Schools get ready to help students cope

School was cancelled in Humboldt on Monday, while staff prepared to help students cope with the aftermath of a tragedy.

Students are scheduled to return to class on Tuesday, four days after the local junior hockey team’s bus crashed, killing 15 people.

“There’s so many different connections that are possible in school and hockey and communities. … A lot of it is teachers and administration just being prepared, having the training in place,” said Derrick Kunz, a spokesman for Greater Saskatoon Catholic school division, which runs three schools in Humboldt.

“The decision was arrived at (on Sunday) that it would be best to delay the start of school.”

Students were supposed to return from Easter break on Monday.

“Our response team is out there now, as are additional counsellors and supports, and so hopefully we’ll be as prepared as we can for (Tuesday),” said Kunz.

School was also cancelled for Humboldt’s public elementary school and at Humboldt Collegiate Institute high school, which is cogoverned by Greater Saskatoon and Horizon School Division.

“In the coming days, we will be working to determine how best to support students and staff as we navigate these unthinkable circumstances,” Horizon’s director of education, Kevin Garinger, wrote in a letter to the school division on Saturday.

Garinger is also president of the Humboldt Broncos.

Further north, North East School Division had its tragic response team at L.P. Miller Comprehensive School in Nipawin on Monday.

“We deployed our team initially to Nipawin, which we knew would be probably the greatest need today,” Rob McKay, superintendent of school services, said Monday.

The Humboldt Broncos hockey team was on its way to Nipawin on Friday night for a playoff game against the Hawks.

North East School Division sent an additional three or four counsellors to the town on Monday. McKay said further resources would be deployed by request to other schools.

“This tragedy is a little unique, in that we’re not sure at this point how far-reaching it’ll be, because you’ll have individual students and staff and community people that we won’t know are connected until we get a little further along,” McKay said.

In schools outside of Humboldt, Kunz agreed, his division’s response would be more reactive.

“The tentacles of this reach everywhere, so we’re aware of some other connections within our other schools here in (Saskatoon) and in Martensville and Warman and Biggar, where we have schools, but there’s many that we’re not aware of,” said Kunz.

“We’re going to have to respond to other needs as they come around too, but our focus is obviously in the city of Humboldt at this time.”

In Regina, the Catholic school division had additional staff at the high school where one member of the Broncos was a student.

Adam Herold, who was killed in Friday night’s collision, attended LeBoldus High School. As a member and captain of the Regina Pat Canadians, 16-year-old Herold was called up to Humboldt to join the Broncos for the playoffs last month.

At Herold’s school, “That’s where we’re focusing our support,” said Regina Catholic spokesperson Twylla West.

Any time a student dies, the division adds supports for their classmates.

“You don’t have to be best friends with somebody to be affected. You don’t even have to know them well, so there’s always supports made available in the schools,” West said.

Students in other schools will also have the support of principals and staff.

“Hockey’s a small world, Saskatchewan’s a small world, so there may be students impacted who had no personal connection to the team at all, but who are still impacted by that feeling of loss,” said West.

The school division has all of its flags at half-mast; they will remain at half-mast for 15 days, one day for each of the people killed.

Regina Catholic also anticipates sending one of its counsellors to Humboldt to help support the community, after taking stock of its own schools’ support needs.

Outside of Humboldt, classes in other Horizon School Division schools resumed as normal on Monday, according to a division source, with school counsellors prepared to support students.

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