‘Rinelle is devastated’
Teenager who made recovery from near-fatal attack dealt school setback
The story of Rinelle Harper has galvanized many Canadians. Among them is Amanda Lindhout, a humanitarian, journalist and author of A House in the Sky, who wrote this report on the latest in the family’s struggle.
After 10 months spent recovering from the violent sex attack that transformed her into a national symbol, Rinelle Harper looked forward to starting Grade 12 this month, going shopping for new clothes and fresh school supplies.
Instead, the shy, soft-spoken 16-year-old remains at home, because Southeast Collegiate, the Winnipeg boarding school she left her northern reserve to attend, and which she came to love, refused to have her back.
The school is for on-reserve students only, and Rinelle’s family no longer qualifies, because they have moved permanently to Winnipeg. Their home in the fly-in-only community of Garden Hill, Man., burned down while the Harpers stayed with Rinelle as she was being treated in Winnipeg for injuries from the Nov. 7, 2014, attack.
“Rinelle is devastated,’’ said Julie Harper. ‘’Her friends, her support system, are all at Southeast.”
Rinelle had attended Southeast Collegiate, owned by the Southeast Resource Development Council, a tribal council made up of eight Manitoba First Nations, for two years, playing volleyball and concentrating on biology and other studies.
“We are at capacity at the lodge,’’ said Southeast principal Sheryl McCorrister. “The criteria changed. They are not from a remote community. That makes them ineligible. On top of that, we didn’t receive their applications.’’
Julie Harper says she spoke to McCorrister on Aug. 13, and was told both Rinelle and her 18-yearold sister, Rayne, were not eligible to attend.
Although McCorrister says she never received their registration papers, Harper is adamant that the papers were sent to the school ahead of the June 30 deadline. She feels the family is unfairly being shut out of the school and that when it comes to residency requirements, her older daughter also deserves special consideration.
McCorrister said if she were to receive the registration papers now, “the best we could do is to consider putting them on a waitlist. They can’t take the spot of the other students who qualify. Her spot was filled.”
Rinelle has not started classes at any school. She is on a wait list at a different institution, which her family doesn’t want to disclose for safety reasons.
The family live in a $950-amonth rental house, getting by on a modest sponsorship allowance Julie Harper gets for a post-secondary
program she is attending. In addition, several fundraising campaigns were set up to help the family following the fire.
They rose to prominence after the attack, which made national headlines and generated a discussion about the epidemic of missing and murdered aboriginal women.
Rinelle had been out on a Friday night celebrating the completion of her high school midterms when she was attacked and left for dead along the Assiniboine River.
She became separated from her group of friends. At around midnight, she was followed by the young men who beat her, threw her in the river and then, after she emerged, beat her again with a baseball bat. She was found seven hours later on the bank of the river by a passerby, barely alive.
Two suspects, who were 20 and 17 at the time of the attack, face several charges, including attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault, and sexual assault with a weapon.
Following the attacks, Rinelle
has required the care of a number of specialists, and her family feels having continuity at school will help Rinelle as she recovers from the trauma.
According to her mother, Rinelle has had very little therapy in the wake of the assault because she qualifies for only a limited government funded therapy and the family can’t afford psychological care. Some of Rinelle’s greatest support has come from her friends at Southeast Collegiate.
“I want to finish my high school where I started,” said Rinelle.
Next week Rinelle will undergo her second surgery for injuries sustained during the attack. The prospect of school, she said, has been a motivator that’s helped her work hard at recovery. Without it, she feels lost.
“Rinelle has suffered a lot. What makes her excited is when she talks about education. She wants to be a role model. She needs to be in school, ” said Julie.
They are not from a remote community. That makes them ineligible. On top of that, we didn’t receive their applications.