‘AN EXTRAORDINARY TRAGEDY’

Child advocate to look into drowning

SASKATOON Saskatchewan’s Advocate for Children and Youth has been asked to investigate the death of five-year-old Ahmedsadiq Elmmi at the request of the Saskatoon Public School Division (SPSD).

Barry MacDougall, the division’s director of education, met with the boy’s family Wednesday morning and hours later, the division announced its request for a formal investigation by Saskatchewan’s children advocate, Corey O’Soup.

“This is an extraordinary tragedy, which I believe requires an extraordinary response,” read a statement from MacDougall.

“At Saskatoon Public Schools, we pride ourselves on the ethic of care we provide to every student in order to ensure their safety and well-being,” he said. “In order to do everything we can to appropriately examine the circumstances of our student’s death, our organization has requested this independent review of our pertinent operations. We must learn from this tragedy so it never happens again.”

The statement said the SPSD will continue with its own investigation while the Office of the Chief Coroner is also investigating.

A news release from O’Soup’s office indicated the investigation “will seek to uncover what led to this death and lead to recommendations to prevent this from happening again.”

“It is important that parents and children continue to have comfort in knowing that our schools are a place for children and youth to learn and grow. As the advocate for the children of this province, it is critical to ensure that we know what happened in this case,” said O’Soup.

On Tuesday, Somali community leaders and the boy’s father expressed frustration with the lack of communication from the division. However, a statement from the division explained it had attempted to reach out to the family and made staff available to the family in the 24 hours after the boy’s death.

Division and school staff were at the boy’s funeral Tuesday at the invitation of the family, at which time, they offered condolences.

Some parents have raised concerns about the lack of fencing around the pond, with one Saskatoon mother starting a petition calling for the retention pond — a civic water feature — to be fenced off.

Mayor Charlie Clark said Wednesday he has been speaking with Education Minister Bronwyn Eyre about the tragedy to ensure the city and the province are co-ordinated, noting the Saskatoon Fire Department is actively working with the division on how to make sure this doesn’t happen again.