Answers remain elusive in boy’s near strangulation
Four minutes. In the course of a regular day, they can whiz by like seconds as we engage in the minutiae of life.
On Wednesday morning, though, those four minutes prompted a life-and-death race at Bearspaw School. At the school nestled in the foothills on the city’s northwestern outskirts, a Grade 3 boy was choked when the lanyard around his neck — the kind that serve as hall and washroom passes for schools all across North America — tangled in the washroom stall door.
Another student came upon the shocking scene and ran to his teacher, who immediately called 911 and performed CPR on the unconscious child, probably saving his life in the process.
While it appears everything was done right in the aftermath of something so unexplainable, it’s understandable that all those affected, along with thousands of other Calgary parents, remain in a state of shock.
How does a child almost die by strangulation, within the supposedly safe confines of a school washroom? It’s a question that by Friday morning, no one is able to answer.
“Lanyard use is really site specific,” a visibly shaken Greg Bass, the superintendent of Rocky View Schools, tells a crowd of reporters at a news conference at the division’s education centre in Airdrie.
“Obviously, their use is not for situations where students would be on a playground or activities in phys. ed or those types of things.”
While Bass is short on details, it isn’t because he’s trying to evade scrutiny by the gathered media; although it’s surprising that he can’t confirm if the type of lanyard used was of the breakaway variety, which has the added safety feature of snapping apart when stressed.
Nearly 48 hours after the crisis that saw paramedics rush to the school, the hows and whys remain as much a mystery to him as to everyone else involved.
“What exactly transpired in the washroom to result in these injuries remains unknown,” he says with a slight shrug of his shoulders.
“We’re continuing to gather information, to get more specifics.”
Shock, disbelief and an emotionally distraught family whose child is now in intensive care at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. A day after the school’s annual Christmas concert that included a moment of silence for the critically wounded child, Bass’ pained face likely reflects the swirl of emotions of all those affected, from parents to teachers to fellow students.
He describes the immediate suspension of the use of lanyards and of his pride in the efforts of his quickthinking staff in providing emergency aid. At the same time, the assembled media’s Twitter accounts explode with news of the mass shooting at a school in Connecticut, adding to the surreal nature of the proceedings.
Cpl. Darrin Turnbull of the Cochrane RCMP detachment bears an expression mirroring that of the school administrator, as he tries to find the words to explain the situation all are now facing.
“We have never heard of anything like this happening before, and I am sure every school board throughout the province, if they had any information ahead of time, this obviously would have been prevented,” says Turnbull as he sits with a sombre expression, periodically shaking his head. “This appears at this time to be a tragic, tragic accident.”
In addition to the news conference, Bass posted a letter on the school’s website on Friday, explaining the incident as much as he possibly could, as well as including tips to parents on helping their children cope in the aftermath of a tragedy. Counsellors have also been on hand at the school to help both students and teachers.
“We have to continually hope for this student to recover,” he says, adding that his other hope is that all will respect the privacy of the child’s parents and his schoolmates in dealing with the crisis.
About the only thing certain on this day is that a tight-knit community remains in turmoil.
And as the rest of us go about our business this week, going to office parties and shopping for Christmas presents, the minutes going by like seconds, its members will pray for the recovery of one of its precious youngsters.