Ex-teacher dies, seven years after shooting in La Loche
Charlene Klyne, a survivor of the deadly 2016 school shooting in La Loche, is being remembered for her welcoming approach to life in the community.
Klyne, who was teaching in a classroom at La Loche Dene High School when the shooting started, died on Wednesday, according to her son Jeffery.
Almost immediately, hundreds of posts and comments were shared online. In a string of responses to Jeffery Klyne's announcement, people shared stories of Charlene Klyne welcoming them upon their move to La Loche, of inviting them into her family home for a meal, of taking time for regular phone calls, or, as lives got busy, chatting sporadically but quickly catching up.
“For the last seven years mom had been struggling with complications from the shooting in 2016,” Jeffery Klyne said in a Facebook post.
On Wednesday, surrounded by husband Ralph and children Jeffery and James, “mom took her final breaths,” Jeffery Klyne said.
“I always thought the day mom was airlifted to Saskatoon seven years ago would be the toughest day I'd ever experience, but the truth is that is today. I miss you, mom.”
Klyne was one of seven people injured in the shooting on Jan. 22, 2016. Teacher assistant Marie Janvier, who was working with her, and teacher Adam Wood were killed at the high school. Brothers Dayne and Drayden Fontaine were found dead in a nearby home.
Four years after the tragedy, a publication ban was lifted on the identity of shooter Randan Dakota Fontaine. Fontaine was less than a month away from his 18th birthday when he went on the shooting spree in and around his community's school.
In February 2018, he was sentenced as an adult for two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and seven counts of attempted murder and given a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years — the maximum that can be handed down to a youth sentenced as an adult. The sentence for an adult convicted of first-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Klyne, who moved to Saskatoon after the incident to be closer to the available medical care, suffered from a seemingly never-ending string of health complications as a result of the shooting.
She lost all vision in her left eye, could only see dark shadows in her right eye, and had numerous pellets lodged in more than a dozen different spots from her jaw to her chest.
She was teaching in a classroom at the high school when the shooting began.
“I watched him shoot me. I watched him at the door raise the gun,” she said in a 2017 interview.
For years, she publicly voiced her disappointment with the response governments offered for victims like her and for the community of La Loche.
A Gofundme was set up in 2018 to help raise money to cover expenses. She said they were not set up earlier because she and her family had believed the provincial government would provide her and other victims with enough support.
According to Jeffery Klyne in his Facebook post, a memorial service will be held for his mother.