A week after the Tumbler Ridge shooting, a student is sharing her account of what happened.
12-year-old Maddy Mansky is a Grade 7 student at the secondary school.
On Feb. 10, an armed teen entered the school and fatally shot five students and an education assistant. Most of the victims were in the library — where Maddy was supposed to be.
But she and a friend were in the bathroom when they heard gunfire erupt.
“There was loud bangs. It didn’t sound like gunshots. The only reason I knew it was a gunshot is because I heard the shells falling,” Maddy recalls.
“There was kids screaming everywhere, and it was just scary.”
They then went into a bathroom stall, locked the door, and hid there.
Maddy says she spent two hours inside the bathroom, scared and worried.
“I was texting my mom and her best friend and everybody that I could,” she said
“My friend was just standing there, being quiet.”
Eventually, police kicked down the door and escorted her and her friend out.
She was taken down the stairs, where she had to pass the shooter’s body, an experience she describes as “scary.”
Most of the victims were Maddy’s friends. She says Ezekiel Shofield would always make her laugh when she was upset. Kylie Smith was always joking around and would never hurt anyone, while Ticaria Lampert was one of her best friends. Maddy feels sad the two got in a fight the day of the shooting.
“I never got to say sorry. She’d always make everybody smile and everything.”
Maddy says she’s still trying to process everything and is taking things day by day. She says staying off social media and talking with family has helped.
Politicians and school leaders have said students shouldn’t be expected to return to the building, but Maddy doesn’t agree.
“I want the school to stay, because even though the parents are scared and the kids are, us kids need to know we’re going to be safe, and it most likely is not going to happen again, and we need to face our fears, and the parents need to put their fears aside.”
For now, there will be no school at all in the community for at least another week.
