On July 21, School District 59 posted an update, saying that the former Tumbler Ridge Secondary School was starting to be dismantle.
“We know that Tumbler Ridge Secondary School holds deep meaning for many people, and we recognize that the work ahead may bring a range of emotions,” they write. “Over the past several months, we have listened to students, families, staff, Indigenous partners, community members, and experts as we considered the best path forward. Based on those conversations, the Peace River South School District requested support from the province to build a new secondary school at a new location in Tumbler Ridge and to remove the existing school using a thoughtful, trauma-informed approach.”
The work will continue throughout summer. Rather than just bulldozing the building, “every effort is being made to carry out this work in a way that respects the significance of the site and minimizes disruption to students, families, and the broader community.”
To those ends, the school is being taken down in a “trauma informed” manner. This means most of the work to remove furniture and other moveable materials will take place inside the building; as the material is taken down, it will be removed using covered trucks.
Instead of just bulldozing the building, it will be “carefully dismantled in stages, rather than using more disruptive methods. All building materials will be transported to regional landfills. The Tumbler Ridge landfill will not be used.”
Chad Anderson, Board Chair for School District 59, says a lot of work has been done inside the building to prepare for removal of the building. We’re now at the stage where the exterior of the building will be more visibly affected and full removal will take place over the coming weeks.”
“It’s important for us—out of respect for what took place—to ensure that the process of removal is as little disruptive to the community as possible,” says Anderson. “There is a shredding machine in place that will help with the disposal. Then covered trucks will be used to remove the building materials from the from the community and trucked to landfills around the region and promptly covered so that we can just maintain all care that’s appropriate for this situation.”
He says the Ministry of Infrastructure will be hiring architects to put together options for a new facility design and a new location. “That will be noteworthy, and we will have an opportunity to share those options with the community in the fall.”
While there is still no information about where the school will be built, Anderson says one of the clear directions that came out of the Safer Schools Together consultation in the spring, was the importance of a central location on the middle bench. “We do still expect to be able to answer that request in the affirmative and give students a walkable secondary school as they have had in the past.”
But the high school students will be in the current location—the Kodiak campus—for at least another year. Over the next month, there will also be more work done on that space as well. “We will be doing more work on what is known as phase two portable classroom facility—the central gathering place, offices and washrooms,” says Anderson. That building will be coming in over the summer, so there’ll be a bit more disruption in that neighborhood, and we thank everyone for their patience with that, but that will round out the Kodiak campus and give students and staff a great place to work and learn in the fall.”
Many people are still opposed to the school coming down, and Anderson says he sympathizes. “I certainly recognize that there are many folks in the community who have positive memories from Tumbler Ridge Secondary and that building and it will feel like a loss to the community for some people. But I also know that this decision was very strongly supported by those that were affected most by the tragedy in February. It was a clear direction out of the consultation that took place involving many, many people from the community in the spring. We’re confident it’s the right decision and needed to be done promptly so that people can see progress toward the new school and better memories ahead.”
Anderson says the school district is planning some form of memorial, and that, too, is in the planning phase. “We will be in in communication with the district of Tumbler Ridge to find the best option, whether that means working together or having distinct memorials. That’s not been decided yet. But one element that was clear in that report is that the best trauma-informed practice and data from past tragedies indicates that we don’t want the new school to be a memorial itself. You want the new school to be a new experience and not look like the old facility or have really strong invisible memorials to what took place.”
And when will the new school be done? Will it be done before the memory of the tragedy has passed from the people who will be attending the school? That, too, is not yet determined, says Anderson, but “the goal of School District 59 throughout our next steps in this process has been to be very careful with the promises we make around timelines but the idea there’ll be no memory among the student population of this tragedy when the new school is built? I don’t accept that. I think it is going to happen quickly, and this is going to be a painful memory for the Tumble Ridge community for a long time. The whole community was deeply touched by this. You’ll recall that elementary students were in a secure and hold while the tragedy was underway in the community. The new school will arrive as promptly as is possible to provide a quality facility for students and staff. I don’t expect a long wait for that because the province and the federal government have clearly made it a strong priority in funding this [they recently announced $200 million dollars towards the school] and it will be done in a very prompt fashion.”
Over summer, the school district and Safter Schools Together are running activities at the elementary school gym. “That’s a great opportunity for students and families that want to stay connected with their friends at school through the summer,” says Anderson. “Summer is flying past, but there still five weeks left. I would encourage people to take advantage of those programs and all the mental health supports that are available in the community. We know there’s still some really tough days ahead in terms of some of the news that will come out in the future. It’s worthwhile to stay in touch with those supports as people might need them. I’d encourage people to keep that in mind this summer and look forward to a great new school year in the fall for students.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
