" This atrocious comparison left the class, which also consisted of a couple queer students, speechless. I am unaware if this teachers' words were ever reported. One of my biggest regrets to this day is not speaking out when I was attending this school. I was shy, insecure, and constantly second-guessing if it was really as awful as I perceived. After receiving a public education for the last two years of high school, my eyes were opened to what I had missed out on. For anyone who believes in self expression, anyone who has a creative mind, who is looking for an open, progressive, welcoming environment, anyone who wants a fun, socially normal high school experience, run as fast as you can, as far as you can, from 131 Farnham Avenue. read more

I would give it a zero if I could. Sure, its a good education but it is not worth the social and mental trauma it will give you. I went there for 5 years, and I really really wished I had left sooner. It is not a healthy environment for kids or teenagers to grow up in. The school is a very closed-off environment and does not give an accurate perception of what real life or a real highschool experience is supposed to look like. First of all, the teachers and staff lack empathy and basic human decency. The basically will brainwash all kinds of controversial and conservative religious beliefs. For instance, since grade 5 you learn that things such as gay marriage, abortion, and same-sex relations are a sin. When I was 15, I had to watch an anti-abortion video. I tried to bring up the subject abortion due to rape to my religion teacher by saying, "well sir, you do not choose to be raped so how is that fair" and he replied, "well I don't choose to have brown eyes, but that's how it is, and that's how god made it." This 50-year-old white male not only told a class full of 16-year-old girls that if they got an abortion they would go to hell, but he compared not choosing to be raped, to not being able to choose the colour of your eyes. I have so many other stories. Of just inappropriate comments, lessons, and beliefs that teachers would be saying. Aside from religious aspects, there were many other messed up things. I found in general a lot of teachers would mistreat students, or lack empathy, especially if you did not fit in or were not a 'good student'. there are a lot of good people and students at del who are kind, but there are also a bunch who are really closed off, conservative, and have a very narrow mindset, which makes for the student environment to be very tough. I switched for my last year of high school to a public school and I realized at what point that school had affected me and shaped my perception of the world. I do not recommend sending your kids here. read more

For those of your who have endorsed or tried to defend this horrible school, all I can say is that your are brainwashed and have no idea how "good' schools are run. They should have closed De La Salle down many years ago. This is a joyless school and remains that way. The year that my children were there five students from my daughters class left the school after the first year. That is 20 percent of the classroom. Thank the Lord that my children are now in a loving school that respects them. The irony is that this Catholic school is hell. Anyone who sends their children to De La Salle should be charged with child abuse. read more

When I remember what this school did to me. Being harassed by bullies here, going to Norm Davies the VP and Mr Shearer for help. That lowlife Mr Hunt who assaulted me in the classroom by grabbing my tie and lifting me up out of my chair and choking me. Brother Lomond that creep who threw a blackboard brush at my head because the night before I didn't sleep at all because of anticipation of seeing the bullies and an abusive father. This school should be ashamed of what they did to boys just starting their lives. How they promoted bullying through neglect. read more

Hey that's pretty good. One star reviews are a sham.