Preteen suicides leave First Nation in shock

Grief-stricken members of a remote northern Ontario community were still struggling to cope on Friday after the suicide of yet another 12-year-old girl sparked fears a death pact could claim even more young lives.

The death last week of Jenara Roundsky, the third preteen member of the Wapekeka First Nation to die by suicide this year, prompted an anguished cry for outside help.

“We need help, we need help immediately,” band spokesperson Joshua Frogg said. “We have 10- and 12-year-old boys and girls that are acting like front-line workers, first responders, and that’s not acceptable.”

So far, he said, no help has arrived, although he said Health Canada told him that long-requested federal money — $380,000 — should be in the band’s account next week.

In a declaration of a state of emergency this week, Wapekeka’s chief and band council noted the community — which also saw 15 young people kill themselves between 1989 and 1999 — desperately needed help.

“These losses and recent suicides have put the community in a state of crisis,” the band said in a formal resolution. “Community members are going through a state of shock where they have been retraumatized to a point where they cannot help themselves.”

Of particular concern, the band said, were worries that other youngsters, who were following first responders around the community, were being exposed to traumatizing circumstances after the discovery of Jenara’s body sparked a frantic search for others at risk.

Jenara’s father, Vernon Roundsky, died in 2011, when she was just six years old. Her social media suggest a troubled tween whose postings were often dark.

“Suicide people are just angels that want to go home,” she reposted recently.

According to a statement from her grandparents, the girl had been diagnosed with “oppositional defiant disorder” — an illness they said affected her thinking.

“Her actions were on an impulse,” they said.

They also said everyone had done their best to help her and stressed they cast no blame for her death.