As portable classrooms arrive in Tumbler Ridge after a deadly school shooting that claimed the lives of six victims, one parent says the community’s recovery will depend on something less visible: stable, long-term mental-health care.
Ronda Cantin is a mother of three whose eldest daughter was inside Tumbler Ridge Secondary during the attack.
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She is grateful for the immediate crisis response, but is worried about the care surviving students will receive when the headlines fade.
“We have to get a whole generation of kids through this horrible tragedy,” Cantin told CityNews.
“My kids have lost classmates, friends. It’s going to be a long path ahead.”
Tuesday marks one week since an 18-year-old killed five students and a teacher’s aide at the school, after fatally shooting their mother and younger brother at home before taking their own life.
In a news release, the province said that temporary facilities are being installed at Tumbler Ridge Elementary.
This way, the secondary students can resume in-person learning without returning to the town’s high school building – the scene of the shooting.
Bathrooms arrived first on Monday; portable classrooms are scheduled to arrive over the coming days.
Cantin says many families are already thinking beyond the return to class and toward the lasting psychological impact on students.
“I’m really concerned they are not going to be able to provide the consistency of care that these kids are going to need, because PTSD does not just hit between business hours, it hits at two in the morning.”
Like in many other rural parts of B.C., Tumbler Ridge residents have been battling health-care shortages for years.
“We just lost another doctor. I imagine hardly anyone in town actually has a local family doctor at all now,” Cantin said.
She fears that without permanent resources in place, children and families dealing with trauma will be forced to travel out of town or seek private counselling.
“Kids don’t want to have to leave their community for support.”
Northern Health says that it is providing additional mental-health supports, and extended service hours are in place until early March.
But Cantin says there has been confusion about how and when care can be accessed, including whether people can walk in during extended hours or must call 911.
“There is clearly a flaw in the messaging, because almost the first weekend after [the shootings] someone tried to get their kid care and it wasn’t entirely clear that they needed to actually call 911.”
“We need a better idea of what to expect.”
Cantin says local groups are trying to create longer-term supports, even as many volunteers are grieving themselves.
“We have community organizations that are bending over backwards to get something long-term in place because they know where the system is deficient.”
“It shouldn’t have to be their responsibility. A lot of them have family and friends who are gone.”
Cantin added that the fact she has concerns surrounding the lack of “basic levels of mental-health care” is “frustrating.”
“Those who have been doing the job have been doing extremely well, but they can only do so much, and they’re not being given the resources they need.”
1130 NewsRadio has reached out to Northern Health for clarification on the additional services being provided in Tumbler Ridge, the timeline for those supports, how that is being communicated, and if plans exist to enhance care permanently in the community.
