School must move on from tragedy, mom says
Mom of son killed in Alberta shooting offers insights for Abbotsford school
Students returning Monday to the high school where a Grade 9 girl was stabbed to death will need long-term support to prevent further tragedies years from now, says a mother whose son was killed at a school in Alberta.
Abbotsford Senior Secondary was closed last Tuesday, when 13-yearold Letisha Reimer and her 14-yearold friend, who survived the double stabbing, were heard screaming in the rotunda after an assailant walked in with a knife.
A video of the stabbing means the violence has been viewed online thousands of times despite pleas by police and the school district for people to stop sharing it.
Gabriel Klein, 21, has been charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault and is scheduled to be back in court Monday, the same day counsellors will be at the school to support students and staff.
Diane Lang, whose son was shot and killed at school in Taber, Alta., on April 28, 1999, said the long-term impact on students will depend on how the trauma is dealt with by adults, whose best tactic will be to listen to teens’ concerns while helping them return to normal routines.
“Something like this changes your life forever,” said Lang, whose 17-year-old son Jason Lang was shot in the hallway of his high school while another boy, also 17, was wounded. The shooter was a 14-year-old student.
“You can’t go back and change what happened,” Lang said. “And if you’re not able to move forward it leaves you in not a very healthy space, and that affects your health physically as well as mentally and emotionally.”
Lang said the shooting at W.R. Myers High School occurred on a Wednesday afternoon, and the school was closed until the following Tuesday.
When it reopened that morning, Lang and her husband Dale Lang decided they had to be there to help students deal with what had happened.
So the couple stood at the spot where their son was shot — a hallway near the cafeteria — and talked to students.
“I think that helped, that we were there because they could say that if we weren’t afraid to be at that spot, that it would help them to be there as well.”
She said the couple found the strength to forgive the shooter after learning his actions were prompted by years of bullying and that Jason and the injured student were random victims.
“Dale was able to talk to the students, and the staff, and just say they were not being targeted, that this was a hurting person who took our son’s life,” Lang said, adding the Abbotsford students’ healing will also come from choosing not to hold any bitterness toward the attacker.
Abbotsford police have said the attack on the two girls appeared to be random.
On Friday night, the Abbotsford school district held a public forum at the gym attended by hundreds of parents and students.
Some parents were worried about safety and security at the school, while others wanted to know how to help their kids deal with the aftermath of the traumatic event.
“It is going to take continued support, courage and understanding in the days ahead as the community moves forward,” said Mayor Henry Braun in a statement released by the district about Friday’s event.
Superintendent Kevin Godden said the district will review current safety protocols but said it was important to keep schools a welcoming place.
After the forum, the school opened its rotunda to parents and students so they can walk through the area, “face their fears and reclaim their school,” said the district.
Abbotsford Senior Secondary will reopen for half a day on Monday. Students will start the morning in the class they were in when the lockdown occurred on Tuesday. Support and counselling will be available for students and staff at the school in the weeks ahead.